In brief, an appointee must provide a New York administrator bond before letters of administration in a probate matter can be issued (N.Y. SCP. LAW §805), known as the New York Consolidated Laws Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act (Surety bond of administrator, temporary administrator or administrator c.t.a.) In cases where the prospective administrator is entitled to the whole estate or where all heirs consent that a bond be dispensed with or fixed at a reduced amount, the court may dispense with a New York surrogate court bond or fix the amount at such sum as will adequately protect the rights of all creditors.  If SOME heirs consent but others do not, then the court may fix the New York surety bond amount at such sum as will adequately protect the rights of all creditors and of the “non-consenting” persons interested.  The court may require that the amount of the creditors’ claims be ascertained by a notice to creditors, which must appear multiple times in a local publication.  Lastly, before an administrator can receive the proceeds of the disposition of real property pursuant to law he must file a further New York administrator bond in the amount of the proceeds unless it be dispensed with as previously stated, or unless his existing bond is sufficient to cover the proceeds.

Pursuant to §802, all New York probate bond submissions must be approved by the court. The court may by order authorize clerks or law assistants to approve these bonds.  Approval of a surety bond must be endorsed thereon and when endorsed, the bond must be filed with the court.  Each surety must file an acknowledged instrument stating its domiciliary address and designating the chief clerk of court and his successors in office as a person upon whom any process of any court of the state may be served in any action against the New York surrogate court bond.  A corporate surety licensed to transact business in New York is deemed to have complied with the requirements of this section of law if it has filed at least one acknowledged instrument which applies to all surety bonds of the company.  The bond AMOUNT set by the court usually follows specific formulas, detailed in §801.  For your convenience, you may review the formulas here.  In order to fully understand the New York probate bond for surrogates court, you should also carefully read §809, which explains the claims process.

There are other types of fiduciary bonds, some of which are required by New York law. The terminology may vary but they generally fall in to these categories:

National surety leader,  Surety One, Inc. is one of the largest fiduciary surety bond underwriters in the United States  Our surety programs provide you the New York fiduciary bond that fits your particular need.  We can offer you probate bond terms regardless of applicant credit condition. Call (800) 373-2804 or email Underwriting@SuretyOne.com for a New York administrator bond application or for further information about fiduciary bonds.