Administrator General's Department

Mission Statement

The Administrator-General’s Department protects the interests of minors, beneficiaries and creditors of estates that the law requires the Administrator-General to administer.

Objectives

The Administrator-General's Department is required to administer the estates of deceased persons who have died intestate and have left children under the age of eighteen years. The legal authority to administer the assets of an estate comes from a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration from the Court.

There are seven Sections within the Agency, each of which is headed by a Senior Manager. The Operations Section is headed by the Deputy Administrator-General who is assisted by four Managers who are Attorneys-at-Law.  The Operations Section has day-to-day responsibility for the administration of all estate files within the Agency.

Functions carried out by the Department

In addition to the administration of intestate estates, the Agency provides the following services:

  1. Certificate of the Administrator-General (pursuant to Rule 68:19 of the Civil Procedure Rules, 2002);cost attached - $2,000.00;
  2. Motor Vehicle Transfers (in cases where the motor vehicle registered in the sole name of the deceased and was used exclusively for private purposes, the surviving spouse is absolutely entitled, and we endorse the transfer to the spouse); cost attached - $2,000.00;
  3. Funeral Expense Advance (for cases where the deceased left monies in a financial institution    in his/her sole name and relatives need to access these funds to cover or offset funeral expenses, we authorize the release and payment of these funds directly to the Funeral Home); cost attached - $1,500.00.

Governing Legislation

The Agency is governed by the following pieces of legislation:

 (i) Administrator General's  Act

(ii) Status of Children Act

(iii) Intestates’ Estates and Property Charges Act

This list is not exhaustive as the operations of the Department touch and concern many other enactments.

For more information please visit: www.agd.gov.jm