1. Eligibility

1. Eligibility

Order of priority

R. 19 of Non-Contentious Probate Rules (Cap. 10A) provides for the order of priority as follows:

(i) the executor;

(ii) any residuary legatee or devisee holding in trust for any other person;

(iii) any residuary legatee or devisee for life;

(iv) the ultimate residuary legatee or devisee

or,

where the residue is not wholly disposed of by the will, any person entitled to share in the residue

or,

the personal representative of any such person subject to r.25(3) of Non-Contentious Probate Rules (Cap. 10A) (A living person is preferred to a personal representative);

(v) any specific legatee or devisee

or

any creditor

or,

the personal representative of any such person subject to r.25(3) of Non-Contentious Probate Rules (Cap. 10A)

or,

where the estate is not wholly disposed of by the will, any person who does not have an immediate beneficial interest in the estate, but may have a beneficial interest in the event of an accretion of the estate;(vi) any legatee or devisee, whether residuary or specific, entitled on the happening of any contingency,

or

any person having no interest under the will of the deceased but who would have been entitled to a grant if the deceased had died wholly intestate.

Number

S.25 of the Probate and Administration Ordinance (Cap. 10) governs the number of grantees to be allowed. Probate shall not be granted to more than four persons.

Capacity

A person will not be appointed as an executor if he: 

1. is under 21 years old;
2. suffers from mental/ severe physical disability to the extent that renders him incapable of managing his own affairs (see r. 33 of Non-Contentious Probate Rules (Cap. 10A)); or
3. in prison.

The Court generally views that an insolvent person is unsuitable to be appointed an executor.