Here are some important terms you’ll want to know:
Agent: A person who acts on another person’s
Attorney In Fact: A person who is given written authorization to act on another behalf by a Power of Attorney Document.
Beneficiary: (1) The person for whose benefit a trust is created. (2) The person to assets of a financial account, insurance policy, or annuity is payable. The trustee and the beneficiary can be the same person.
Custodian of the Will: The person who has the Will when the person who wrote the Will dies.
Decedent (or deceased): The person who died.
Decedent’s estate: All the property (real or personal) that a person owned at the time of death.
Executor: An individual or a trust institution nominated in a will and appointed by court to settle the estate.
Fiduciary: An individual or a trust institution charged with the duty of acting in the interest of another party. Examples: trustees, executors and administrators.
Grantor: A person who creates a trust, such as a living trust, to become operative his lifetime; also called donor, settlor, and trustor.
Heir: A person who inherits when there is no Will.
Intestate: When someone dies without leaving a Will.
Intestate succession: The order of who inherits the property when someone dies without a Will.
Irrevocable Trust: A trust that cannot be revoked by the settlor.
Legatees or devisees: People who are named in a Will.
Personal property: Things like cash, stocks, jewelry, clothing, furniture, or cars.
Personal representative (or administrator or executor): The person responsible for overseeing the distribution of the estate.
Probate (Verb): To present a will to the court for appointment of the executor administrator.
Probate (Noun): Process of transferring title from a deceased person to their heirs law.
Power of Attorney: A document authorizing the person named to act as agent, behalf of another.
Real property: Buildings and land.
Revocable Trust: A trust that may be terminated by the settler.
Successor Trustee: A trustee following the original or a prior
Testate: When someone dies leaving a Will.
Trust: When one person (trustee) holds property at another person’s (settler’s) for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary).
Will: A legally enforceable declaration of a person’s wishes in writing regarding to be attended to after his or her death.