Testament

 Another Name for a will.

Estate Plan

An arrangement of a person's estate using the law of various disciplines, e.g., wills, trusts, taxes, insurance, and property, to gain maximum financial benefit of all the laws for the disposition of a person's assets during life and after death.

Disposition

The distribution, transfer, or conveyance

of property.

Will

The legally enforceable written declaration of a person's intended distribution of property

after death.

Statutes

Laws passed by state and federal

legislatures.

Legal Capacity

Age at which a person aquires capacity to make a valid will, usually 18.

Testamentary Capacity

The sanity (sound mind) requirement for a person to make a valid will.

Testator/Testatrix

A man or woman who makes and/or dies with a valid will.

Sound Mind

To have the mental ability to make a valid will. The normal condition of the human mind, not impaired by insanity or other mental disorders.

Execution of a valid will

The acts of the testator who writes and signs the will and the two or more witnesses who attest and sign it to establish the will's validity.

Holographic Will

A completely handwritten, signed, and usually dated will that often requires no witnesses.

Beneficiary (of a will)

A person who is entitled to receive property under a will or to whom the decendent's property is given or distributed.

Formal Probate

A court-supervised administration of a decendent's estate.

Informal Probate

A court proceeding of a decendent's estate with limited or no court supervision.

Uniform Probate Code (UPC)

A uniform law available for adoption by the states to modernize and improve the efficiency of the administration of a decendent's estate.

Probate Court

The court that has jurisdiction (authority) over the probate of wills and the administration of the decendent's estate.

Domicile

The location (state) of a person's true and legal home.

Real Property

Land, buildings, and things permanently attached to them.

Ethical Issue

The Purpose of Wills

Ethical Issue

The Estate Plan

Ambulatory

Subject to change and revocation anytime before death, e.g., a will is ambulatory

Codicil

A written amendment to the will that changes but does not invalidate it.

Letter of Instructions

Surviving Spouse

The traditional meaning/usage of wife or husbank based on legal marriage and expanded in some states to include same-sex conjugal couples.

Ethical Issue

Funeral and Burial Plans and

the Letter of Instructions

It will be your job to keep accurate records of the costs and remind the personal representative that these expenses remain "reasonable."

Apportionment Clause

A clause in a will that allocates the tax burden among the residuary estate and the beneficiary of the will.

Residuary Estate

The remaining assests (residue) of the decendent's estate after all debts have been paid and all other gifts in the will are distributed.

Ethical Issue

Apportionment for Death Taxes

If the property is the primary or sole source of payment of creditors' claims and death taxes, these family members may be unintentionally placed in a hardship situation by this major oversight.

Legatee

A person who receives a gift of personal property under a will.

Pro Rata

According to a certain rate or percentage.

Tenancy in Common

The ownership of an undived interest of real or personal property by two or more persons without the right of survivorship, which allows each owner's interest to be passed to his or her beneficiaries or heirs upon death.

Tenant in Common

One of two or more persons who own property in a tenancy in common.

Intestate Succession Statutes

Laws passed in each state establishing the manner in which a decendent's property will be distributed when death occurs without a valid will.

Guardian

The person or institution named by the maker of a will or appointed by the court when there is no will to care for the person and/or property of a minor or a handicapped or incompetent person.

Spouse's Statutory, Forced or Elective Share

The spouse's statutory right to choose a share of the decendent spouse's estate instead of inheriting under the provisions of the decendent's will.

Ward

A minor in incompetent person placed under the care and supervision of a guardian by the probate court.

Incompetent Person

A person under legal disability, e.g., a mentally incapacitated person.

Personal Guardian

An individual or trust institution appointed by a court to take custody of and care for a minor or an incompetent person.

Property Guardian

An individual or trust institution appointed by a court to care for and manage the property of a minor or an incompeternt person.

Fiduciary

Heir

Traditionally, a person, including a spouse, who is entitled by statute to the real property of an interstate. Today, a person entitled to any gift (real or personal property) of the interstate or in the decendent's will.

Fiduciary Duty

A duty or responsibility required of a fiduciary to act solely for another's benefit that arises out of a position of loyalty and trust.

Adoptive Parent

A person who legally adopts another individual, usually a child.

Conservator

A fiduciaryl an individual or trust institution appointed by a court to care for and manager property of an incompetent person.

Testamentary Trust

A trust created in a will. It becomes operational only after death.

Inter Vivos or Living Trust

A trust created by a maker (settlor) during the maker's lifetime. It becomes operational immediately after the trust is created.

Trust

A right of property, real or personal, held by one person (trustee) for the benefit of another (beneficiary).

Settlor

A person who creates a trust; also called a donor, grantor, creator, or trustor.

Legal Title (of a trust)

The form of ownership of trust property held by the trustee giving the trustee the right to control and manage the property for another's benefit, i.e., the holder of the equitable title.

Trustee

The person or institution named by the maker of a will or a settlor of a trust to administer property for the benefit of another (the beneficiary) according to provisions in a testamentary trust or an inter vivos trust.

Beneficiary (of a trust)

The person or institution who holds equitable title and to whom the trustee distributes the income earned from the trust property and, depending on the terms of the trust, even the trust property itself.

Equitable Title (of a trust)

A right of the party who holds the equitable title or beneficial interest to the benefits of the trust.

Bypass Trust

Principal

In trust law, the capital or property of a trust, as opposed to the income, which is the product of the capital.

Federal Estate Tax

A tax imposed on the transfer of property at death.

Income

Interest, dividends, or other return from invested capital.

Public (charitable) Trust

A trust established for the social benefit either of the public at large or the community.

Personal Representative

Executor/Executrix

A man or woman named in the will by the maker to be the personal representative of the decendent's estate and to carry out the provisions of the will.

Administrator/Administratrix

The man or woman appointed by the probate court to administer the decedent's estate when there is no will.

Ethical Issue

Selection of Personal Representative

Personal representatives have the right to select an attorney of their own choice to represent the estate. It is a violation of the Code of Ethics for the attorney or paralegal to suggest that they be named in the will for such purpose.

Transfer-on-Death Deed or

Beneficiary Deed

A type of deed, properly executed and recorded, that allows the transfer of real property to a designated beneficiary without probate. The transfer does not take effect until the death of the owner.

Joint Tenancy

Ownership of real or personal property by two or more persons with the right of survivorship.

Domiciliary Administration

The administration of an estate in the state where the decendent was domiciled at the time of death.