Canadian Estate Planning Checklists — The Complete Index

Most of estate planning is not dramatic. It is a series of ordinary moments — sitting down to write a will, updating it after a new baby, finding out a parent has died, settling an estate as the named executor — where the difference between calm and chaos is simply knowing what comes next. A checklist is the cheapest insurance there is against the panic of a blank page.

This page is the index to our free Canadian checklists. Each one is written for the common-law provinces, kept in plain language, and built to be printed and ticked off rather than admired. They fall into four natural stages.

Before you write your will — get organized #

A will goes faster, costs less, and turns out better when you arrive with your information already gathered. Start here:

• Documents to gather before writing your will — the asset, debt, and beneficiary information to collect first.
• Pre-planning conversation checklist for couples — the questions partners should answer together before either of you drafts anything.
• Digital account and password inventory — the online accounts, devices, and credentials your executor will otherwise never find.
• Funeral pre-planning decision checklist — the end-of-life choices worth recording now so the decisions are yours, not your family's under pressure.

Keep your plan current #

A will is not a "set it and forget it" document. The two most common reasons a Canadian estate goes sideways are a will that no longer matches the family and beneficiary designations that were never updated.

• Annual estate plan review checklist — a 30-to-60-minute yearly check that your will, executor, and beneficiary designations still reflect reality.
• Life events estate update checklist — what to re-check after a marriage, separation, new child, move between provinces, or major change in assets.

When someone dies — the first days #

The hours and days after a death are the hardest time to think clearly, which is exactly when a checklist earns its keep.

• First 48 hours after a death — the immediate, practical steps, from securing the home to locating the will.
• Government benefits notification checklist — the federal and provincial offices to notify, including the Canada Pension Plan death benefit and survivor benefits.

For the executor — settling the estate #

If you have been named executor (estate trustee), the responsibility is real and the timeline is longer than most people expect. These break the work into manageable pieces.

• The executor's first 30 days — what to do, in what order, in the first month.
• Bank, credit card, and investment notification checklist — the financial institutions to contact and what each one will ask for.

For the bigger picture of the role itself, see what an executor actually does in Canada, and for the court process behind it, what probate is. Settling tax matters is a step the Canada Revenue Agency sets out separately, and an executor should not distribute an estate before it is resolved.

How to actually use these #

Print the one that fits your moment and work top to bottom — the order is deliberate. Where a step is provincial (death registration, probate, some benefits), the checklist says so; confirm the detail in your own province. And treat any checklist as a prompt, not a guarantee: it will catch the common gaps, but it cannot know the specifics of your family, your assets, or your wishes.

What we focus on at It's Simple Will #

These printable checklists are deliberately general so anyone can use them. Inside It's Simple Will, the Life Discovery Kit takes the same idea further — it generates a checklist personalized to the assets, accounts, and people you actually told us about, so your executor inherits a map rather than a mystery. The free checklists here are the starting point; the personalized version is the upgrade.

Related guides #

• How to write a will in Canada
• What is probate in Canada?
• What does an executor do in Canada?
• The executor's first 30 days
• First 48 hours after a death