Glossary
Administrator
Person appointed or who petitions to administer an estate in an intestate succession.
Asset
Item(s) of ownership convertible into cash; total resources of a person or business, as cash, notes and
accounts receivable, securities, inventories, goodwill, fixtures, machinery, or real estate.
Beneficiary
A person designated as the recipient of funds or other property under a Will, trust, insurance policy
etc.
Bequest
Testamentary gift of personal property, traditionally other than money.
Civil Partnership
A legal union or contract, similar to a marriage, between two people of the same sex.
Codicil
(1) Amendment to a Will; (2) A Will that modifies or partially revokes an existing or earlier Will.
Cohabitation
To live together as if married, usually without legal or religious sanction.
Decedent
The deceased
Descent
Succession to real property
Devise
Testamentary gift of real property
Devisee
Beneficiary of real property under a Will.
Distribution
Succession to personal property.
Divorce
A judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or in part, especially one that releases
the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations.
Executor
A person named in a decedent's Will to carry out the provisions of that Will.
Funeral
The ceremonies for a dead person prior to burial or cremation.
Inherit
To take or receive (property, a right, a title, etc.) by succession or Will, as an heir.
Intestate
A person not having made a Will.
Joint Tenant
One of two or more persons who hold property in joint tenancy.
Legacy
Testamentary gift of personal property, traditionally of money.
Legal
Of or pertaining to law; connected with the law or its administration.
Legatee
Beneficiary of personal property under a Will, i.e., a person receiving a legacy.
Legitimate
In accordance with established rules, principles, or standards.
Marriage
A legally, religiously, or socially sanctioned union of persons who commit to one another, forming
a familial and economic bond.
Mortgage
A conveyance of an interest in property as security for the repayment of money borrowed.
Probate
The process of distributing an estate pending death covering asset collection, liability payments, and
estate distribution to the beneficiaries, and possibly including the obtaining of a grant of probate.
Real Estate
Property, especially in land.
Revoke
Retract, recall; nullify, countermand.
Sibling
A brother or sister.
Spouse
Either member of a married pair in relation to the other; one's husband or wife.
Tenants in Common
Those who own property or shares in property together and each can leave his or her portion to anyone
else if deceased.
Testate
Person who dies having created a Will before death