Report calls for simplified probate process for small estates

The report’s recommendations follow from a project that the LCO launched amid concerns that the existing probate system is too costly for small estates, and that these estates may be effectively shut out of the system.

Although the probate system is often seen as a tax on estates, the system also provides important legal protections, such as validating wills, and confirming the authority of executors to administer estates, the LCO notes.The LCO project sought ways to simplify the probate system, and make it less costly for small estates. Among other things, the report recommends that a process be developed for small estatesthat could be navigated without legal assistance, but would continue to be supervised by the courts and would also maintain other legal protections.

However, to reduce costs, the proposed process would eliminate some of the evidentiary requirements that establish the legal entitlement to administer an estate.

The report also recommends that a range of legal supports be developed as part of a small estates procedure. These include simplified forms, an online delivery system, a plain-language guide to probate, a telephone help line, and cost-sensitive legal advice. These supports could be tailored to the value and relative complexity of particular estates, the report says.

Finally, the report also calls for a public education campaign on the importance of making a will, and for the creation of a searchable, online database of estates, so that people could determine whether or not they have a potential interest in an estate.

“The goal of this project was to design a more accessible procedure without eroding the protections that are the underlying purpose of probate. The recommendations, taken together, strike a careful balance between these two goals,” said Bruce Elman, chairman of the LCO.