My concierge approach is that everyone grieves in a different way and everyone has different needs. I don’t just give a questionnaire and a list of the documents we need. I ask about who your loved ones are. Who else is involved? Who’s going to be the executor? Should I be dealing with someone else? When someone is administering an estate for a loved one, they’re going through the grief process at the same time. It can be overwhelming, especially when you lost a close family relative. The concierge service takes each person as an individual and customizes what I do to their needs.

What Information Is Needed In Order To Begin Estate Administration?

We start with what you have. Typically, we’re going to need their full legal name, their most recent address, a death certificate, and a funeral home receipt. We would then, depending on how large the family is, sometimes, have to do a family tree affidavit. We would need names and addresses for all heirs. If it was an administration proceeding where the person died without children or a spouse, we would have to go down to first cousins. We would have to show the court that we made a diligent attempt to locate all of the first cousins.

We may need an affidavit from a disinterested family friend, who could verify which heirs remain. If we can’t give that, the court could require the appointment of a private investigator to research it further. Their attempt is to make sure that anyone who has an interest in the estate gets what they’re legally entitled to.

How Long Does It Generally Take To Administer An Estate?

If it’s a small estate and the person died with a home, a couple of bank accounts, and a car, it could take six months to administer. If the person died with substantial assets, it could take years.

What Potential Issues May Arise In Estate Administration?

If you attempted to administer an estate by yourself and you aren’t a New York resident, the court would reject it. Assuming you were a New York resident with an attorney, the court would notify your attorney of any issues that needed to be corrected. The other issue could be if you failed to do an accounting and have all the heirs sign off on it. That could open the door to one of them claiming they did not get what they were entitled to later on, even years later after everyone had moved on.

For more information on Needing An Attorney For Estate Administration, a free case evaluation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (212) 748-9477 today.