Naming Alternate Executors: Why a Backup Matters

A 72-year-old widower in Hamilton signs a will naming his only child — his 48-year-old son — as the sole executor. Six years later, the son dies in a motorcycle accident. The widower, by then suffering from advanced dementia, never updates the document. When he dies in 2026, the family discovers the will appoints a dead man. There is no alternate. The widower's two adult granddaughters spend roughly five months and $6,800 in legal fees on a court application to be appointed administrators with the will annexed before they can even begin to deal with the estate.

The will itself was fine. The single point of failure in the executor appointment was the problem.

Naming an alternate executor is one of the cheapest, simplest, and most consequential drafting decisions in a Canadian will. It is also one of the most commonly skipped — particularly in DIY wills, where the appointer often names the obvious first-choice person and stops there.

What an alternate executor actually does #

The alternate executor (also called the substitute executor) is the person your will names as the backup. The drafting language typically reads something like: "I appoint my spouse, Jane Doe, as the executor of this my last will and testament. If my spouse is unable or unwilling to act, or having accepted the appointment is unable or unwilling to continue, I appoint my brother, John Doe, as the executor."

Three triggers activate the alternate's authority:

1. The primary executor predeceases you. They die before you do, so the appointment in your will is to a dead person.
2. The primary executor formally renounces. They survive you but choose not to take on the role. Renunciation is generally only available before the primary starts acting as executor; once they have done any meaningful work in the role, they typically cannot just walk away — they have to be discharged by the court.^[5]
3. The primary executor is unable to act. Loss of capacity, serious illness, residency outside Canada in some provinces, or other practical impossibility.

The alternate steps into the shoes of the primary and exercises the same powers and duties. They apply for probate (or its provincial equivalent) in their own name, they sign as executor, they receive the same executor compensation.

Why one executor is rarely enough #

The fact pattern at the top of this article — primary executor dies before the testator, no alternate named — happens more often than people expect. A few statistics worth keeping in mind when drafting:

• A typical will sits in a drawer for 15 to 30 years before being acted on. The probability that any named individual survives that long without dying, losing capacity, or becoming unwilling to act is meaningfully less than 100 percent.
• Adult children — the most commonly named executors — predecease their parents more often than most people assume, particularly when the testator lives well into their 80s or 90s.
• Spouses are by far the most common first-choice executor. They are also, statistically, close in age to the testator and therefore close in life-expectancy curve.

A single-executor will is, in actuarial terms, a single point of failure on a 30-year horizon. The fix is structural rather than expensive — simply name an alternate.

How alternates differ from co-executors #

The two roles are easy to confuse but are functionally different.

Co-executors are two or more people who act together from the start. They both apply for probate; they both sign bank documents; they share decision-making. The major drawback is deadlock — Canadian estate cases routinely show up where co-executor siblings cannot agree, and the estate stalls until one renounces or the court intervenes.

Alternate executors are sequential. Only one person acts at a time; the alternate's authority is dormant unless and until the primary cannot or will not act.

For most Canadian families, the cleaner architecture is: single primary executor with named alternate(s). Where the goal is to have two adult children involved in the process — to honour family fairness — naming one as primary executor and the other as alternate often produces less friction than naming both as co-executors. The non-executing sibling still receives complete accountings and approval rights as a beneficiary; what they do not have is the day-to-day administrative burden or the joint-decision veto.

How many alternates to name #

Most professionally drafted wills name a primary plus at least one alternate. Many name a second alternate as well, particularly when:

• The testator is younger than 50 (longer horizon over which named individuals can fall away).
• The estate is large or complex enough to make a court-appointed administrator a particularly bad fallback.
• The primary and first alternate are close in age and have similar life-expectancy exposure.
• A trust company is being held in reserve as the ultimate backstop.

Naming three or four alternates is unusual but not problematic. The drafting cost is trivial, and the only downside is keeping the appointments current as the testator's circumstances change.

A pattern that works for many Canadian families: primary executor is the spouse; first alternate is the eldest adult child; second alternate is either a trusted sibling of the testator or a corporate executor (trust company). The corporate executor as the final backstop ensures the estate will not fall into administrative limbo no matter what happens to the human appointees — though corporate executor fees are typically 4 to 5 percent of the estate value, so this option suits larger estates.

What "unable or unwilling to act" actually means #

Will-drafting boilerplate uses this phrase often without much explanation. The triggers in practice:

• Death before the testator (predeceases).
• Death between the testator's death and the start of acting (survived but never began the work).
• Loss of capacity — typically requires medical evidence; the question is whether the executor can manage their own affairs, not the higher bar of full legal incapacity.
• Residency abroad — some provinces require executor bonds for non-resident executors, which makes accepting the appointment expensive or impractical. BC, for example, generally requires bond for executors residing outside the Commonwealth, with limited exceptions.^[4]
• Formal renunciation before starting work — a signed and witnessed renunciation filed with the probate court.
• Refusal to act — the appointee never takes any steps and never formally renounces. After enough time, the court will treat them as having declined.

When any of these triggers is met, the alternate's authority activates automatically under the will's nested appointment clause. No separate court order is required to recognise the alternate (though probate still has to be applied for in the alternate's name).

How to actually update an alternate without rewriting the whole will #

A change in alternate executor is one of the most common reasons to update an existing will. Two routes work:

Codicil. A short amending document that adds, removes, or changes the alternate appointment while leaving the rest of the will intact. The codicil must be signed and witnessed with the same formalities as the will itself. See our guide on what is a codicil and when to use one.

Full re-execution. A new will that revokes the prior one entirely. Simpler than a codicil for the reader; preferred when more than one or two clauses need to change.

Either route works; the trap is doing neither. Many Canadians update their named alternate verbally with the family but never sign anything — and the verbal appointment carries no legal weight.

Telling the alternate #

The alternate should know they are named. Three reasons:

First, they can decline before the will is finalised. Discovering after your death that your named alternate moved to Australia in 2019 and would have refused had they been asked is the worst time to find out.

Second, advance notice lets the alternate read the will once, ask basic questions, and understand the rough scope of the responsibility. Executors who walk into the role cold often make early mistakes — paying creditors out of personal funds, distributing before the clearance certificate, missing the Ontario Estate Information Return deadline — that informed appointees avoid.

Third, the conversation surfaces fit issues. An alternate who has health problems, who is geographically distant, or who is not on speaking terms with the primary executor is not the right alternate, and you would rather know that while you are still alive to rewrite the appointment.

What we focus on at It's Simple Will #

The It's Simple Will questionnaire prompts for both a primary executor and a first alternate by default, with the option to name a second alternate. We surface the trade-offs of co-executors versus alternates during the questionnaire rather than letting the user discover them in a courtroom years later.

The framing that lands with most Canadian families: the alternate executor is the cheapest insurance policy in the will. It costs nothing to name one, and it can save the family months of court applications and thousands of dollars in legal fees if the primary appointment falls through.

Related reading: how to choose an executor for your Canadian will, how to renounce as executor in Canada, and our pillar on what does an executor do in Canada.