Trust Administration & Probate Definitions

Agent: Someone who has legal authority to make decisions and take actions for another person, known as the principal.

Appraiser: A professional who establishes the worth of difficult-to-price items like businesses, properties, or collectibles for tax filings and to help trustees determine appropriate distribution values.

Beneficiary: An individual who receives benefits from a trust. These assets might be given directly to them or remain in the trust for their benefit.

Decedent: A person who has died.

Estate Planning Attorney: The central coordinator for trust administration who helps the trustee catalog assets, prepare estate tax forms (Form 706) and other returns, make tax decisions, and distribute trust property according to the trust’s instructions. This attorney often manages relationships with other professionals involved in the administration process.

Executor: When someone dies without a will, the person handling their affairs is typically called an administrator or personal representative.

Financial Planner: Works with the trustee or estate attorney to assess security values, transfer asset ownership, and handle distributions to those who inherit.

Funding a Trust: The process of moving property ownership into a trust.

Gift: A voluntary transfer of property to someone else without expecting payment or anything in return.

General Partner: A person involved in running a for-profit partnership or limited partnership who bears personal responsibility for all partnership debts and, in limited partnerships, manages daily operations.

Intestate: When someone dies without a will, state laws determine how their property gets distributed.

Life Insurance Agent: Helps the trustee or estate attorney collect death benefits payable to beneficiaries or the trust.

Limited Partner: A partner in a limited partnership whose financial liability extends only to their investment amount and who doesn’t participate in management decisions.

Living Probate: Court proceedings that occur during someone’s lifetime, typically when they become mentally or physically unable to manage their affairs. These proceedings establish either a guardianship (appointing someone to care for the person) or conservatorship (appointing someone to manage their assets).

Power of Attorney: A legal document that allows one person (the agent or attorney-in-fact) to make decisions for another person (the principal).

Principal: Someone who gives another person legal authority to act on their behalf.

Probate: The court-supervised process that transfers property ownership from someone who has died to the rightful recipients. This process becomes necessary when someone passes away with only a will or without any estate planning documents.

Successor Trustee: The person designated to manage a trust after the original trustor dies or becomes disabled.

Survivor Trustor/Trustee: When one spouse dies and they had a joint trust, the remaining spouse becomes the surviving trustor. If this person continues managing the trust, they also serve as the surviving trustee. Sometimes a co-trustee joins them, or someone else takes over trust management entirely.

Trustee: The individual responsible for managing property held in a trust according to the trust’s terms.

Trustor: The person who establishes a trust.

Trust Administration: The process of carrying out a trust’s directions after the person who created it dies, which might include setting up additional trusts as specified in the original document.