Characterisation

A distinction must be made between the administration of an estate by the personal representatives and its distribution among those entitled to it. Administration includes those matters not concerned with distribution of the estate and which arise before distribution takes place. It includes collection of debts due by the estate and other matters of management, such as the power of English administrators to postpone sale of estate property, and power to make payments out of the estate for the maintenance and advancement of minor beneficiaries.

Administration of estates

Choice of law

Although succession in the sense of distribution is generally governed by the lex situs in the case of immovables and the lex domicilii of the deceased in the case of movable property, matters of administration are governed by the law of the country where the personal representative obtained his power to act. Thus, if he obtained probate or letters of administration from an English court, English law will govern, as the lex fori.

Jurisdiction

The English courts have jurisdiction to make a grant of representation if the deceased left property in England, and such a grant will normally extend to all his property wherever it is situated. Until 1932 no grant could be made unless there was property here, but now such a grant (known as a ‘nil grant’) may be made although there is not.