Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Letters of Administration definition

What does Letters of Administration mean? A court grant authorising an administrator (the personal representative) to collect, manage and distribute a deceased person’s estate where there is no valid will, or no executor able and willing to act. It is a grant of representation used in probate and intestacy practice. In England and Wales, letters of administration are issued by the Probate Registry under the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987. Variants include letters of administration (intestacy) and letters of administration with will annexed (where a will exists but no executor can act). In Northern Ireland, they are granted under the...

Applying for letters of administration (with Will annexed): residuary beneficiaries, priority, clearing off and key issues (England and Wales)

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Practice notes

Where an executor cannot obtain a grant of probate to the testator’s Will, a fixed hierarchy applies for others to do so by seeking a grant of letters of administration (with Will annexed). See Practice Note: Applications for letters of administration with will annexed. After the executor, those next in priority under NCPR 1987, r 20 are persons with an interest in the residuary estate. Whether a residuary gift has been made can be ambiguous, particularly when the Will has not been professionally prepared. It is therefore necessary to consider what amounts to a gift of residue.

Is there a residuary gift?

Typically, a Will contains an express disposition of the residue. There are familiar indicators in the language used, and it is generally accepted that many forms of wording can denote the whole or remainder of the testator’s real and personal property, including:

all I possess
the rest of my money
after these the remainder
all my estate or property
whatever part shall be unappropriated

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