{4 Minutes to Read} As a Trust and Estates Attorney, I frequently represent Executors and Administrators of Estates, who, at the conclusion of a proceeding before the Surrogate’s Court, seeking their appointment, receive Letters, either Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary. While the appointment of an Executor or an Administrator concludes the Probate or Administration Proceeding, it is not the final step the Court expects of the newly-appointed fiduciary.
Within six months of being appointed (or within nine months if the Estate is required to file an estate tax return, the Executor or Administrator must file an Inventory of Assets form. The form is available for free on the Court’s website here. Many Executors or Administrators have the attorney who represented them in the probate or Administration Proceeding file it; however, many people prepare and file it themselves.
The point of the form is to provide a more complete valuation of the Estate. When the Executor or Administrator initially filed the petition with the Court, they had to estimate the Estate’s value to pay the filing fee. The filing fee ranges from $1 to $1,250, depending on the value of the Estate. Sometimes, when applying for Letters, the fiduciary will overestimate, and the inventory is their opportunity to get a refund. Similarly, if the fiduciary underestimated the value when filing their initial papers with the Surrogate’s Court and the value is actually greater, an additional filing fee will be due, which the Court will collect at the time of filing the inventory.
About 10 to 15 years ago (so recent in this field of law!), the court system updated the inventory to include questions about firearms. If the deceased owned any firearms, the fiduciary must also file a separate firearms inventory, which is again available on the Court’s website. Why does the State want this information? Well, simply, they want to know where firearms are going after a registered firearm owner dies. Are they being sold? Are they staying within the family? And if so, who has possession? Obviously, the State has an interest in knowing who has what ammunition and firearms within the State, so the inventory is the State’s opportunity to ask about them. While I live in this wonderful liberal place known as Manhattan and don’t have to deal with this form very much, every now and then it does come up. The State of New York is large, and it is not uncommon to see higher rates of firearm ownership in suburban or rural counties.
Finally, it’s important to note that the Court expects the fiduciary to file this form. If the fiduciary does not file the form, the consequences vary depending on which county Surrogate’s Court we’re talking about. Some of them simply don’t care. Some of them will not issue updated certificates of Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration until the form is filed, which can be a problem for collecting assets or selling real property later on. Some of them will generate a letter from the clerk, and some will even sign an Order directing the Executor or Administrator to appear in Court and explain to the Judge why they didn’t think they needed to file this form. So, it’s a good idea to ensure the Executor or Administrator files the form promptly and accurately.
For more information on this topic, please contact me.