Small Law Firms

The Office Of The Public Administrator: An Important Government Office, Albeit One You Hope To Never Have To Use

Who will be the executor for your estate? Make the hard decisions and ask the difficult questions now, to save grief later.

By  
on

A former employee of the Kings County (New York) Public Administrator’s Office has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and five years of probation after pleading guilty for stealing $78,000 from eight Brooklyn estates. Fitzroy Thompson pleaded guilty to second-degree larceny on January 9, 2019. He has also been ordered to pay back the monies to the Estate by the end of his probation.

The Thompson investigation revealed that between July 2017 and April 2018, he used estate credit cards and checking to make his personal purchases and payments including more than $35,000 in ATM withdrawals. He also made rent payments, leased a car, purchased a cruise, and plane tickets to the Bahamas.

A public administrator is a civil servant who is charged with administering a decedent’s affairs when she dies without a last will and testament or any known relatives who are able or willing to serve as administrator of the estate. Generally, each county has its own public administrator who employs a staff to help marshal, safeguard, and distribute its residents’ estates. Often public administrators will serve as estate fiduciaries until relatives are located and they may continue to do so if the family is unwilling. As such, the public administrator is often the first to enter a decedent’s residence upon her passing to search for a last will and testament and to immediately safeguard any personal or financial assets. A public administrator may also control the remains of the deceased when there are no other known agents. This means that the public administrator chooses the decedent’s final resting place and the method of internment.

Indeed the public administrator is an important and necessary office in any society. Countless individuals die without wills, close family, or any instructions, and the Public Administrator provides care, organization, and hopefully closure for the deceased and any located family. It is, however, an office you hope to never have to use, and so it would behoove all individuals to take care of their personal matters before they die, lest the county review, marshal, and control your life, after death.

Part of executing estate planning documents is choosing which of your friends and family members you wish to serve as your fiduciaries. One should carefully contemplate the best candidates for executor, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, and agent under a health care proxy. Efficiency, diligence, and honesty are qualities one seeks when appointing any of these fiduciaries. Often emotional reasons are used to choose an agent, despite financial and organizational capabilities. If this is the case, an agent may retain the services of an account or an attorney for assistance.

Sometimes there is no one to serve, either by choice or consequence. It is not uncommon for clients to reveal no individuals whom they are close enough with to charge with handling their affairs, while alive or deceased.  This may be because they do not have any close relatives or because they are estranged from family. At times, there are no friends who care to step in when family cannot or the client does not wish to ask an individual for fear of burdening him. This is a frequent issue amongst the elderly who often become isolated as they grow older and who may be susceptible to undue influence from acquaintances with questionable motives.

For many reasons, including guardianship of children, management of assets, and beneficiaries, it is imperative for one to execute a last will and testament. Some clients may procrastinate executing a will because they do not have an individual serve as executor. While beneficiaries may be easier to choose, serving as an executor may be seen as a burden. Executorship takes time and effort, however, one is compensated for her time with statutory commissions. In the event one dies without a last will, her estate will pass via intestate laws. This also means that the court will look to next of kin to serve as the administrator of the decedent’s estate. As a result of failing to execute a last will, not only will the estate be distributed to family members who may be remote as distant cousins, but those individuals will be asked to serve as the administrators of the estate. When there is no one willing or suitable to serve, the public administrator serves. This means that the public administrator could not locate even the most remote relative who was willing or qualified to serve.

Sponsored

Clients should be encouraged to reach out to family, friends, and even service providers such as accountants and attorneys to inquire as to their willingness to serve on their behalf. Often individuals are afraid to ask, which is understandable considering the gravity of the situation. Undisputedly, one’s estate becomes more complicated and expensive to administer when a public administrator is appointed. In order to avoid the added difficulties and unintentional consequences, we should all be encouraged to make the hard decisions and ask the difficult questions now, to save grief later.

Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com. 

Sponsored

Topics

, , ,