Administration (of an estate) - sustany/dvg GitHub Wiki

Administration of an estate means the management of the assets and liabilities of someone who has died. When a person has not designated a personal representative by will to deal with their estate upon death, the court will appoint an administrator to manage the estate of the deceased.

Appointment of a administrator may be governed by the laws of each state. For example, a provision of the Idaho Probate Code (Idaho Code �� 15-312, 15-314 (repealed 1972)) read:

Administration of the estate of a person dying intestate must be granted to some one or more of the persons hereinafter mentioned, and they are respectively entitled thereto in the following order:

• The surviving spouse or some competent person whom they may request to have appointed
• Children
• Parents
• Siblings
• Grandchildren
• Next of kin entitled to share in the distribution of the estate
• Any of the kindred
• The public administrator
• The creditors of such person at the time of death
• Any person legally competent
• If the decedent was a member of a partnership at the time of their death, the surviving partner must in no case be appointed administrator of his estate

In the Supreme Court case, �Reed v. Reed �(1971) the Supreme Court held that a section of the Idaho Code which gave arbitrary preference of males over females to administer the estate violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment.