Estate-planning glossary

Glossary

Estate planning, term by term.

59 definitions in plain English. Skip the legal Latin — these are the words you'll actually meet when you read a will, sign a directive, or work through probate.

Documents

Advance Healthcare Directive: Living will plus a healthcare power of attorney in one document.; Combines your treatment preferences (the living will part) with naming a healthcare agent who can decide for you if you can't (the power-of-attorney part). Most states have a statutory short-form version.
Codicil: A signed amendment to an existing will.; Used to make small changes — replace an executor, add a bequest, fix a name — without rewriting the whole will. It must be signed and witnessed with the same formalities as the original will. For larger changes, most attorneys prefer a fresh will rather than stacking codicils.
Durable Power of Attorney: A POA that stays valid if you become incapacitated.; Without 'durable' language, a power of attorney ends the moment you can't make your own decisions — exactly when you need it most. The durable version stays in force through incapacity.
HIPAA Authorization: Permission for named people to access your medical records.; Without one, hospitals can't share your status — even with a spouse or named healthcare agent. Often combined with a healthcare directive but legally distinct.
Holographic Will: A handwritten will, sometimes valid, often risky.; A will written entirely in the testator's own hand and signed by them. Some states (CA, TX, others) recognize them; some (NY) don't. They almost always invite probate fights — typed, witnessed wills are far safer.
Last Will & Testament: The document that says who gets your stuff and who runs the show after you die.; A legal document that names beneficiaries, an executor, and (if you have minor children) a guardian. To be valid in most U.S. states it must be signed in front of two adult witnesses who don't inherit anything under the will.
Living Will: Your medical preferences if you can't speak for yourself.; A document stating which life-sustaining treatments you do or don't want — resuscitation, ventilation, feeding tubes — in terminal or permanently unconscious states. Different from a 'last will,' which deals with property after death.
Pour-Over Will: A short will that funnels leftover assets into your trust.; Used alongside a revocable living trust. Anything you forgot to title in the trust's name 'pours over' into the trust at death. It's a safety net, not the main act.
Power of Attorney: Authority for someone to act on your behalf.; A document granting an agent authority to handle financial or legal matters for you. Can be limited (one transaction), general (broad), durable (survives incapacity), or springing (kicks in only at incapacity).
Springing Power of Attorney: A POA that activates only when you're incapacitated.; Designed for people uncomfortable handing over authority while they're still competent. The drawback: defining the 'springing' trigger (usually two doctors' letters) adds friction at the worst moment.

Roles

Administrator: Court-appointed equivalent of an executor when there's no will.; If you die without a valid will, the probate court appoints an administrator (usually a close relative who applies). They do the same work an executor would, but the will doesn't direct them — state law does.
Beneficiary: Someone who receives something under a will, trust, or beneficiary designation.; Beneficiaries can be named outright (gets the asset), contingent (gets it if the primary doesn't), or remainder (gets what's left after some other interest ends).
Conservator: Court-appointed manager of an incapacitated adult's affairs.; Different from a guardian for minor children. Used when an adult can no longer manage their own finances — typically dementia or severe disability. A well-drafted durable power of attorney usually avoids the need for one.
Executor: The person who carries out the will.; Named in the will, formally appointed by the probate court. Pays debts and taxes, collects assets, distributes what's left. Owes fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries — meaning they must act in the beneficiaries' interest, not their own.
Fiduciary: Anyone legally required to put another's interests above their own.; Executors, trustees, and agents under a power of attorney are all fiduciaries. They can be sued personally if they breach their duties of loyalty, prudence, or impartiality.
Guardian: The person who raises minor children if both parents die.; Nominated in your will. The court technically still confirms but rarely overrides a clear nomination. Distinct from a 'guardian of the estate' or 'conservator,' who manages the children's money rather than raising them.
Healthcare Agent: The person you authorize to make medical decisions for you.; Also called a healthcare proxy or healthcare power of attorney. Named in your advance directive. Decides only when you can't — they don't have authority while you're competent.
Testator: The person whose will it is.; The legal term for the person making a will. 'Testatrix' was once used for women but the modern usage is 'testator' for everyone.
Trustee: The person or institution managing a trust.; Legal owner of the trust assets, but holds them for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Owes fiduciary duties of loyalty and prudence. Can be an individual (often a family member) or a corporate trustee (a bank's trust department).

