Letters of Administration in the Northwest Territories

When a parent dies without a will, the family hits a wall almost immediately: the bank won't release the account, the Land Titles Office won't transfer the house, and nobody has any legal authority to act because there's no document naming anyone. The fix in the Northwest Territories is a court grant called Letters of Administration. It's the no-will counterpart to a Grant of Probate, and while the end result is similar — court-confirmed authority to settle the estate — the application is meaningfully different, and harder, when there's no will to guide it.

Here's what the two grants are, when you need each, and how to apply through the Supreme Court of the NWT.

Grant of Probate vs. Letters of Administration

Both are court orders confirming someone's authority to administer a deceased person's estate. The difference is whether there's a will.

Grant of Probate is issued when there is a valid will. The court confirms the will is genuine and confirms the executor named in it. The executor's job is to carry out the will's instructions.

Letters of Administration (technically a Grant of Administration) is issued when there is no will, or no valid will. There's no named executor, so the court appoints an "administrator." Because there are no instructions, the administrator must distribute the estate according to the NWT's intestacy rules under the Intestate Succession Act — not according to the family's wishes or any informal understanding.

The practical consequences of dying without a will in the NWT are significant. The surviving spouse does not automatically inherit everything. Their preferential share is limited to $50,000 or the matrimonial home, with the balance of the estate divided among the spouse and children according to the statutory formula. Many families are surprised by how little flexibility the intestacy rules allow — which is exactly why an administrator's hands are tied to the statute.

Who Can Apply to Be Administrator

With no will, there's no pre-named person, so the Intestate Succession Act sets a priority order for who may apply. It generally follows the people who stand to inherit — typically the surviving spouse first, then adult children, then other next of kin. If several people share equal priority, they either agree on who applies or one applies with the others' consent.

Two NWT-specific points matter at this stage:

• Non-resident administrators must post a bond. If you live outside the territory, the court normally requires a surety bond to protect the estate — unless you file Form 17 (affidavit to dispense with bond) together with Form 39, in which all the beneficiaries consent to waiving it. For a solvent estate with cooperative beneficiaries, the waiver is routine; without it, the bond can be a real obstacle.
• The Public Trustee steps in only in narrow circumstances — when beneficiaries are minors, when an heir is a senior aged 65 or older who needs protection, or when no next of kin can be located. The Public Trustee is not a default administrator for ordinary estates.

If you're sorting out who has the right to apply and whether a bond will be required, the Northwest Territories Probate Guide lays out the priority order and the exact bond-waiver paperwork so you don't get caught out partway through.

How to Apply Through the Supreme Court of the NWT

The application for Letters of Administration uses the same core forms as a probate application — the difference is in what you can attach (there's no will) and what you must prove (that no will exists and that you have priority to apply).

The main package is built on:

• Form 6 — Application for Grant of Probate / Grant of Administration. The single initiating document for both types of grant; you indicate that you're applying for a Grant of Administration because there's no will.
• Form 7 — Affidavit in Support, sworn before a Commissioner for Oaths, which carries the evidentiary weight of the application.
• Schedules (Forms 8–13) — the attached schedules covering the deceased's particulars, the explanation of why there's no will, the administrator's details, the beneficiaries, and the NWT estate inventory and values.

A few requirements trip people up:

Affidavits must be commissioned in person. The NWT does not allow virtual or remote commissioning of affidavits. You and the Commissioner for Oaths must be physically together when you swear the document. An affidavit signed over video call is invalid and the registry will reject the package.

Only NWT assets go on the inventory. The estate schedule should list assets physically located in the NWT. Assets in other provinces are administered there separately.

The probate fee is the same for both grant types, calculated on the net estate value:

You file the package with one of the three NWT court registries — Yellowknife, Hay River, or Inuvik. The Supreme Court is physically based in Yellowknife but circuits to outlying communities, so you don't have to travel to Yellowknife to file; the registry can receive your application by mail or in person at the regional offices.

After the Grant Is Issued

Once the court issues Letters of Administration, the administrator's duties mirror an executor's: notify creditors (a Form 41 notice published in a newspaper opens a 30-day claims window), pay debts and taxes, obtain a CRA Clearance Certificate before final distribution, and then distribute the estate — but strictly according to the intestacy formula, not anyone's preference.

If the deceased already had a grant from another jurisdiction, you may not need a fresh application at all. An out-of-territory grant can be resealed in the NWT, and where the deceased held NWT property under grants issued elsewhere, ancillary probate covers the NWT assets. Both are faster than starting over.

Applying for a grant with no will to point the way is the harder path — the intestacy rules constrain every distribution decision, and the bond and commissioning requirements catch out-of-territory administrators off guard. The Northwest Territories Probate Guide walks through the full Form 6 application, the no-will schedules, and the intestate distribution rules step by step, so you can apply correctly the first time.

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