Relates to persons who may become a voluntary administrator; includes fiduciaries of a deceased distributee, or a competent adult who is not a distributee upon the filed consent of all competent distributees as persons who can become a voluntary administrator prior to the chief fiscal officer of the county becoming such.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6280
SPONSOR: Steck TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the surrogate's court procedure act, in relation to
persons who may become a voluntary administrator
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill makes it easier and faster for the court to authorize a volun-
tary administrator of an estate valued at less than $50,000,
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends Surrogate's Court Procedure Act 1303 (a). Section 2
provides an effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, when a person eligible to administer a small estate valued
under $50,000, wishes to allow a voluntary administrator to administer
the estate in their stead, the person has to petition the court for a
change in administrator. This bill would simplify the process and permit
the person to sign a single form consenting to the court appointment of
a replacement voluntary administrator. It would also allow heirs to
consent to a voluntary administrator who is not a distributee or who is
the fiduciary of a deceased distributee's estate.
For example, if the decedent's parents are his or her sole distributees,
but are frail and elderly, and they want the decedent's sister to admin-
ister the estate, they cannot designate her to do so without filing a
petition for a letter of administration. In another example, if the
decendent's mother is his sole distributee but has since died and has a
fiduciary appointed to administer her estate, the fiduciary cannot file
to be the voluntary administrator of the son's estate under current law.
Since this bill only affects the administration of small estates where
lawyers are unlikely to be involved, it will relieve the burden of court
bureaucracy on low income families, by permitting them to consent to the
appointment of a competent person to handle their decedent's estate,
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2020: A11060 referred to judiciary
2021/22: A295A referred to judiciary
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The thirtieth day after it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6280
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 3, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STECK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the surrogate's court procedure act, in relation to
persons who may become a voluntary administrator
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision (a) of section 1303 of the surrogate's court
2 procedure act, as amended by chapter 281 of the laws of 1995, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 (a) If the deceased dies intestate, the right to act as a voluntary
5 administrator is hereby given [first to the surviving adult spouse, if
6 any, of the decedent and if there be none or if the spouse renounce,
7 then in order to a competent adult who is a child or] in the following
8 order to a competent adult distributee who is the surviving spouse,
9 child, grandchild, parent, [brother or sister, niece or nephew or aunt
10 or uncle] sibling, child of a sibling or sibling of a parent of the
11 decedent, or if there be no such person who will act, then to the guard-
12 ian of the property of an infant, the committee of the property of [any]
13 an incompetent person or the conservator of the property of a conserva-
14 tee who is a distributee, the fiduciary of a deceased distributee, or to
15 a competent adult who is not a distributee upon the filed consents of
16 all competent adult distributees, and if none of the foregoing named
17 persons will act or if there are no known distributees within the cate-
18 gories listed above, then to the chief fiscal officer of the county
19 except in those counties in which a public administrator has been
20 appointed under articles eleven and twelve of this act. [After the
21 surviving spouse, the first distributee within the class of persons
22 entitled or if no distributee will act or there are no known distribu-
23 tees within the class of persons entitled, then the chief fiscal officer
24 of the county as above who makes and files the required affidavit,] Upon
25 filing the required affidavit, the person having the right to act is
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09894-01-5
A. 6280 2
1 authorized to act as voluntary administrator, or as successor voluntary
2 administrator in the event of the death or resignation of the voluntary
3 administrator before the completion of the settlement of the estate.
4 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
5 have become a law.
