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A10844Assembly2009-2010 SessionSame asS6674

Eliminates the $5,000 limit on small estates for which a public administrator must file an informatory accounting

Sponsor Steven EnglebrightAD-4+9 co-sponsorsAffects Legal
Status
In Assembly Committee
Judiciary
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Judiciary

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History

  1. Referred to judiciary

Companion bill

The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.

S6674Senate

Eliminates the $5,000 limit on small estates for which a public administrator must file an informatory accounting

In Senate Committee · Judiciary · Sponsor Owen H. Johnson

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

BILL NUMBER:A10844

Title of bill

An act to amend the surrogate's court procedure act, in relation to the filing by a public administrator of an informatory accounting for a small estate

Purpose

To eliminate the $5,000 limit on small estates for which a Public Admin- istrator must file an informatory accounting.

Summary of provisions

This bill amends paragraph (c) of subdivision 2 of section 1213 of the Surrogates Court Procedure Act so that it matches the same jurisdic- tional threshold of a small estate set forth in SCPA 1301.

Justification

Public Administrators are appointed by the courts for a variety of reasons in New York City and the six largest counties outside of the boroughs of New York City. Their role is to administer the estates of those persons who die without wills, without living fiduciaries or die without any known relatives. For those Public Administrators who work outside of the City of New York, they are required to file with the court a formal accounting for any estate over $5,000. The filing of an informal accounting is acceptable for those estates under the $5,000 threshold and the informal accounting can be performed internally by an Administrator, which saves the estate money. A formal accounting is very detailed, requires expensive publication, and requires the hiring of outside counsel. All of the aforementioned fees associated with a formal accounting diminish the value of the estate.

Through an oversight, the $5,000 threshold relative to the requirement to file a formal accounting for the counties outside of New York City was not raised to $30,000 when the limits for a small estate were increased to $30,000. This bill corrects this oversight and, if enacted, will go a long way toward saving money for the beneficiaries of a small estate.

Existing law

Existing law requires Public Administrators outside of the City of New York to file a formal accounting and perform detailed publication for any estate under their jurisdiction over $5,000 even though the defi- nition of a small estate was increased to $30,000 on January 1, 2009.

Legislative history

None.

Fiscal implications

None.

Local fiscal implications

Would save counties money.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.