[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 22, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 22CFR72.43]

[Page 360-361]
 
                       TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS
 
                     CHAPTER I--DEPARTMENT OF STATE
 
PART 72--DEATHS AND ESTATES--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 72.43  Conditions under which estate can be released by consular officer.

    The consular officer is responsible to the United States court 
having probate jurisdiction over the estate and to the parties in 
interest for the personal estate in his possession. He must be prepared 
to deliver the estate to, or otherwise dispose of it according to the 
wishes of, the legal representative of the decedent upon the 
presentation of satisfactory evidence of the latter's right to receive 
the estate, and upon the payment of the prescribed Foreign Service fees 
(Sec. 72.52). Determination of what constitutes satisfactory evidence of 
a claimant's right to the personal estate of a deceased citizen is also 
the responsibility of the consular officer. The

[[Page 361]]

consular officer, therefore, must satisfy himself that the evidence 
which he accepts is sufficient to relieve him as provisional 
conservator. Friends, traveling companions, employers, and business 
associates are not competent to relieve the consular officer of the 
duties and responsibilities enumerated in the regulations in this part, 
unless duly authorized as legal representatives of the estate (see 
Sec. 72.18). Satisfactory evidence of a claimant's right to the personal 
estate of a decedent may be supplied in the manner indicated in 
Sec. 72.44.