When the Executor Goes Silent for Four Years — What Canadian Beneficiaries Can Actually Do

A composite scenario, drawn from common patterns Canadian estate-litigation lawyers see. The names and identifying details have been changed; the underlying dynamic — beneficiaries staring at a silent executor for years — is real, common, and treatable.

Linda's mother died in a small Ontario city in early 2022. The will named Linda's older brother Greg as sole executor. The estate consisted of a modest detached house, an RRIF rolled into the surviving spouse and then surrendered on his later death, a few investment accounts, and personal effects. Linda and a third sibling were to receive equal shares of the residue after specific gifts and final expenses. The numbers were not enormous — perhaps $620,000 net — but they were enough to matter to all three siblings.

Probate was applied for that spring. Linda was told by Greg that "everything was being handled" and that distributions would follow once the lawyer signed off. Greg moved into their late mother's house "to keep it occupied while we sort things out." Months passed. Then a year. Then two. By the time Linda picked up the phone to a Toronto estate-litigation firm in late 2025, almost four years had passed since the funeral and she had received nothing — no statement of accounts, no copy of the probate certificate, no real explanation of what was happening with the house Greg was still living in.

The story does not have a famous case name attached to it. It has dozens of cousins in Canadian estate-litigation files every year. Here is how the law lets a beneficiary like Linda push back, in the order it usually plays out.

Step one — a written request #

Before any litigation, the first thing a Canadian beneficiary in Linda's position should send is a calm, dated, written request. It does not have to come from a lawyer. It should ask three things specifically:

• A copy of the will (and the probate grant, if applicable).
• A current statement of the estate's assets and liabilities.
• A timeline for distribution, with an explanation of any obstacles still in the way.

The written request matters for two reasons. First, it sometimes works — executors who have been quietly drifting often respond to a paper trail in a way they do not respond to phone calls. Second, if the matter ends up in court, the written request becomes evidence that the beneficiary was reasonable and that the executor was not.

Beneficiaries are entitled to a reasonable accounting at common law and under most provincial estate statutes.^[2] The exact form differs by province, but the basic right exists everywhere. An executor who refuses to answer a written request like this without explanation is already inviting trouble.

Step two — the lawyer's letter and the demand for a passing of accounts #

When written requests go unanswered, the second step is a letter from counsel. This typically costs a few hundred dollars and accomplishes two things at once. It signals that the beneficiary is now represented, and it formally invokes the next available remedy — usually a request that the executor "pass accounts" voluntarily, with a deadline.

In Ontario, the procedural backbone is Rule 74.15 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, which permits a beneficiary or other person with a financial interest in the estate to bring an application asking the court to require the estate trustee to pass accounts.^[1] Similar mechanisms exist in BC under the Wills, Estates and Succession Act and the Supreme Court Civil Rules,^[3] in Alberta under the Surrogate Rules, and in the other provinces under their respective surrogate or probate frameworks.

A passing of accounts is exactly what it sounds like — the executor files a detailed accounting of every dollar in and out of the estate, with supporting documentation, in a court-approved format. Beneficiaries then have the opportunity to file formal notices of objection. If the accounts are clean, the court approves them and the executor is released for the period covered. If they are not clean — missing receipts, unexplained expenditures, inflated compensation claims, self-dealing — the court can disallow specific items, order repayment, reduce or eliminate executor compensation, and in serious cases order costs against the executor personally.

For most silent-executor situations, the threat of being forced to pass accounts is itself the remedy. Executors who have been informally drifting along often produce a basic accounting and a distribution proposal once they realise they will otherwise spend months and several thousand dollars defending one in court.

Step three — removal #

If the demand-letter stage and the passing-of-accounts route fail, the next escalation is an application to remove the executor. This is the heaviest tool a beneficiary has and the most expensive — contested removal applications routinely cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees on each side.

Canadian courts apply a high threshold for executor removal. The testator's choice of executor is given significant deference, and ordinary friction or disagreement between an executor and beneficiaries is not enough on its own. What courts look for is conduct that endangers the estate or shows the executor cannot fulfil the role with the impartiality and good faith the law requires. The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal's decision in Figley v. Figley is the leading recent illustration of what kind of evidence will support removal — open hostility toward beneficiaries, destruction or careless treatment of records, and attempts to deal with estate assets before beneficiaries have been informed.^[4]

For Linda, the relevant evidence would be the accumulated paper trail — her written requests, the lawyer's letter, Greg's lack of substantive response, Greg's continued occupation of the estate home without rent paid to the estate or accounting for it, and any documents showing the basic administrative work (tax returns, accountings, distributions) had not been done.

The costs and the realistic timelines #

Beneficiaries asking what this will cost should think in three tiers:

The first tier — written requests and a demand letter from counsel — typically costs a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars and is often enough by itself to break the silence.

The second tier — a court application to compel a passing of accounts — usually runs in the low thousands of dollars if the executor cooperates after being served. If the executor contests every objection to the accounts, costs can climb quickly. Resolution typically takes six to twelve months, depending on how busy the local estates list is.

The third tier — a contested removal application — can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and take a year or more. Costs are sometimes recoverable from the estate, sometimes paid by the unsuccessful party, and sometimes split — the outcome depends on the strength of the case and the conduct of the parties throughout. A beneficiary considering this step should get a clear written cost estimate up front.

In the composite Linda case, the realistic next steps were: a final written demand from her own pen, then a $400 lawyer's letter requesting a voluntary accounting within thirty days, and if that produced nothing substantive, a passing-of-accounts application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Removal stayed on the table as a third-stage tool, not the first one.

What this scenario teaches Canadians writing a will #

Reading the composite from the testator's side, two structural lessons sit underneath the dispute.

First, the choice of executor matters disproportionately. A single sibling administering an estate that includes other siblings as beneficiaries is the most common setup for this exact pattern of silence and resentment. Co-executors, neutral third parties, or — for larger or more complex estates — corporate executors all change the dynamic.

Second, leaving the estate home occupied by one beneficiary while administration proceeds is a recipe for accounting headaches. Estate property is supposed to be preserved, accounted for, and distributed or sold. An executor who moves into the home introduces fact patterns courts have to untangle later — was rent owed, was an in-kind distribution intended, who was paying utilities — that distract from the actual job of administration.

What we focus on at It's Simple Will #

The executor pillar guide explains what the role actually involves, and the executor-of-will checklist for Canada gives the month-by-month expectations beneficiaries can hold an executor to. For the structural questions — how to pick an executor and what to do if you have been picked yourself — see how to choose an executor and our Will Creator at app.itssimplewill.ca, which guides every Canadian through naming an executor and at least one alternate. If you are on the beneficiary side of a silent-executor situation, the beneficiary rights guide is the right place to start.