This Parsons Law Talk video provides a broad overview on the process of Estate Administration and what’s generally involved.
Estate Administration is the process of administering and finalising the estate of a deceased person.
It may include the process of obtaining a Grant of Probate /Letters of Administration and will involve steps such as attending to accounting and taxation requirements, identifying and settling debts and liabilities, identifying and collecting assets and seeing to the transfer of property and assets to beneficiaries in a timely manner.
Transcript
Hello, I’m Carla Parsons and in this Parsons Law Talk session, we’re going to look at estate administration and what’s generally involved in that.
So, estate administration is essentially the process of administering and finalising the estate of a deceased person. It may involve the need to obtain a grant of probate from the court or a grant of letters of administration from the court, depending on whether the person has passed away, leaving a valid will or not.
Estate administration also involves some steps. So generally it’s the process of identifying assets and liabilities, collecting those assets, settling those liabilities, attending and finalising the tax affairs of a deceased person and transferring those assets to beneficiaries in a timely manner.
If an estate becomes involved in litigation, then the executor or the administrator may need to start litigation, for example, to protect the estate or defend the estate’s position. A state administration can be quite straightforward, or it may become more complex, depending on what the terms of the will are, what the assets are, or, as I mentioned, if litigation were to arise.
Some of the types of complications that more commonly can arise in a state administration might be an issue with the will itself, so it needs to be interpreted, or the terms confirmed by the court, or it might be that document doesn’t properly meet the requirements to be a valid will.
If you are an executor of estate, you have some important responsibilities and duties and obligations that you must fulfil, and the role of executor can expose you to some level of personal risk. And for that reason, I highly recommend, if you are an executor, it’s really important to get some legal advice for your situation and circumstances so that you can make sure you understand what is involved and what you do need to do to fulfil your duty and carry out the role properly.
As I mentioned, this is really just intended to be a general overview for you. I do invite you to visit our website to find out some more general information. Or if you do need legal advice, please feel free to contact us.
