Canada · Official publisher guide · Updated October 11, 2026
The 48-60-6 Method for Canadian families
A practical way to organise the work after a death in Canada: secure the urgent things, notify the right organisations, and prepare the estate and tax work. The numbers organise your plan; they are not three universal legal deadlines.
48 hours: secure a starting point
Begin with the funeral home, immediate family contacts, the original will and the person expected to act as executor. Record where the home keys, insurance details and important papers are kept. Ask the funeral home how registration and death certificates work in your province.
The first 48 hours are an organising window, not a national legal deadline. Avoid major estate decisions while you are still confirming authority and finding documents. Keep a dated record of calls, invoices and practical actions.
60 days: organise the notifications
Service Canada and the CRA are separate contacts; neither replaces the calls to banks, insurers, utilities or an employer pension plan. Keep one notification register with the organisation, contact date, reference number and next action.
The CPP death-benefit guidance says the executor should apply within 60 days. Other eligible applicants may be considered if the executor has not applied. This is not a deadline that makes every estate task due in 60 days. For a QPP contributor, check Retraite Québec separately.
6 months: plan the estate and tax work
Build the asset and liability inventory, ask whether provincial probate or another estate procedure is required, and identify the returns and records the tax adviser will need. Track RRSP/RRIF and TFSA information, insurance and beneficiary designations without assuming every asset is dealt with through the will.
For most final individual returns, the CRA uses April 30 of the following year for a death between January 1 and October 31, and six months after death for a death in November or December. Business-income situations have additional rules. Check the actual filing and payment deadlines; the six-month label is not a substitute.
Review the CRA's clearance-certificate process before distributing estate assets. Six months is a planning horizon: probate, tax clearance and distribution may take longer.
One framework, provincial differences
Ontario calls the court authority a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee. Whether probate is needed depends on the circumstances and assets. Québec uses a liquidator and civil-law succession rules. Other provinces and territories have their own forms, courts and requirements.
Use the executor checklist to organise documents and the after-death guide to identify the next contact. The kit supports this preparation; it does not guarantee faster probate or a completed estate within six months.