Probate

Ancillary Probate: A second probate in another state.; Required when the deceased owned real estate in a state different from where they lived. Often a reason to use a trust — trust-owned property avoids ancillary probate.
Escheat: When property passes to the state because no heirs can be found.; Last-resort outcome under intestacy. Extremely rare in practice — courts work hard to find heirs, even distant cousins.
Heir at Law: A person legally entitled to inherit from someone who dies without a will.; The intestacy statute defines the order: typically surviving spouse, descendants, parents, siblings, more distant relatives. An 'heir' is not the same as a 'beneficiary' — beneficiaries take under a will or trust; heirs take under statute.
Intestate: Dying without a valid will.; When someone dies intestate, the state's intestacy statute decides who inherits — usually spouse and children in fixed shares, then parents, then siblings. The state's defaults rarely match what most people would actually choose.
Letters Testamentary: The court paper proving you're the executor.; Issued after the probate court admits the will. Banks, brokerages, and the DMV require letters testamentary before they'll let the executor act on the deceased's accounts and titles.
Probate: The court-supervised process of settling an estate.; Validates the will, appoints the executor, gives creditors a chance to file claims, and authorizes the distribution. Typical duration: 6-18 months. Cost: 3-7% of the estate, varying by state. Can often be avoided with a fully-funded living trust.
Self-Proving Affidavit: A notarized statement that makes the will easier to probate.; Witnesses sign under oath that they saw the testator sign. Without it, the witnesses might have to be tracked down years later to testify. Recognized in most states including CA, NY, TX.
Small Estate Affidavit: A simplified probate alternative for modest estates.; Most states allow estates below a threshold (often $50k-$200k) to skip formal probate. The heir signs an affidavit, presents it to the bank or DMV, and collects the asset. Threshold varies dramatically by state.

Trusts

Charitable Remainder Trust: A trust that pays you for life and gives the remainder to charity.; Common with appreciated stock: donate it to the trust, the trust pays you a percentage for life, what's left at death goes to charity. Yields an immediate income-tax deduction and avoids capital gains on the contributed asset.
Funded vs Unfunded Trust: Whether you actually transferred assets into the trust you created.; An unfunded trust is just paper — assets still pass through probate. Funding means re-titling accounts and deeds in the trust's name. The most common reason a 'living trust' fails to avoid probate.
ILIT: Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust — keeps insurance proceeds out of your estate.; You transfer ownership of a policy to the trust. At death, the proceeds aren't part of your taxable estate. Useful for estates expected to exceed federal or state estate-tax thresholds.
Irrevocable Trust: A trust you can't change after creating it.; Generally not modifiable once funded. Used for estate-tax planning, asset protection, Medicaid planning, and gifts that need to be permanent. Loss of control is the price for the benefit.
QTIP Trust: A trust that pays the surviving spouse for life, then goes to your kids.; Stands for 'Qualified Terminable Interest Property.' Common in blended families: ensures your current spouse is supported, but locks in your children (often from a prior marriage) as the ultimate beneficiaries.
Revocable Living Trust: A trust you can change or cancel during your life.; Created while you're alive, holds assets you transfer in. Avoids probate on those assets at death. Doesn't save income or estate tax — for that, use an irrevocable trust. Common name: 'living trust.'
Special Needs Trust: A trust that supports a disabled beneficiary without disqualifying them from public benefits.; Distributions can pay for things SSI and Medicaid don't cover (entertainment, travel, education) without counting as income. Two main types: first-party (funded with the beneficiary's own money) and third-party (funded by family members).
Spendthrift Clause: Trust language that protects assets from a beneficiary's creditors.; Bars the beneficiary from selling or pledging future distributions and bars creditors from reaching trust assets until the trustee actually pays out. Standard in most modern trusts.
Testamentary Trust: A trust created by your will, not until you die.; Common when leaving money to minors — the will tells the executor to set up a trust at death rather than handing cash to a 12-year-old. Requires probate (the will is the trust document).
Trust: An arrangement where one person holds property for the benefit of another.; Three roles: settlor (creates the trust), trustee (manages it), and beneficiary (receives from it). The same person can hold all three roles in a revocable living trust.

