{"id":3963,"date":"2019-06-19T15:19:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T19:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=3963"},"modified":"2025-01-02T14:19:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T19:19:59","slug":"funeral-and-disposition-representative-in-re-estate-of-travers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/funeral-and-disposition-representative-in-re-estate-of-travers.html","title":{"rendered":"Funeral and Disposition Representative \u2013 In Re: Estate of Travers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A recent decision from the Morris County Chancery Division, Probate Part, serves as an important reminder to not only think about the final disposition of your remains, but to communicate those thoughts to the significant people in your life. In an unpublished opinion, <em>In the Matter of the Estate of John E. Travers, Jr<\/em>. (New Jersey Superior Court, Morris County, Docket No. P-2253-2017, 2\/19\/2019) (hereinafter <em>\u201cTravers\u201d<\/em>), the Court addressed the question of who may control the disposition of a decedent\u2019s remains when the decedent has not expressed his intentions in this regard. The <em>Travers<\/em> case contained no significant legal principles, nor did it break new ground in the estate planning field. It did, however, highlight the importance of specifying the person who should be in charge of your final arrangements and the disposition of your remains.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In this case, Mr. Travers was 22, single and had no children. He had no will and had made no direction regarding his funeral or the disposition of his remains. He was survived by his mother and father, his closest blood relations. His parents were divorced. His father felt strongly that Mr. Travers should be buried, and his mother thought he should be cremated. This disagreement took them to the Superior Court of New Jersey, where the Chancery Judge was called upon to decide the question.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Court began its inquiry with an examination of the New Jersey law that allows for the appointment of a funeral and disposition representative. New Jersey Statute 45:27-22 provides that a decedent may specify who is to be entrusted with funeral arrangements and the disposition of bodily remains. <em>See<\/em> N.J.S. 45:27-22.a. This direction must be in a will. <em>Id.<\/em> If the decedent has not left a will that includes such an appointment, the statute sets forth the order of priority of the persons entitled to control the funeral and the disposition of remains as follows: (1) the surviving spouse or civil union or domestic partner; (2) a majority of the surviving adult children; (3) the surviving parent or parents; (4) a majority of the brothers and sisters; (5) other next of kin according to the degree of relationship with the decedent; and (6) if no next of kin, any other person acting on a decedent\u2019s behalf. <em>Id.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/funeral-and-disposition-representative-in-re-estate-of-travers.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading Funeral and Disposition Representative \u2013 In Re: Estate of Travers\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent decision from the Morris County Chancery Division, Probate Part, serves as an important reminder to not only think about the final disposition of your remains, but to communicate those thoughts to the significant people in your life. In an unpublished opinion, In the Matter of the Estate of John E. Travers, Jr. (New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,343],"tags":[],"coauthors":[139],"class_list":["post-3963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-wills-trusts-estates-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Funeral and Disposition Representative \u2013 In Re: Estate of Travers &#8212; June 19, 2019 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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