Just what are the assets of an estate?

It's important for an executor to have a thorough understanding of which assets are in the estate he or she is trying to administer, for several reasons. The executor has to create an inventory of assets and liabilities, which is sworn to be accurate and filed at the court. Also, the executor is personally liable for errors and negligence, and neglecting to deal with an asset would certainly count as negligence. Also, the executor usually has to answer a lot of questions from beneficiaries who are counting on the executor to be the most informed person in the group.

Some assets cause problems for executors just by their existence, and often the problem has arisen because nobody really understands whether those assets are in the estate or not. So let's try to clear up those misunderstandings.

As a general rule, assets that are held in joint names with a right of survivorship are not in an estate. This is because when the deceased person died, all of his or her right in the property automatically transferred to the surviving joint owner. An executor doesn't have to deal with the jointly owned property if he or she is looking after the estate of the first joint owner and does not have to include it in the estate inventory. All the executor has to do is inform the surviving joint owner of the death, and provide a death certificate.

The exception to that general rule is an asset that is held between a parent and an adult child as joint owners. Now those joint assets are to be considered as being held in trust by the child when the parent dies. Unless there is clear evidence that the parent did in fact want the child to own the joint asset, it must be paid into the estate and looked after by the executor.

If the deceased person owned real estate as a tenant-in-common with another person, the deceased person's share of the real estate is included in the estate.

Another asset that is not going to be part of the estate is a life insurance policy that names a specific person as beneficiary. Again, the executor isn't responsible for looking after this. The executor should let the insurance company know that the policy owner has died and provide a death certificate but after that, it's up to the beneficiary to get the money paid out.

If the insurance policy named the estate as the beneficiary, then it is the executor's job to get the money paid to the estate so that he or she can deal with it.

If the deceased owned assets such as RRSPs, RRIFs or LIRAs that name an individual as the beneficiary, the executor's duty is once again restricted to advising the plan holder (e.g. bank) of the death of the owner and providing a death certificate. If any of these plans name a beneficiary who has already passed away, the funds will be payable to the estate and in that case it's the executor's responsibility to look after it.

Usually the household goods of a married (or common law) person are only included in the estate if the spouse does not survive.

Vehicles, equipment, collections etc that are in the name of the deceased only are included in the estate. In fact, any items of any kind, from land to digital assets, that are owned by the deceased alone are included.

When the executor is preparing the inventory of the estate for filing at the court, he or she must include all assets that the deceased owned on the date of death, even if that asset has been sold or given away on the day in the inventory is done. For example, if Joe owned a car on June 19, the day he died, then his executor sells the car on July 30 and prepares the inventory on July 31, the car should still be shown on the inventory. This is because the inventory is intended to be a snapshot of the deceased's financial situation on the date of death, not on some random later date.