The management and settlement of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator who has no executor, performed under the supervision of a court, by a person duly qualified and legally appointed, and usually involving (1) the collection of the decedent’s assets; (2) payment of debts and claims against him and expenses ; (3) distributing the remainder of the estate among those entitled thereto. The term is applied broadly to denote the management of an estate by an executor, and also the management of estates of minors, lunatics, etc., in those cases where trustees have been appointed by authority of law to take charge of such estates in place of the legal owners. Bouvier; Crow v. Ilubard, 02 Md. 505. Administration is principally of the following kinds, viz.: Ad colligendum bona dcfuncti. To collect the goods of the deceased. Special letters of administration granted to one or more persons, authorizing them to collcct and preserve the goods of the deceased, are so called. 2 Bl. Comm. 505; 2 Steph. Comm. 241. These are otherwise termed “letters ad colligendum,” and the party to whom they are granted, a “collector.” An administrator ad colligendum is the mere agent or officer of the court to collect and preserve the goods of the deceased until some one is clothed with authority to administer them, and cannot complain that another is appointed administrator in chief. Flora v. Menace, 12 Ala. 830. Ancillary administration is auxiliary and subordinate to the administration at the place of the decedent’s domicile; it may be taken out in any foreign state or country where assets are locally situated, and is merely for the purpose of collecting such assets and paying debts there.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
