When can an administrator start acting for an estate?

An administrator of an estate is similar to an exector in many ways, but there is one very important difference. An executor has the legal authority to act on behalf of an estate as soon as the person who appointed him or her dies. This is because the executor's authority is set out in the deceased's Will. An administrator, on the other hand, has not been named by the deceased. This means that an administrator can't act on behalf of an estate until he or she is appointed by the court, which could take a few weeks.

If a person dies without any Will at all, someone must apply to the court for a Grant of Administration. If the person dies leaving a Will, but the Will does not appoint an executor (for example, the named executor has died and there is no alternate named) there is a slightly different procedure. Assuming that the Will is otherwise valid, the person would apply for a Grant of Administration With Will Annexed. This means that the Will is going to be followed in every way other than replacing the executor.

If you intend to apply to the court to become the administrator of an estate for someone who has recently passed away, you can:

• protect any of the assets that you can
• if there are cheques for the deceased person, set up an account in the name of the estate and put the cheques in
• make funeral arrangements
• take the bill for the funeral to the deceased's bank and ask them to pay the bill out of the deceased's bank account

Some of the things you should not do before you are appointed are:

• pay any bills (other than funeral as mentioned) using the deceased's money
• tell people that you are in charge of the estate
• place a Notice to Creditors and Claimants in the newspaper
• sign any papers on behalf of the estate
• make enquiries about life insurance policies, bank accounts, investments etc belonging to the deceased in which you state or imply that you have authority to gather the information or the assets

An administrator is entitled to be paid for his or her work just as an executor is.

If someone in your life has passed away without leaving a Will and you are the person who is going to apply to the court, you may feel some urgency to get on with the things that need to be done in the estate. Take the time to do things legally and correctly to protect the beneficiaries of the estate, and to protect yourself from future liability. The first thing to do is see a Wills and Estates lawyer to get the application to the court going. If you choose a lawyer who does not specialize in Wills and Estates, you can expect the process to take longer.

If you are appointed as an administrator but are completely overwhelmed by the responsibilities or the time pressures, keep in mind that you can walk into any Scotiabank branch and ask them to call the trust department to help you. You can hire Scotiatrust to be your agent. This means that you're still the administrator and can call the shots, but you will have someone to do all the legwork.