The National Assembly last Thursday approved a bill to improve management of the estates of deceased persons valued at up to $750,000 where no will has been left.
The Deceased Persons Estates’ Administration (Amend-ment) Bill, which was tabled by Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, was passed in the absence of the main opposition from the sitting at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
The bill seeks to increase the value of estates for which the registrar may appoint an administrator in the absence of a legal will from the deceased.
The explanatory memorandum of the amendment bill states that Clause 2 of the Bill amends Section 19 of the Principal Act to increase the value of estates for which the registrar may summarily appoint an administrator, those being intestate estates or testate estates where no executor has been appointed or an executor is unable to or unwilling to act, from $1,000 to $750,000.”
Clause 4 of the bill amends section 25(1) (b) of the Principal Act to increase the value of estates that are administered by the Public Trustee without the grant of letters of administration from $1,000 to $750,000.
Once enacted, the bill would also permit a bank manager to pay a claimant from the savings of a deceased person a sum of not more than $750,000 in the absence of letters of administration.
The current Act restricts the amount to $1,000. The sum may only be withdrawn where the savings of the deceased does not exceed $750,000.
“Clause 3 of the Bill substitutes for section 20, a new section 20 which will now provide that in the absence of letters of administration, a bank manger may pay to a claimant, from a deceased person’s savings bank account, a sum not exceeding $750,000. This sum may only be withdrawn where the sum of the money in a deceased person’s savings account does not exceed $750,000. A claim can be made in writing by the spouse or heir of the deceased person indicating that the person died intestate and that the value of their estate does not exceed 750,000,” the expla-natory memorandum added.
Presently, under the Act, a bank may only pay out money under the specified circumstances where the money in the account and the value of the entire estate does not exceed $250, the explanatory memorandum noted, while adding that the new Section 20 “will now provide that a bank shall not be liable in respect of any claim by any person in connection with a payment made under the section”.
During his presentation, Nandlall said that the amendment sought to alleviate the hardships faced by the population and allows for the dispensation of grants of probate as well as letters of administration.
`Far reaching’
He said the bill was “small” in form but has “far reaching” and “very positive” ramifications and implications for the widest cross sections of society.
Nandlall explained that with the current Act, society is faced with a process that is “very expensive”.
“One has to retain a lawyer, one has to go and compile all the assets, one has to have them valued by a certified valuation officer, one has to go to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and have all the assets examined in an inventory and then one also has to compile the liabilities and then based upon the net value of the estate, one has to pay estate duties and then make the application for the grant to which I am referring to either probate or letters of administration to the High Court then a Judge has to examine that application and then the document or the application is granted,” Nandlall explained.
“Mr Speaker, the process that I have just outlined is a very expensive one and costs an average, at a minimum, two to three hundred thousand dollars. That is the lowest I have gone and that is the smallest of estates. It can run into millions depending on the value of the estate because the lawyers’ fees vary in accordance in the size of the estate,” he said.
According to the AG, the process can also be very time consuming.
“So Mr Speaker, this bill and the accompanying amendments…present a great reprieve against the hardships that are imposed on persons, especially the poorer classes of people in our society, who may have great financial constraints and difficulties when death raps on the door,” Nandlall said.
Minister of Public Service Sonia Parag, Member of Parlia-ment Seepaul Narine and Minister of Education Priya Manickchand also threw their support behind the bill.
In her brief presentation, Parag observed, “Many times small estates are left inaccessible to the heirs and many times the process is so long…persons die waiting to access something that they are entitled to get.”
She added that it is something that should have been looked at in the last five years. “It was something that was necessary. Something that would have caused ease to so many persons,” Parag noted.
Meanwhile, Narine deemed the amendments proposed as “timely” while arguing that it constitutes another demonstration of the government bringing relief to the lives of the “ordinary Guyanese people.”
“Often times Mr Speaker, especially for poorer Guyanese, this represents another period of anguish for the families of the deceased as they would seek to bring closure in the life of their loved one,” he said. (Sharda Bacchus)
