Also known as: fully administer · fully administers · fully administering · administration complete
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
The state of an estate after the personal representative has made payment, settlement, or other disposition of all presented claims, administration expenses, and death taxes and has distributed the assets to the persons entitled. Any undischarged claims must be disclosed together with whether distribution occurred subject to possible liability by distributee agreement or what other arrangements accommodate the liabilities.
Dana sold rental buildings and distributed proceeds to heir Luis eight months after appointment. Tenants Maya and others then asserted security deposit and habitability claims that Dana neither paid nor mentioned in the verified statement. Because those presented claims remained undischarged and no notice or arrangement was disclosed, Dana could not truthfully certify that the estate had been fully administered.
A surviving spouse sought to present a claim on behalf of a posthumously conceived child after the personal representative had paid all known creditors and filed a closing statement. The court held that the claim could still be asserted because the estate was not yet fully administered at the time the right accrued.
In January 1993, Lauren Woodward and her husband Warren Woodward, who had been married for approximately three and one-half years and remained childless, learned that Warren had leukemia. The couple arranged for a quantity of Warren's semen to be medically withdrawn and preserved through a process known as sperm banking before he began treatment. Warren underwent an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant and died in October 1993, after which Lauren was appointed administratrix of his estate. In October 1995, Lauren gave birth to twin girls who had been conceived through artificial insemination using Warren's preserved semen. In January 1996, she applied to the Social Security Administration for child's insurance benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(d)(1) and mother's benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(g)(1). The SSA denied the claims on the ground that the twins were not the husband's children within the meaning of the Act. In February 1996, while pursuing appeals from the SSA denial, Lauren filed a complaint for correction of birth record in the Probate and Family Court against the clerk of the city of Beverly, seeking to add Warren as the father on the twins' birth certificates. In October 1996, a Probate Court judge entered a judgment of paternity based on stipulations of voluntary acknowledgment of parentage and ordered the birth certificates amended to declare Warren the children's father. An administrative law judge conducted a de novo hearing. The judge concluded that the children did not qualify for benefits because they were not entitled to inherit from Warren under Massachusetts intestacy and paternity laws. The SSA appeals council affirmed that decision. Lauren appealed to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The court certified the question regarding the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children under Massachusetts intestacy law to the Supreme Judicial Court because the parties agreed that a determination under state law was dispositive and no directly applicable precedent existed.
The representative must state that all presented claims, administration expenses, and death taxes have been paid, settled, or otherwise disposed of and that assets have been distributed to entitled persons. Any undischarged claims must be identified with an explanation of whether distribution was made subject to liability by distributee agreement or what other arrangements were made.
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No. The six-month waiting period is only one prerequisite. The representative must also have fully administered the estate by addressing all presented claims and must send the statement and an accounting to distributees and known unpaid creditors.
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The statement is defective. The statute requires explicit disclosure of any remaining claims and the arrangements made for them. Failure to include that information prevents proper closure even if timing and other formalities are satisfied.
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No. Actual knowledge of a timely presented claim, even if obtained through verbal discussions or other means, triggers the duty to address it in the closing statement. The representative must either pay or settle the claim or disclose arrangements for the undischarged liability.
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