Tax

Annual Gift Exclusion: Amount you can give anyone each year without filing a gift-tax return.; $18,000 per recipient in 2026 ($36,000 for a married couple gift-splitting). Unlimited recipients. Unused amounts don't carry over.
Federal Estate Tax: A tax on estates above the federal exemption (very few owe it).; As of 2026, individual exemption is $13.99M ($27.98M for couples). Above that, the estate pays up to 40%. The exemption is set to drop to ~$7M in 2026 unless Congress acts.
Generation-Skipping Tax: An additional tax on transfers that skip a generation.; Designed to prevent estate tax avoidance by leaving assets to grandchildren instead of children. Has its own exemption (currently same as the federal estate-tax exemption).
Lifetime Exclusion: Cumulative amount you can transfer tax-free over your lifetime + at death.; Federal: $13.99M (2026). Gifts above the annual exclusion eat into this. Anything left at death is your estate-tax exemption.
Marital Deduction: Unlimited transfers to a U.S.-citizen spouse are estate-tax-free.; Lets the first spouse to die leave everything to the survivor without tax. Doesn't eliminate tax — just defers it until the surviving spouse dies. Doesn't apply to non-citizen spouses (a QDOT trust handles that case).
State Estate Tax: An estate tax some states impose with much lower thresholds.; About a dozen states (NY, MA, OR, WA, others) tax estates well below the federal threshold — often starting at $1M-$7M. A move from a state without estate tax to one with it can be a planning mistake.
Step-Up in Basis: When inherited assets are valued at the date-of-death price for capital gains.; If you bought stock for $10 and it's worth $100 at your death, your heir's basis is $100 — meaning if they sell at $100, no capital gains. One of the biggest tax breaks in the code.

Concepts

Abatement: Order in which gifts are reduced when the estate can't pay everything.; If the estate is short, debts and taxes come out of the residuary first; specific gifts are protected. If the residuary is exhausted, specific gifts then abate proportionally.
Ademption: What happens when a specifically-bequeathed item no longer exists at death.; If you leave 'my 2018 Honda' to your nephew and you sold it before death, the gift adeems — it fails. The nephew gets nothing in its place unless the will provides for the contingency.
Anti-Lapse Statute: State law that redirects a predeceased beneficiary's gift to their descendants.; Acts as a default 'per stirpes' rule for close relatives even when the will says per capita. Specifics vary widely state to state. Best practice: don't rely on it — say what you want explicitly.
Bequest: A gift of personal property in a will.; Technically, 'bequest' is for personal property and 'devise' is for real estate, but the words are used interchangeably. Specific bequests ('my car to my brother') are distinct from the residuary.
Capacity: The mental ability required to sign a valid will.; The testator must understand (1) what they own, (2) who their family is, and (3) what they're doing in signing the will. The bar is lower than for most contracts — lots of people with dementia still have testamentary capacity.
No-Contest Clause: A provision that disinherits anyone who challenges the will.; Latin name: in terrorem. Discourages frivolous challenges. Enforceability varies — most states won't enforce it if the contest was brought in good faith and with probable cause.
Notarization: A notary public's verification that you signed the document.; Not required for the will itself in most states, but required for the self-proving affidavit. Required for healthcare directives in some states.
Per Capita: Each surviving beneficiary gets an equal share; predeceased beneficiaries' shares lapse.; Same example: A, B, C named equally. C predeceases. Per capita: A and B each get 1/2. C's children get nothing unless an anti-lapse statute saves them.
Per Stirpes: If a beneficiary dies before you, their share goes to their children.; Latin for 'by the branch.' Example: you leave equally to A, B, C. C predeceases you with two children. Per stirpes: A gets 1/3, B gets 1/3, C's two children split C's 1/3.
Residuary: Everything that's left after specific gifts and debts.; The residuary clause says who gets the rest. Most wills divide the residuary by percentage among the testator's main heirs. If a will has only specific gifts and no residuary, a partial intestacy can result.
Undue Influence: Pressure that overrides a testator's free will and voids a will.; More than persuasion or strongly-held opinion — it's coercion that substitutes someone else's wishes for the testator's. Most often alleged when a caregiver suddenly becomes the main beneficiary.
Witness: An adult who watches the testator sign and signs themselves.; Most states require two. They must be adults of sound mind and — critically — must not inherit anything under the will. A witness who's also a beneficiary may forfeit their inheritance under 'interested witness' rules.

Digital assets

Digital Asset Authorization: Will language that gives your executor RUFADAA-compliant access.; Explicit consent in your will to disclose the content of your communications and access your accounts. Without it, executors typically get only 'catalog' info (who you emailed) but not content. Trustwise wills include this clause by default.
Digital Assets: Online accounts, cryptocurrency, files, and digital subscriptions you own.; Includes email, cloud storage, social media, photo libraries, financial accounts, crypto wallets, domain names, and online businesses. Most aren't covered by a generic will — you need explicit authorization plus an inventory.
RUFADAA: The state law that lets your executor legally access your digital accounts.; Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, adopted by most states. Without explicit authorization in your will (or a service's online tool like Google Inactive Account Manager), the platform can refuse access — even with letters testamentary.

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