Sara Hillier, TEP, MTI

Sara Hillier’s path to becoming one of Canada’s most trusted voices in estate planning and settlement is a story of an accidental discovery that turned into a life’s calling. Sara spent her early career in hospitality, a field that sharpened her instincts for client service, empathy, and handling high-stakes logistics under pressure. But it wasn’t until a placement brought her into a trust company environment that she found the work she was built for.

What started as an administrative role quickly became something far more substantive. Sara rose through the ranks to trust officer, where she guided families through the estate settlement process when the trust company was acting as executor — overseeing complex files, managing timelines, and providing steady, empathetic guidance during some of the most difficult moments in people’s lives. She was later promoted to eEstate and tTrust aAdvisor, where her role expanded to encompass the planning side of estates: working directly with clients preparing their wills, appointing executors, and thinking through the decisions that would define their legacy.

That progression gave Sara something that credentials alone cannot provide: deep, practical knowledge of how estate files actually work from the inside — what delays them, what resolves them, and what families most need to hear when they’re overwhelmed and uncertain. To anchor that experience with formal recognition, Sara earned her Member Trust Institute (MTI) designation from the Canadian Securities Institute in 2015 and her Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation from the International Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) in 2016 — two of the most respected certifications in the Canadian estate industry.

Despite finding genuine satisfaction in trust company work, Sara recognized a fundamental gap: trust companies typically serve high-net-worth clients, leaving the vast majority of Canadian families without access to the same quality of expert guidance. That realization is what drew her to ClearEstate. She reached out proactively after spotting the company in her professional network, quickly recognizing that its mission — to democratise access to estate expertise and eliminate the needless bureaucracy that makes settlement so painful — was precisely the problem she had been wanting to solve at scale.

At ClearEstate, Sara works cross-functionally as Head of Estate Planning & Settlement Solutions. She is known for approaching even the most technically complex estate questions with patience, clarity, and a commitment to making the unfamiliar feel manageable. She also contributes subject-matter leadership to product development, operational improvements, and the evolution of ClearEstates’s professional executor offerings. Her guiding philosophy is as simple as it is rare: always lead with empathy. “Our customers may be going through the worst times of their lives,” she has said. “And now they’re being forced to confront and understand things they’ve never encountered before.” Sara has also hosted public education initiatives, including ClearEstate’s webinar series, which walks Canadians through real-life estate planning case studies and the preventable mistakes that create lasting problems for families. Sara is also the co-host of ClearEstate’s podcast: The End Game, bringing real-life stories and practical guidance to Canadians in an accessible, conversational format. Through real cases, expert insights, and candid conversations, the show helps families understand how estates really work – and how to avoid common pitfalls.

Sara’s areas of expertise at ClearEstate

• Expertise in estate planning and settlement

• Guidance on wills, powers of attorney, and key planning considerations

• Support for executor duties and professional executor services

• Oversight of estate documentation, timelines, and administrative steps

• Clear communication of legal and technical estate concepts

• Public education through webinars, podcasts, and partnerships

• Product and platform development of ClearEstate solutions

Credentials:

• Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) — STEP (International Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), 2016

• Member Trust Institute (MTI) — Canadian Securities Institute, 2015

Connect:

LinkedIn — Sara Hillier

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