Glossary

Administrator: A court-appointed personal representative who administers an estate when no executor is serving under a will.
Agent: A person authorized to act for another, commonly under a power of attorney; the document and governing law define the authority.
Annual Exclusion: A tax-year-specific federal gift-tax rule that can exclude qualifying present-interest gifts up to the current statutory amount per recipient; verify the current IRS figure and conditions.
Ascertainable Standard: An objectively framed distribution standard—often health, education, maintenance, and support—used in trust and tax analysis; the exact language and facts matter.

Beneficiary: A person, charity, estate, trust, or other permitted recipient entitled to receive or potentially receive property under an instrument, account, or law.
Bequest: A gift of property made by will; modern statutes and documents may use broader terms such as devise.

Codicil: A formally executed amendment to a will that must satisfy applicable execution rules and be read with the original will.
Community Property: A marital-property system that generally classifies qualifying property acquired during marriage as owned by the marital community, subject to state-specific tracing and exceptions.

Deceased Spousal Unused Exclusion (DSUE): The federal exclusion amount potentially made available to a surviving spouse through a valid portability election by the deceased spouse's estate.
Decedent: A person who has died; tax forms and probate statutes use the term to identify the person whose property and obligations are being administered.
Devise: A testamentary transfer under a will; depending on the statute or document, it may cover real or personal property.
Domicile: A person's permanent legal home based on physical presence and intent; it can affect probate, marital property, state tax, and jurisdiction and is not always the same as residence.

Estate: Depending on context, the property and obligations associated with a person, the probate estate under court administration, or a separate tax entity after death.
Estate Inclusion: Treatment of property or an interest as part of a decedent's gross estate for transfer-tax purposes; ownership title alone does not answer every inclusion rule.
Executor: A person nominated in a will and generally appointed by a court to administer the probate estate; many states use personal representative as the broader term.

Fiduciary: A person or institution required to act under duties of loyalty, care, impartiality, prudence, and recordkeeping as applicable to the role and governing law.

Gift Splitting: A federal gift-tax election that can treat qualifying gifts by one spouse as made one-half by each spouse when requirements and consents are satisfied.
Grantor: A person treated as transferring property to a trust; settlor and trustor are common state-law synonyms, while federal tax law can use grantor in a technical way.
Gross Estate: The federal transfer-tax measure that can include probate and nonprobate property, certain insurance, retained interests, and other items before deductions.
Guardian: A court-appointed person responsible for personal or health-related decisions for a minor or protected adult; some states use different labels or divide personal and property roles.

Health Care Proxy: A person or document authorizing health decisions for another when applicable conditions are met; terminology varies by state.
Heir: A person entitled under intestacy law to inherit probate property; an heir is not necessarily the same as a beneficiary named in a will or account.
Holographic Will: A will written and signed in the testator's handwriting under rules recognized in some, but not all, states; requirements and treatment vary.

Income in Respect of a Decedent: Certain taxable income the decedent was entitled to but had not received before death; it generally does not receive the ordinary section 1014 basis adjustment.
Intestacy: The state-law system distributing probate property not effectively disposed of by a valid will.
Issue / Descendants: A person's lineal descendants, such as children and later generations, interpreted under the document and governing law.

Legal Capacity: The ability to understand and decide a particular legal matter under the applicable standard; capacity can be task-specific and may fluctuate.
Letters Testamentary: A court-issued credential evidencing an executor's authority after appointment; terminology and electronic verification vary by jurisdiction.

Marital Deduction: A federal estate- or gift-tax deduction for qualifying transfers to a spouse, subject to citizenship, property-interest, and election requirements.

No-Contest Clause: A provision that may reduce or eliminate a beneficiary's gift after a covered challenge; enforceability, probable-cause exceptions, and scope vary by state.

Per Capita: A method of dividing property into equal shares among people at a specified generational level or class; document wording controls the exact method.
Per Stirpes: A representation-based distribution method in which a deceased beneficiary's branch may take that beneficiary's share; state definitions and drafting variants differ.
Personal Representative: The umbrella term in many jurisdictions for the fiduciary administering a decedent's probate estate, including an executor or administrator.
Portability: The federal process by which a surviving spouse may use a deceased spouse's DSUE after a valid estate-tax-return election; GST exemption is not portable.
Power of Appointment: Authority given to a power holder to designate who may receive specified property; general and limited powers can have different tax and creditor effects.
Probate: The judicial process for appointing estate authority, validating a will where required, handling claims, and transferring probate property.

Qualified Disclaimer: An irrevocable refusal to accept property that can have special federal transfer-tax treatment if statutory requirements, timing, and lack-of-acceptance rules are met; state property law also applies.

Residuary Estate: The probate property left after specific gifts, expenses, claims, taxes, and other charges are handled under the will and law.

Settlor: The person who creates or contributes property to a trust; grantor and trustor are common synonyms, with context-specific tax meanings.
Skip Person: A person or trust classified under federal GST rules as two or more generations below the transferor, or otherwise meeting the statutory definition.
Spendthrift Clause: Trust language restricting a beneficiary's transfer of an interest before distribution and limiting some creditor access, subject to state-law exceptions.

Tax Basis: A tax measure used to calculate gain, loss, depreciation, and other consequences; acquisition, gifts, death, improvements, and entity rules can change it.
Taxable Estate: The federal estate-tax base after permitted deductions from the gross estate, before application of the tax computation and credits.
Testamentary: Created by or taking effect under a will at death, as in a testamentary trust.
Trust Decanting: A state-law process that may allow a trustee to distribute assets from one trust into a new trust with modified terms, subject to statutory authority, fiduciary duties, beneficiary rights, and tax review.
Trust Director: A person holding a power of direction over a trustee under a directed-trust structure; fiduciary status and liability depend on governing law and the instrument.
Trust Principal and Income: Accounting categories allocating receipts and expenses between capital and current return; they are not identical to taxable principal and income.
Trust Protector: A person granted specified oversight or amendment powers outside ordinary trustee duties; the title has no single universal set of powers.
Trust Situs: The legal and administrative connection of a trust to a jurisdiction, potentially affected by governing law, trustee location, administration, assets, and court jurisdiction.
Trustee: The fiduciary holding and administering trust property under the instrument and governing law for beneficiaries or a permitted purpose.

Undue Influence: Improper pressure that overcomes a person's free intent in making a will, trust, gift, or designation; proof is fact- and state-specific.

Will: A revocable document during life that directs probate property and makes nominations or testamentary trusts effective at death, subject to state execution law.
Witness: A person who observes or acknowledges execution as required and may later attest to it; eligibility and presence rules vary by state and document.

Estate Planning Glossary

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Where these terms do their work