2. THE STUDY
Updates and background for this project (Digest)
METHODOLOGY
Data collection
2.1 This study gathered data related to trends in distribution of deceased estates from a cross-section of applications filed at the Probate Registry of the Supreme Court of NSW. The sample consisted of 650 estates (files 114600 - 115250) that were filed at the Supreme Court in September 2004, representing 2.9% of the 22,506 probate applications received by the Court in 2004.
2.2 Each file was examined by reference to a structured survey drafted by Joseph Waugh, a legal officer at the NSWLRC. Information regarding each estate was gathered through a manual search of the files, which included documents such as death certificates, grants of administration of the estate, property inventories, consent forms and statements from executors and relatives, and in many cases the actual will. Data collection occurred at the NSW Supreme Court between 31 August and 9 September 2005.
2.3 The survey gathered key information related to type of grant, characteristics of the deceased including demographics, marital status and family structure, value of the estate, the presence of real estate and whether the deceased also held joint property. In cases with wills, the study recorded preferred distribution characteristics involving residue, bequests, life interests, as well as representation and substitutionary clauses, and survivorship clauses. In cases of intestacy, the study identified beneficiaries of the estate where available.
File overview
2.4 Of the 650 files examined, 571 (87.8% of files) were included in later analysis. Details of grant types included for analysis are as follows:
| 536 | (82.5% of files) | grants of probate |
| 23 | (3.5%) | letters of administration |
| 12 | (1.8%) | letters of administration (with will annexed) |
2.5 Of the 71 files (12.2%) that were excluded, 46 did not include sufficient information for analysis, or incorporated death certificates or property that involved administration outside NSW. A further 33 files were in use at the time of review, most likely as a result of ongoing proceedings such as family provision applications relating to the estate:
| 20 | (3.1% of files) | grants for reseal |
| 14 | (2.2%) | elections to administer |
| 3 | (0.4%) | bona vacantia estates |
| 9 | (1.4%) | died overseas, or no death certificate available |
| 33 | (5.1%) | files in use |
PARAMETERS
Characteristics of the deceased
2.6 The age at death for the deceased within the sample ranged from 28 years to 102 years, with an average age of 80.4 years. As such, the sample represented a historical cohort born between 1900 and 1975, the average date of birth being 1923. The deceased was female in 317 estates (55.5%), and the deceased was male in 254 estates (44.5%). The date of death in the sample was 2004 in 514 or 90.0% of cases, whereas in the remaining 57 cases (10.0% of files) dates of death ranged between 1980 and 2003. As such, the majority of the survey sample represented a cross-section of the 45,881 deaths in NSW in 2004, which comprised 22,430 (48.9%) females, and 23,451 (51.1%) males.
2.7 At the time of death, 148 (25.9%) of the deceased were considered to have a spouse for the purposes of succession law, with 127 married (96 males, 31 females), 9 married but in the process of separation (7 males, 2 females), and 12 acknowledged as having a de facto spouse (8 males, 4 females). 422 (74.1%) of the deceased were not married at the time of death, with 343 widowed (101 males, 242 females), 29 divorced (15 males, 14 females), and 50 never married during their lifetime (26 males, 24 females).
Figure 2.1: Marital status for the deceased at time of death
2.8 The high proportion of males in marriage, and the high proportion of females who were widowed reflect a trend within the sample of males dying younger on average (77.3 years), in comparison to females (82.8 years). As such, males were more likely in this cross-section to be the first partner of a spousal relationship to die, leaving the female as the surviving partner.
2.9 The majority of the deceased were survived by children, with 463 (81.1%) files identifying living children at the time of death, in comparison to 108 (18.9%) estates that did not identify children as survivors.
