Letters of administration vs. letters testamentary

Letters are the court's paper that proves one person can act for the estate. Banks and others ask to see them. The law calls the person who holds them the personal representative.

First the will goes to the probate court. Once the court accepts it, the court issues letters testamentary to the executor. There are two ways to probate a will.

Sometimes the executor in the will has died, or can't or won't serve. Then the court names an administrator with the will annexed. That is an administrator who follows the will.

The court picks the administrator. The heirs, the family members who inherit, have a say. The state form lists the order the court looks in.

• The person all the heirs agree on.
• The surviving spouse, if no divorce case was pending.
• One of the other heirs. If they split, the choice of the heirs who hold most of the shares.
• After that, another eligible person, then a creditor, then the county administrator.

An administrator needs a bond unless every heir agrees in writing to waive it. A bond is a kind of insurance that protects the heirs if estate money goes missing. Waiving it means a notice runs in the newspaper.

Sometimes something can't wait, like a bill that needs paying or property that needs protecting. The court can grant temporary letters at any time, without notice, when no one is in charge of the estate. They are also used while a fight over a will is sorted out.

No Georgia court we found posts a set number of days for either kind of letters. Ask the clerk in your county what is typical. These are the steps that add time.

• A will in common form has no notice wait, so letters can come sooner.
• A will in solemn form waits on service to the heirs, then their 30 days to object.
• With no will, when the heirs all pick the same person, there is no 30-day wait for mailed notice. A bond waiver still means a newspaper notice.
• With no will, when the heirs don't all agree, each heir gets notice at least 30 days before the date to object.
• An heir no one can find gets notice in the newspaper, once a week for four weeks.
• If someone objects, the court may set a hearing.

Then the clocks start. The notice to creditors in the county paper has to begin within 60 days. The inventory, a list of what the estate owns, is due within 6 months, unless the will or all the heirs waive it. After that comes a report each year, due within 60 days after the letters' anniversary.