Michigan AG's Office Relieves Four Southeast Michigan Public Administrators of Their Appointments

Contact: Kelly Rossman-McKinney 517-335-7666
Agency: Attorney General

LANSING – Taking a fresh look at how to better serve and protect Michigan seniors and reevaluating the needs in the various counties around the state, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office Wednesday relieved four Southeast Michigan-based county public administrators of their appointments.

Nessel's office relieved the following public administrators of their responsibilities:

• Robert Kirk, who served 30 years with the Macomb County Probate Court;
• John Yun, who served 18 years with Oakland County Probate Court;
• Thomas Fraser, who served 14 years with Oakland County Probate Court; and
• Jennifer Carney, who served four years with Oakland County Probate Court.

There are 104 public administrators across the state who are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the State Public Administrator. They are tasked with one primary role: representing deceased estates where there is no family, or where no estate had been opened. These cases are a very small subset of the hundreds of probate cases that take place daily around Michigan’s 83 counties.

In order to efficiently practice in all 83 counties, the State Public Administrator Act authorizes the appointment of private attorneys in each county to serve on behalf of the State Public Administrator to handle cases for the state on an as needed basis. While these public administrators may have additional responsibilities outside of their appointment, their limited responsibility as a public administrator is deceased estates.

“Now that we’ve concluded our elder abuse listening tour, our office is taking a fresh look at how we provide critical services and resources to Michigan residents based on the feedback we received,” Nessel said. “After reevaluating our needs, we decided to relieve these public administrators of their appointments.”

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Michigan AG's Office Relieves Four Southeast Michigan Public Administrators of Their Appointments