Self-Help Probate Terms (Glossary)

Here are some important probate terms you’ll want to know:

• Beneficiary : A person who inherits when there is a Will.
• 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 : A person named in a Will and appointed by the Court to carry out the dead person’s wishes.
• 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.
• 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 : The process of deciding where, how, and to whom to distribute the decedent’s property.
• Real property : Buildings and land.
• Testate : When someone dies leaving a Will.
• Trust :When one person (trustee) holds property at another person’s (settlor’s) request for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary).
• Will : A legal paper that lists a person’s wishes about what will happen to his/her property after death.