Administrator(trix) - is the person(s) selected and appointed by a Probate Court to administer the estate of a person who dies without leaving a Will, also called a Personal Representative or PR.
Ancillary Administration - is a secondary probate administration to dispose of the decedent’s property, often real estate, located in a state other than the decedent’s domicile.
Asset Protection Planning - is changing how one owns and enjoys his/her assets and property so the bite taken by state and federal taxing authorities and/or creditors, including nursing homes, is reduced or eliminated.
Beneficiary - is the person or institution to whom the maker of a Will or trust gives property.
Decedent - is the deceased person.
Domicile - is that place where a person has a permanent home and to which the person intends to return when absent.
Durable Power of Attorney - authorizes another to handle a person’s financial affairs, even if disabled.
Estate - is the whole of the property, real and personal, owned by any person, or all the assets owned by a decedent at the time of death.
Executor(trix) - is the person(s) designated in a Will to carry out its provisions and settle the decedent’s estate, also called a Personal Representative or PR.
Fee Simple - is a freehold estate that is absolute and unqualified; the largest estate and the most extensive interest that can be enjoyed in real property.
Fiduciary - is a person who owes a duty of trust and loyalty and the obligation to act in good faith for the benefit of another. Fiduciaries include a Trustee, Personal Representative, Attorney-in-Fact, Guardian and Conservator.
Health Care Power of Attorney - grants an agent power to make health care decisions when the principal chooses not to or is no longer capable of doing so.
Intestate - not having made a valid Will or a person who has not made a valid Will.
Joint Tenancy (WROS) - refers to the ownership of real or personal property by two or more persons or tenants with undivided possession. Each tenant is entitled to share in profits or losses. Each enjoys the right of survivorship so a deceased tenant’s interest is transferred to the surviving tenant(s) by operation of law.
Life Estate - The owner has the right to use or occupy and/or receive income from real or personal property during his or her own or someone else’s lifetime.
Living (inter-vivos) Trust - is an enforceable legal document that allows its maker to manage his/her own assets and/or appoint another to do so. A living trust is operative during one’s lifetime when healthy or disabled as well as after death when it directs who, when and how assets are distributed. Living trusts can avoid probate. There are two types of living trusts: Revocable, that can be amended and Irrevocable that cannot.
Living Will - Early name for Health Care DirectiveTM which preserves your health care preferences.
Personal Representative (PR) - is the person named in a Will and/or appointed by the Probate Court or Registrar to handle the administration of an estate. PRs include executors and administrators.
Probate - is the court-based procedure or system provided by law for transferring a decedent’s property to successors. Estates in excess of $20,000 of persons both with and without Wills, must be settled in probate court.
Tenancy-In-Common - is the ownership of real or personal property by two or more persons, or tenants with undivided possession. Each tenant is entitled to share in profits or losses. There is no right of survivorship so a deceased tenant’s interest goes into his/her own estate.
Testamentary Trust - is a trust created within a will that becomes operative only after it is presented to the probate court following the maker’s death.
Testate - having made a valid Will or a person who has made a valid Will.
Trustee - is the person or institution named by the trustmaker to administer trust property for the beneficiaries according to provisions in the trust instrument.
Will - is a legally enforceable written declaration stating how the maker wishes his/her property be distributed after death. It becomes operative only after it is presented to the probate court following the maker’s death. A Will does not avoid probate.
