GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1989 SESSION

CHAPTER 1015
HOUSE BILL 1291

AN ACT CONCERNING ADMINISTRATION OF SMALL ESTATES BY THE CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT AND A RELATED PROVISION OF THE INHERITANCE TAX LAW.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 28A-25-6 reads as rewritten:
"§ 28A-25-6.  Payment to clerk of money owed decedent.
(a)	As an alternate to the small estate settlement procedures of this Article, any person indebted to a decedent may satisfy such indebtedness by paying the amount of the debt to the clerk of the superior court of the county of the domicile of the decedent:
(1)	If no administrator has been appointed, and
(2)	If the amount owed by such a person does not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000), and
(3)	If the sum tendered to the clerk would not make the aggregate sum which has come into the clerk's hands belonging to the decedent exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000).
(b)	Such payments may not be made to the clerk if the total amount paid or tendered with respect to any one decedent would exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000), even though disbursements have been made so that the aggregate amount in the clerk's hands at any one time would not exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000).
(c)	If the sum tendered pursuant to this section would make the aggregate sum coming into the clerk's hands with respect to any one decedent exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) the clerk shall appoint an administrator, or the sum may be administered under the preceding sections of this Article.
(d)	If it appears to the clerk after making a preliminary survey that disbursements pursuant to this section would not exhaust funds received pursuant to this section, he may, in his discretion, appoint an administrator, or the funds may be administered under the preceding sections of this Article.
(e)	The receipt from the clerk of the superior court of a payment purporting to be made pursuant to this section is a full release to the debtor for the payment so made.
(f)	If no administrator has been appointed, the clerk of superior court shall disburse the money received under this section for the following purposes and in the following order:
(1)	To pay the surviving spouse's year's allowance and children's year's allowance assigned in accordance with law;
(2)	Repealed by Session Laws 1981, c. 383, s. 3.
(3)	Repealed by Session Laws 1981, c. 383, s. 3.
(4)	All other claims shall be disbursed according to the order set out in G.S. 28A-19-6.
Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the clerk shall pay, out of funds provided the deceased pursuant to G.S. 111-18 and Part 3 of Article 2 of Chapter 108A of the General Statutes of North Carolina, any lawful claims for domiciliary care received by the deceased, incurred not more than 90 days prior to his death.  After the death of a spouse who died intestate and after the disbursements have been made in accordance with this subsection, the balance in the clerk's hands belonging to the estate of the decedent shall be paid to the surviving spouse, and if there is no surviving spouse, the clerk shall pay it to the heirs in proportion to their respective interests.
(g)	The clerk shall not be required to publish notice to creditors.
(h)	Whenever an administrator is appointed after the clerk of superior court has received any money pursuant to this section, the clerk shall pay to the administrator all funds which have not been disbursed.  The clerk shall receive no commissions for payments made to the administrator, and the administrator shall receive no commissions for receiving such payments."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 105-24 reads as rewritten:
"§ 105-24.   Access to safe deposits of decedents; withdrawal of bank deposits, etc., payable to either husband or wife or survivor.
(a)	No safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank, or other institution, person or persons having in possession or control or custody, in whole or in part, securities, deposits, assets, or property belonging to or standing in the name of a decedent, or belonging to or standing in the joint names of decedent and one or more persons, shall deliver or transfer the same to any person whatsoever, whether in a representative capacity or not, or to the survivor or to the survivors when held in the joint names of a decedent and one or more persons, without retaining a sufficient portion or amount thereof to pay taxes or interest assessed under this Article on property transferred by the decedent; but the Secretary of Revenue may consent in writing to such delivery or transfer, and such consent shall relieve said safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person or persons from the obligation herein imposed.  Securities whose declaration date is after the decedent's death, or interest that accrues after the decedent's death on money on deposit at a bank, savings and loan association, credit union, or other corporation, however, may be transferred or delivered without retaining a portion of the property for the payment of taxes or interest and without obtaining the written consent of the Secretary to the delivery or transfer.  Provided:  The clerk of superior court of the resident county of a decedent may authorize in writing one or more banks, safe deposit companies, trust companies or any other institutions to transfer to the properly qualified representative of the estate any funds on deposit in the name of the decedent or the decedent and one or more persons when the aggregate amount of all such deposits in all such institutions is two thousand dollars ($2,000) or less, and when such deposit or deposits compose the total cash assets of the estate.  Such authorization shall have the same force and effect as when issued in writing by the Secretary of Revenue.
(b)	Every safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person, or persons engaged in the business of renting lock boxes for the safekeeping of valuable papers and personal effects, or having in their possession or supervision in such lock boxes such valuable papers or personal effects shall, upon the death of any person using or having access to such lock box, as a condition precedent to the opening of such lock box by the executor, administrator, personal representative lessee or cotenant of such deceased person, require the presence of the clerk of the superior court of the county in which such lock box is located.  It shall be the duty of the clerk of the superior court, or his representative, in the presence of an officer or representative of the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank, or other institution, person or persons, to make an inventory of the contents of such lock box and to furnish a copy of such inventory to the Secretary of Revenue, to the executor, administrator, personal representative, or cotenant of the decedent, and a copy to the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank, or other institution, person, or persons having possession of such lock box; provided, that for lock boxes to which decedent merely had access the inventory shall include only assets in which the decedent has or had an interest. Immediately after the clerk of superior court has made an inventory of the contents of the lock box, the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, or person shall, upon request, release to the lessee or cotenant of the lock box any life insurance policy stored in the lock box for delivery to the beneficiary named in the policy.  Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this section any life insurance company may pay the proceeds of any policy upon the life of a decedent to the person entitled thereto as soon as it shall have mailed to the Secretary of Revenue a notice, in such form as the Secretary of Revenue may prescribe, setting forth the fact of such payment; but if such notice be not mailed, all of the provisions of this section shall apply.
Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this section, in any case where a bank deposit has been heretofore made or is hereafter made, or where savings and loan stock has heretofore been issued or is hereafter issued, in the names of two or more persons and payable to either or the survivor or survivors of them, such bank or savings and loan association may, upon the death of either of such persons, allow the person or persons entitled thereto to withdraw as much as fifty percent (50%) of such deposit or stock, and the balance thereof shall be retained by the bank or savings and loan association to cover any taxes that may thereafter be assessed under this Article.  When it is ascertained that there is no liability of such deposit or stock for taxes under this Article, the Secretary of Revenue shall furnish the bank or savings and loan association his written consent for the payment of the retained percentage to the person or persons entitled thereto by law; and the Secretary of Revenue may furnish such written consent to the bank or savings and loan association upon the qualification of a personal representative of the deceased.  If the person entitled to funds in an account is the surviving spouse and the account is a joint account of the surviving spouse and the decedent with right of survivorship, no tax waiver is required from the Secretary of Revenue to release the funds in the account.
Failure to comply with the provisions of this section shall render such safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person or persons liable for the amount of the taxes and interest due under this Article on property transferred by the decendent.  In any action brought under this provision it shall be a sufficient defense that the delivery or transfer of securities, deposits, assets, or property was made in good faith without knowledge of the death of the decedent and without knowledge of circumstances sufficient to place the defendant on inquiry."
Sec. 3.  This act shall become effective October 1, 1990, and shall apply to the funds of all decedents dying on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 26th day of July, 1990.