Handling a deceased person’s estate
When a person dies, the property and debts left behind by him/her are called the estate. The estate is represented together by stakeholders in the estate until the inheritance is distributed. The estate's stakeholders are referred to as heirs.
The estate's stakeholders include the heirs who are usually the deceased person's children or their descendants and the general legatees. A legatee is a person or a party named as an heir in the will.
The surviving spouse is also a stakeholder until they have received their share of the couple’s combined property in the distribution of matrimonial assets. Even after this, the surviving spouse can be a stakeholder in the estate, if the spouse is a legatee.
If the married couple have a prenuptial agreement, the surviving spouse is not a stakeholder in the estate unless he/she is a legatee.
If the deceased person had no children and was unmarried, the stakeholders are the deceased person's parents or alternatively his/her siblings and their children.
If you are named in the last will and testament and have inherited a sizeable portion of the deceased person's property, you are a general legatee and, thus, a stakeholder in the estate.
If you have inherited a certain specified part of the deceased person's property such as a summer cottage, you are a special legatee and you are not a stakeholder in the estate.
The stakeholders are responsible for inventorying the estate. After this, they can distribute the inheritance in the manner provided in legislation or the manner stipulated in the last will and testament.
The stakeholders can independently inventory the estate i.e. hold an estate inventory meeting and pay off debts from the estate's funds. If there is a dispute between stakeholders, a district court will appoint on request an external party to inventory the estate. While the external party is working, the stakeholders cannot make any decisions concerning the estate.
The estate need not be distributed. You can agree on keeping the estate undistributed indefinitely or for example for the time the surviving spouse is alive. If the estate is in joint administration, the stakeholders must make all decisions together and in consensus.
The estate must be distributed if even one stakeholder so requires. The estate inventory and inheritance taxes must also be taken care of when the estate is not distributed.
The estate ceases to exist when the inheritance has been distributed.