A Last Will and Testament document is filed with the New York State Surrogate’s Court to inform them of the grantor’s recent passing and to petition for estate administration proceedings. Well, the designated beneficiaries listed in this will document should be afforded the same notice. With that being said, please follow along to find out how beneficiaries should be notified and how a proficient New York City estate administration attorney at Mark Wakim Law, can work to ensure you inform all the appropriate parties.
How should beneficiaries be notified of estate administration proceedings?
As an appointed executor of a Last Will and Testament document, you must do your due diligence in tracking down the named beneficiaries and informing them of the upcoming estate administration proceedings. Hopefully, the grantor left enough information and resources to make this search relatively comprehensive and streamlined.
Specifically, you may be expected to deliver a notice through personal service or first-class mail. This notice may have to be supplemented with a copy of the will and all other relevant documents, as well.
You must see to this because beneficiaries are entitled to be informed on everything regarding the estate administration process, from start to finish, regardless of how valuable their stake is. That said, you should try to do this successfully within 30 days of the decedent’s time of death.
What other parties should be notified of these proceedings?
If an individual dies intestate, without making a valid and enforceable Last Will and Testament, you may have to notify their close relatives based on New York State’s intestate succession laws. This is because their surviving spouse, children, parents, and siblings are considered heirs-at-law. And so, they should remain informed about the property and assets they will inherit soon.
Even with a will document, though, other parties besides designated beneficiaries hold a right to be notified of the upcoming estate administration proceedings. For example, creditors should be told so that they may exercise a claim against the estate to collect what they are owed. With this, you may have to reimburse them by liquidating some of the decedent’s property and assets.
This is in addition to anyone else who may have a standing to contest the will. Namely, if the decendent’s surviving spouse was not included in the will, they may have an automatic right to a portion of their estate. State law holds that current, surviving spouses cannot be disowned. With this, their elective share is typically greater than $50,000 or one-third of the estate.
Of course, this is unless the decedent and their spouse created a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement that waives this right. Or, if another beneficiary steps forward to claim that their marriage was legally void, they were legally separated, or the surviving spouse abandoned the decedent towards the end of their lifetime.
We understand that you must be eager to start this process. So, without further delay, please schedule your initial consultation with a talented New York City estate planning attorney from Mark Wakim Law today.
