|
WILL: The legal expression or declaration of a person's mind or wishes as to the disposition of their property, to be performed or take effect after their death. A revocable instrument, executed with the formalities of law by which a person makes disposition of their property to take effect after their death.
CODICIL: A supplement or an addition to a will, it may explain, modify, add to, subtract from, qualify, alter, restrain or revoke provisions in a will. Usually does not supersede or totally revoke the will, but is part of the will, and may confirm, re-execute, revive, or republish the will. It must be executed with same solemnity as a will.
TRUST: A right of property, real or personal, held by one party for the benefit of another. An arrangement whereby property is transferred with intention that it be administered by trustee for another's benefit.
TESTATOR: A man who makes or has made a testament or will; one who dies leaving a will.
TESTATRIX: A woman who makes a will; a woman who dies leaving a will; a female testator.
TESTATE: Court proceeding where the decedent has made a will.
INTESTATE: Without making a will. A person is said to die intestate when they die without making a will, or die without leaving anything to testify what their wishes were with respect to the disposal of their property after their death. The word is also often used to signify the person himself. Thus, in speaking of the property of a person who died intestate, it is common to say "the intestate's property;"i.e., the property of the person dying in an intestate condition.
PROBATE: The act or process of proving a will. The proof before an ordinary, surrogate, register or other duly authorized person that a document produced before them for official recognition and registration, and alleged to be the last will and testament of a certain deceased person, is such in reality. A judicial act or determination of a court having competent jurisdiction establishing the validity of a will.
FIDUCIARY: The term is derived from the Roman law, and means (as a noun) a person holding the character of a trustee, or a character analogous to that of a trustee, in respect to the trust and confidence involved in it and the scrupulous good faith and candor which it requires. A person having duty, created by their undertaking, to act primarily for another's benefit in matters connected with such undertaking.
PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE: (Executor, Executrix): A person appointed by a testator or testatrix to carry out the directions and requests in their will, and to dispose of the property according to their testamentary provisions after their death. Person nominated as Personal Representative becomes "Personal Representative" only when a will is admitted to probate and when they agree to take on the responsibilities.
TRUSTEE: The person appointed, or required by law, to execute a trust: one in whom an estate, interest, or power is vested, under an express or implied agreement to administer or exercise it for the benefit or to the use of another. In a strict sense, a "trustee" is one who holds the legal title to property for the benefit of another, while, in a broad sense, the term is sometimes applied to anyone standing in a fiduciary or confidential relation to another.
GUARDIAN: A guardian is a person lawfully invested with the power, and charged with the duty, of taking care of the person and rights of another person, who, for some peculiarity of status, or defect of age, understanding, or self-control, is considered incapable of administering their own affairs. One who legally has the care and management of the person or of a child during its minority.
PER STIRPES: Latin. By roots or stocks; by representation. This term, derived from the civil law, denotes that method of dividing and intestate estate where a class or group of distributees takes the share which their deceased would have been entitled to, taking this by their right of representing such ancestor, and not as so many individuals.
ESTATE TAX: An excise tax upon privilege of transferring or transmitting property by reason of death and is not tax on property itself. An "estate" tax taxes, not the interest to which some person succeeds on a death, but the interest which ceases by reason of the death: while the "inheritance tax" is based on the interest to which the living person succeeds. It is an "estate tax" when the tax is required to be paid on the entire net estate before it is divided into its several parts to be distributed.
|