Letters of Administration
in Victoria

You may require Letters of Administration if:

1. Your loved one died without a will, and;
2. They left assets, accounts, real estate, superannuation or some other financial entitlement, and;
3. The organisations holding or controlling the above assets insists on a copy of the Grant of Letters of Administration.

Additionally, you may require the Grant to have the power to make directions regarding the deceased’s funeral or what is to occur to their remains.

If the deceased held minimal sums of funds only, or perhaps only a motor vehicle, you may be able to avoid obtaining the Grant of Letters of Administration in Victoria.

Letters of Administration in Victoria is similar to the Grant of Probate because it establishes a person, or people, who are entitled to act on the behalf of the estate - calling in the estate assets, paying the liabilities and transferring the residue to the estate beneficiaries.

The main difference is the existence of a will.

If your loved one left a valid will, in most cases you should apply for a Grant of Probate in Victoria. If they did not leave a will (i.e. they died “intestate”) then the Courts determine who will be the estate representative, the “administrator”, by looking to the Administration and Probate Act 1958. The Letters of Administration application proves to the Court, via the production of documentary and affidavit evidence, the family tree of the deceased.

The whole process may take around 4 weeks, from start to finish.

The process commences when a notice is lodged on the Supreme Court of Victoria online registry, notifying the public of the administrators intention to apply for Letters of Administration. This gives an opportunity to estate creditors, and prospective claimants, to make a claim on the estate. They will get in contact directly with us if they do.

After the two-week notice period lapses you can swear the application we draft for you, and once your sworn documents are submitted to the Victorian probate registry, the registrars can take from 2 days to 4 weeks to process the application, depending on present the turnaround times.

You don’t have to act as an administrator if you don’t want to. You won’t necessarily lose your entitlements in the estate if you don’t act as an administrator.

If you choose not to act as the estate administrator, you will lose the opportunity to make decisions on behalf of the estate, as well as the power to call in, collect, pay estate liabilities and to distribute the proceeds of the estate to the beneficiaries.

The documents you are required to submit for the Letters of Administration application in Victoria differ depending on the family circumstances of the deceased. Commonly required documents include:

• The official death certificate of the deceased
• Any official marriage or divorce certificates
• The birth certificates of the deceased and their siblings
• NAATI certified translations of the above documents IF the original certificates are not in English.

Contact us today to discuss the requirements of your application for Letters of Administration in Victoria.

No, there is no deadline which applies for Letters of Administration or Probate applications. Nevertheless, it is possible that the Court may request an ‘Affidavit of Delay’ in relation to your application if a significant amount of time has elapsed since the date of passing. For this reason, we strongly recommend that applications are made and submitted to the Court at least within 1 year of the deceased’s passing.

There are several factors which will determine a super fund will require the production of Letters of Administration for the release of the superannuation and death benefits proceeds. These may include whether the applicants for such funds are dependants on the deceased, whether the deceased made binding death-benefits nominations and the contents of the superannuation deed governing the decision making of the trustees.

Contact us now to see whether you require Letters of Administration to gain access to superannuation proceeds.