Administrator

A will can name an executor to carry it out. But sometimes there is no such person — the will names nobody, or the person named cannot do the job. Someone still has to collect the assets, pay the debts and distribute what is left.

The court fills that gap by appointing an administrator. The workbook is explicit about when this happens: whenever there is no executor appointed in the will, the appointed executor is legally incapable or refuses to act, or the executor dies after starting to prove the will but before finishing the distribution of the estate.

An administrator is not self-appointed. The court grants letters of administration — the formal document authorising someone to administer the estate — to a person the court selects, generally someone entitled to the whole or part of the estate.

Administrators carry a burden that executors named in a will do not: in cases of intestacy (no will at all), the workbook notes that administrators have to provide an administration bond and securities for due administration of the estate — a financial guarantee that the job will be done properly, which a testator-appointed executor is not required to give.

Once appointed, an administrator's day-to-day duties mirror an executor's — locating and valuing assets, paying debts and taxes, and distributing what remains — but their authority comes from the court's grant, not from the deceased's own choice.

Illustrative figures — the workbook does not supply rupee amounts for this scenario.

Mr Bose dies leaving a will, but the will names his brother as sole executor, and his brother had already passed away two years earlier — before Mr Bose himself died. The will effectively names no living executor.

His estate comes to Rs 84,00,000 in all:

He also leaves an outstanding home loan of Rs 4,00,000.

Mr Bose's widow applies to the court for letters of administration. The court examines who is entitled to the estate and appoints her as the administrator. Because there is a valid will but simply no functioning executor, she administers the estate under the court's grant rather than the deceased's own appointment.

She first collects and values the assets above, then clears the Rs 4,00,000 loan out of the estate — debts are settled before anything is handed to a legatee. That leaves Rs 80,00,000 to divide exactly as the will directs: Rs 40,00,000 to Mr Bose's widow, and Rs 20,00,000 each to his two children.

Had Mr Bose died with no will at all, the same court-appointed-administrator process would apply to the same Rs 84,00,000 estate — but this time the widow would also have to furnish an administration bond and securities before the court hands her control of the estate, since the workbook singles out that requirement for cases of intestacy.

Chapter 15 (Tools for Estate Planning), section 15.2.8 — Role of the Executor — introduces the administrator immediately after covering who can be an executor, listing the three triggers for a court appointment; section 15.3 covers letters of administration as the alternative to probate. Expect a scenario question asking whether a court will appoint an administrator, and why.

• An administrator is appointed by the court, not named by the deceased — the opposite of an executor.
• Three triggers: no executor named; the named executor is incapable or refuses; the executor dies after proving the will but before completing administration.
• The administration bond and securities requirement is tied to intestacy in the workbook's wording — a case where there is no will guiding the process at all.
• Do not confuse administrator with legatee — a legatee simply receives a gift under the will; an administrator carries out the estate's administration.