The words, in plain English.

Twenty-six terms, A to W · Print this glossary

Beneficiary

A person or organization named to receive something: a gift in a will, a share of a trust, or the money in an account with a beneficiary form on file. Beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts usually override whatever the will says.

Why it matters to you: If you find beneficiary forms among the papers, those assets may pass directly to the people named, without waiting for probate. That can make your job noticeably smaller.

Codicil

A signed, witnessed amendment to an existing will. Rather than rewrite a will, people sometimes add a codicil to change one piece of it.

Why it matters to you: When you find the will, keep looking. The newest valid codicil changes what the will means, and the court will want every piece.

Creditor claim

A formal request for payment from someone the person owed: a hospital, a credit card company, a landlord. Once an estate is opened and notice is given, each state allows creditors a set window, often a few months, to file their claims.

Why it matters to you: Estate debts are paid from the estate, in an order state law sets. This is why most bills can wait, and why you shouldn't pay them from your own pocket in the meantime.

Decedent

The legal word for the person who died. Court forms and institution letters use it constantly.

Why it matters to you: No practical effect, but the paperwork reads a little less coldly once you know the word simply means your person.

EIN (estate tax ID)

A federal tax identification number for the estate itself, issued by the IRS, free, usually within minutes on its website. The estate needs its own number because most financial life can't continue under the Social Security number of someone who has died.

Why it matters to you: A bank will ask for the EIN before opening an estate account, and an estate account is how you keep the estate's money cleanly separate from your own.

Estate

Everything the person owned and owed at the moment of death: property, accounts, belongings, and debts, gathered into one legal bundle to be resolved.

Why it matters to you: The estate is its own thing, separate from you. Its bills are not your bills and its money is not your money, even while you manage both.

Executor

The person a will names to carry out its instructions: gather what the estate owns, pay what it owes, and pass on what remains. The court confirms the appointment before it takes legal effect. Many states now say personal representative instead.

Why it matters to you: If this is you, you act for the estate rather than for yourself, and good records are most of the job. In most states you're also entitled to be paid for the work, if you choose to be.

Fiduciary

Someone the law requires to act in other people's best interest, with care and honesty, ahead of their own. Executors, administrators, and trustees are all fiduciaries.

Why it matters to you: It sounds heavy, and it is the reason for the receipts and the careful ledger. Kept well, those same records are what protect you if anyone ever questions a decision.

Final accounting

The estate's closing report: everything that came in, everything that was paid out, and how what remains will be distributed. Courts commonly require one before an estate closes, and heirs are often asked to approve it.

Why it matters to you: If you track the money as you go, the final accounting nearly assembles itself. If you don't, it becomes archaeology. Start the ledger early.

Heir

Strictly, a person state law entitles to inherit when there is no will. In everyday use, anyone who inherits. Courts use the strict meaning.

Why it matters to you: Heirs usually must be formally notified when an estate opens, even ones the will leaves nothing to. The court's forms will ask you to list them.

Intestate

Dying without a valid will. Each state has an intestacy law that decides who inherits, in a fixed order that usually starts with the spouse and children.

Why it matters to you: No will doesn't mean no plan. It means the state supplies the plan, and the court appoints an administrator, often the closest relative willing to serve.

Inventory

The formal list of what the estate owns, with values as of the date of death. Many probate courts require one within the first few months.

Why it matters to you: Bank statements, a slow walk through the home, and a folder of photographs get you most of the way. Start gathering before the court asks.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship

A way two or more people own property together where, when one dies, the survivors automatically own the whole thing. Common for married couples' homes and joint bank accounts.

Why it matters to you: Property held this way usually passes outside the will and outside probate. The survivor typically needs only a death certificate and a form to update the title.

Letters of administration

The court paper appointing an administrator when there is no will, or no named executor able to serve. It is the document institutions mean when they ask to see your letters.

Why it matters to you: Until you hold letters, banks and agencies generally won't act on the estate's accounts. Getting them is the door the rest of the work walks through.

Letters testamentary

The court paper confirming the executor named in a will. The same door as letters of administration; the difference is only whether a will named you.

Why it matters to you: Order several certified copies when the court issues them. Institutions often want to see a fresh one.

Next of kin

The closest living relative or relatives, in an order each state defines: usually the spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings.

Why it matters to you: Next of kin typically decide funeral arrangements, and they are first in line to serve as administrator when there is no will.

Non-probate assets

Everything that passes automatically at death rather than through the will: jointly owned property, accounts with beneficiary forms, life insurance, retirement accounts, and anything held in a trust.

Why it matters to you: In many families this is most of what there is. Each item transfers by paperwork with the institution that holds it, which is often faster than any court process.

Payable on death (POD) and transfer on death (TOD)

Beneficiary instructions attached to a bank or investment account, and in some states to vehicles and real estate. At death, the named person claims the asset directly with a death certificate and the institution's form.

Why it matters to you: If you find POD or TOD designations, those assets skip probate entirely. It is worth asking every bank whether one is on file.

Personal representative

The umbrella term many states use for whoever settles an estate: an executor if a will named them, an administrator if the court appointed them without one.

Why it matters to you: Forms in these states can puzzle people looking for the word executor. Same job, newer label.

Probate

The court process that proves a will is valid (if there is one), officially appoints someone to act, and oversees paying debts and distributing property. Whether an estate needs it depends on what the person owned and how it was titled, and every state has shortcuts for smaller or simpler estates.

Why it matters to you: Whether probate is needed is the biggest early question, and its answer shapes everything after. It is decided by the facts of the estate, not by anyone's preference.

Probate bond

An insurance policy the court can require the estate's representative to buy, protecting heirs and creditors against mismanagement. Wills often waive it.

Why it matters to you: Look for the phrase serve without bond in the will. If it's there, the estate likely saves a recurring cost; if the court requires one anyway, it will say so.

Probate court

The court that handles estates. The name varies by state: probate court, surrogate's court, orphans' court, or a probate division of the county court.

Why it matters to you: It is a county office with real people in it. The clerks cannot give legal advice, but they can tell you which forms their court wants and how to file them.

Small-estate affidavit

A sworn statement that lets estates under a state-set dollar limit skip probate, partly or entirely. Limits and rules differ widely: a few thousand dollars in some states, well over a hundred thousand in others.

Why it matters to you: This one form can spare a family the entire court process. Finding your state's threshold is one of the most valuable early checks there is.

Testate

Dying with a valid will. The paired term to intestate.

Why it matters to you: The word tells you which path the estate follows: the will's instructions, carried out by the executor it names.

Trust

An arrangement where one person, the trustee, holds and manages assets for others, the beneficiaries, under written terms. A revocable living trust is the common kind created to hold a family's assets and pass them on without probate.

Why it matters to you: Assets titled to a trust usually bypass the will and the court. If you find a trust document, the successor trustee it names follows the trust's terms, and that is a good moment to bring in a professional.

Will

The signed, witnessed document that says who receives what and who should be in charge. The original, ink-signature document matters; many courts will not accept a photocopy without extra steps.

Why it matters to you: Finding the original early is one of the first-week tasks that genuinely helps. Look in the desk, the safe, the safe-deposit box, and with any attorney they ever used.