Dennise Williams, Staff ReporterOVER THE years you have amassed a nice little nest egg. You have your primary residence that you have lovingly decorated and refurbished over the years. Plus, you have some land that you plan to eventually build on. You also have two fully paid up vehicles and lovely furniture and artwork in your house. In addition to all of that, your bank account has a very healthy balance. Life is good. But then you die.
During your lifetime you were so busy working and saving to have a better life that you forget to plan for death. No problem, you say, because of your financial diligence, everything will be okay. Your family knows how you feel about your bad marriage (you haven't spoken to your spouse in years), your ungrateful son (you spent money to send him to a good school, for what?) and who should receive your antique vase collection (your church sister, Beverly). Or, you are a selfish person and since you're dead, who cares how your assets are distributed? Well, the Government cares and if you don't prepare a will, the law will dictate who benefits from all your hard work, regardless of your personal feelings. Govern-ments the world over have legal systems in place to deal with persons who die intestate, that is without a will.
DECEASED
Here in Jamaica, since 1872, the Administrator General's Department (AGD) has administered the estate of certain deceased individuals. The AGD was made an executive agency in April 1999. The AGD gets involved when the following occurs:
A person dies and leaves no will and there are minor (under age 18) beneficiaries
Where a will does not name an executor
The named executor has died or refuses to act.
Okay, first a little vocabulary lesson. A beneficiary is someone entitled to benefit under a will or by law where there is no will. An executor, according to Andrew Gyles, senior legal executive at the AGD, "is someone named in a will to file for a grant of probate, identify assets of the deceased, call in the assets and distribute the assets in accordance to what is in the will. But before all of that, they must also pay off any death-related expenses and settle with creditors."
So in a perfect situation, the deceased has a valid will with a ready and able executor. But, perfect situations don't always occur and the AGD has to step in. During an interview with Sunday Business, the Admin-istrator General, Lona Brown and Mr. Gyles explained what the AGD does. Said Mr. Gyles, "We act in accordance with the Intestates' Estates and Property Charges Act. Which means that the assets are distributed according to the law and not the wishes of the deceased." And this can get pretty complicated because there is broad definition of who is a beneficiary.
SURVIVING PARENTS
First, the AGD looks at if there is a spouse, a child or children, then surviving parents, then brothers and sisters of the whole blood, then brothers and sisters of the half blood, surviving grandparents, uncles and aunts being brothers and sisters of the whole blood of a parent of the deceased and then uncle and aunts of the half blood of a parent of the deceased, and finally any persons who are eligible such as 'other eligible relatives.' Are you confused yet? Do you even know your uncles and aunts of the half blood? In my mind, it would mean that the AGD would probably have to trace your grandfather's outside pickney dem!!!! Goodness.
And all of that is just to determine who is eligible to inherit. The distribution of the assets can get even trickier. Giving an example, Mr. Gyles stated, "If a married person dies without a will the spouse is the main beneficiary. First the spouse gets all the personal chattels (car, furniture, etc.) plus $10,000 or a sum equal to ten per cent of the net value of the estate (excluding personal chattels) whichever is greater after death expenses have been paid."
And if you owned a house, things can get even murkier. Said Mr. Gyles, "If the intestate has one child, then the surviving spouse gets two-thirds of the house and if there is more than one child, then the surviving spouse's share of the house is 50 per cent." And of course, these are just simple, basic examples. Determining who is a beneficiary and what they are to get can become a very, very complicated matter. The flip side to all of this
is where no beneficiaries can be found. Well, then, good news your assets revert to the Government. Said Brown, "legally it is known as bona vacantia. Real estate reverts to the Crown and is transferred to the Commissioner of Lands. Cash is sent to the Auditor General and placed into the Consolidated Fund." At this point, Gyles hastens to add that if you had a good friend or caretaker who physically cared for you right to the end, then that person could petition the Governor General to issue a waiver of the Crown rights and allow them to become the beneficiary. Said Brown, "the administration of estates is a very lengthy process. For example, if a single person dies leaving property and a 6 month old baby, we have to administer the estate until the child attains majority at 18 years." The AGD currently has a backlog of over 12,000 cases. According to Brown, "we average 225 new cases each year. But recently we closed 579 estates. That is we distributed the assets to the beneficiaries." And as to the reason why there is such a large backlog, Brown states, "many times the primary beneficiary dies and we have to find the secondary beneficiary." [Which is probably the uncle or aunt of the half blood.] On a day-to-day basis, the AGD manages 900 properties and $750 million worth of cash. Brown explained, "most of the time we have to be involved in the maintenance, renting, repairing and insuring of properties. That is the most difficult part of the job." So, if you suspect that you are entitled to one or more of the 900 properties or some of the $750 million under management, the AGD has a form for you to fill out call the "Particulars for Administrator General." It is a lengthy form. The signed form must be accompanied by the following supporting documents:
-Death Certificate
-Birth Certificate(s) of children claiming a benefit
-Marriage Certificate (where applicable)
-Proof of paternity where the deceased father's name does not appear on the birth certificate for children born out of wedlock. (Before the mid 1970s illegitimate children could not inherit from their father.)
-Declaration of spouseship (where the deceased, having been single, lived with a single man/woman for five continuous years immediately before his/her death)
Do you have a headache yet? I certainly do. All this because you didn't write a proper Will. Gyles stated, "Jamaicans do not have a culture of writing wills." Added Brown, "many people think that as soon as they write a Will they are going to die." And so, to try and reduce the number of new cases, the AGD has embarked on a public awareness campaign to get Jamaicans to write valid Wills.
