About

About the Public Administrator

The Public Administrator’s agency is a legally mandated office of the City of New York. Each of the 5 boroughs has a Public Administrator. The Public Administrator of the County of the Bronx administers the estates of Bronx County residents who die and no one else is eligible or willing to administer the estates. The Public Administrator's primary duty is to administer estates that would otherwise remain unadministered; to protect the decedent's property from waste, loss, or theft; to make appropriate burial arrangements when no close relative is available to make the decisions; to conduct thorough investigations to discover all assets; to liquidate assets at public sale or distribute assets to heirs; to pay the decedent's bills and taxes; and to locate persons entitled to inherit from the estate and ensure that the legal distributees receive their inheritance.

The Public Administrator becomes involved in an estate:

• When a person dies and is survived by no known next of kin or no kin closer than first cousins.
• When a person dies with a will, and no one has offered the will for probate.
• When the executor of a will or administrator of an estate becomes ill, dies, is convicted of a felony, or is otherwise disqualified from serving as a fiduciary, and no other person is available to administer the estate.

To complete this process, the Public Administrator may secure the services of attorneys, accountants, auctioneers, and other professionals, who are compensated by funds from the estate.