Candidate for Ocean County Surrogate

Kieran graduated from the University of Notre Dame and then attended Pepperdine University School of Law where he earned his law degree, graduating in 1979.  He currently resides in Island Heights, is married and has two children and three grandchildren.

Kieran has always been an active community member.  He was a member of the Northern Burlington County Regional Board of Education, a member of the North Hanover Twp. Planning Board, a member of the Island Heights Borough Council, an elected member of the Ocean County Democratic Committee from Island Heights, a Trustee of the John F. Peto Studio and Museum, Island Heights, and a member of the Notre Dame Club of the Jersey Shore since 2003.

Kieran is a candidate for County Surrogate, a Constitutional Officer, who provides for the administration of estates, the review and filing of adoptions, declaration of death actions and the appointment of guardians.  He also serves as clerk in the probate part of the Superior Court as well as judge of the Surrogate’s Court.

Among the duties included in the above functions are:  Probating wills, appointing estate administrators, supervising the appointment of guardians and administering adoptions.

The Surrogate’s position involves many technical legal matters affecting a wide variety of at-risk people, including children and seniors, who are prone to both physical and financial abuse.   An incident in 2018 led Kieran to run for Surrogate “I think an important issue facing the Surrogate’s Court is more effective oversight of persons serving as guardians or trustees of money owned by the incapacitated, especially the elderly. This became an issue in 2018 when an attorney pled guilty to stealing almost $3 million from over a dozen people including many seniors.  As an experienced attorney, and the only attorney running, I’m better equipped to develop new procedures to prevent such distasters.”