What are Distributees? Why are they important?
If you interact with an estate attorney, you may hear the term distributee. In New York, the term distributee has a legal meaning set out in Estates Powers and Trusts Law Section (EPTL) 1-2.5. The statutory definition is “A distributee is a person entitled to take or share in the property of a decedent under the statutes governing descent and distribution.” The statute refers to EPTL 4-1.1, which sets forth the persons entitled to inherit from a Decedent when there is no Last Will and Testament.
EPTL 4-1.1 sets forth the distributees as follows:
1. Survived by a spouse and no children: Spouse.
2. Survived by spouse and children: Spouse, All children
3. Survived by children, no spouse: Children
4. One or both parents, no spouse or children: Parents
5. No spouse, children, or parents: Children of Parents or their children) (Decedent’s siblings, or nieces/nephews)
6. No spouse, children, parents, siblings: Grandparents or children of Grandparents
Why is it important to identify distributees? Firstly, distributees are entitled to inherit a Decedent’s estate when the Decedent left no Last Will and Testament. Thus, the distributees inherit when Decedent died intestate.
Secondly, you must know who the distributees are even when the Decedent did leave a Last Will and Testament. The Last Will must be filed with the Surrogate’s Court and admitted to probate. The court will not admit a Last Will to probate until it is proven that all of the distributees have been given notice that a Last Will has been submitted for probate. Thus, it is important to prepare a complete and detailed family tree as part of the process of planning for the orderly distribution of your estate.
In the situation where the Client has not kept in touch with family members, the requirement to give notice to the distributees can cause a major hold up in the distribution of the estate, and can lead to increased expenses in searching for potential distributees. This situation calls for the use of a Revocable Living Trust, as notice to the distributees is not required to distribute an estate according to the provisions of a Living Trust.