Heir's bond

Ask ko lang po about heir’s bond. I have no ideas about it and the process and such. We’re processing the transfer of shares po and the registry of deeds said that we have to apply an heir's bond in any insurance company. Is it really necessary to have one? Are there any other options? And the fact that the deceased died last 2014 pa po. Yun na lang kasi yung kulang na requirements.

"RULE 74

Summary Settlement of Estate

Section 1. Extrajudicial settlement by agreement between heirs. — If the decedent left no will and no debts and the heirs are all of age, or the minors are represented by their judicial or legal representatives duly authorized for the purpose, the parties may without securing letters of administration, divide the estate among themselves as they see fit by means of a public instrument filed in the office of the register of deeds, and should they disagree, they may do so in an ordinary action of partition. If there is only one heir, he may adjudicate to himself the entire estate by means of an affidavit filled in the office of the register of deeds. The parties to an extrajudicial settlement, whether by public instrument or by stipulation in a pending action for partition, or the sole heir who adjudicates the entire estate to himself by means of an affidavit shall file, simultaneously with and as a condition precedent to the filing of the public instrument, or stipulation in the action for partition, or of the affidavit in the office of the register of deeds, a bond with the said register of deeds, in an amount equivalent to the value of the personal property involved as certified to under oath by the parties concerned and conditioned upon the payment of any just claim that may be filed under section 4 of this rule. It shall be presumed that the decedent left no debts if no creditor files a petition for letters of administration within two (2) years after the death of the decedent.

The fact of the extrajudicial settlement or administration shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the manner provided in the nest succeeding section; but no extrajudicial settlement shall be binding upon any person who has not participated therein or had no notice thereof."

If the estate was settled way later than the death of the owner, it is but just that the period be reckoned from the time that the public was informed about such death.

This bond is to protect other heirs or creditors who have not been made aware of the death of the decedent and who have not been given their rightful share, or who were not able to collect debt from the estate.

Either that, or you could petition first for the removal of the encumbrances on the titles and properties of the deceased, since the two year period from his death already lapsed.