By Peter Lee
After gathering the list of assets in Lee Sr’s estate from Dave (family lawyer), the Trust Company Representative (TCR) proceeded by first asking family members whether they have the Death Certificate of Lee Sr’s parents because his parents will be entitled to a quarter of his estate if they were alive under Intestacy Law. Therefore, to eliminate their entitlement since they have passed away long ago, the Death Certificate is an important document for the application of Letter of Administration (L.A.). When all the family members confirmed that they do not have these Death Certificates, then TCR asked the family members whether any siblings of Lee Sr. are alive as they can obtain the Death Certificate of their parents. Their response was none of them were alive. Under such circumstances, TCR informed the family members that they would have to extract these Death Certificates from the National Registration Department (NRD) and this may require some time depending on how fast the department can search for it.
TCR further said “For your information, while we are waiting for the Death Certificates, I have instructed Dave to proceed with the application to the High Court to withdraw the names of the existing Administrators, namely John, Michelle and Connie and replace them with us since three of them have signed the renunciation letters renouncing their rights to be the Administrators of Lee Sr’s estate. In the meantime, I would also like to proceed with the application for L.A. separately in overseas countries like Singapore, Australia and U.K. simultaneously where some of Lee Sr’s bank accounts and shares in overseas bourses are located. By doing this, we could avoid the delay in extracting these assets overseas. However, for the application of L.A. overseas, I will appoint some of my associate legal firms in these respective countries to deal with it.”
Some of the family members then queried TCR on how it works because they thought TCR is the sole Administrator of Lee Sr.’s estate. In reply, TCR said “What my Trust Company is going to do is to appoint these legal firms to act on our behalf for Lee Sr’s estate. In other words, they will be submitting the L.A. for Lee Sr in their respective countries and upon receiving the L.A., then they will be authorised to collect all assets of the late Lee Sr on behalf of Lee Sr’s estate. Thereafter, they have to transfer these assets such as money in the bank account and shares to us for distribution. I believe that appointing them to represent us would be ideal as they are more familiar with the distribution laws in their own respective countries. Even though they are doing the work, they will still need to liaise with us on the progress of application. As far as fees are concerned, I need to check with them as it will be in the currency of their respective countries. After TCR’s explanation, Lee Sr’s family members asked TCR to proceed with the application immediately.
To be continued…
Peter Lee wishes our readers a Happy New Year!
