Sahvelo · Glossary
Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the words that turn up in this work — on forms, from agencies, and from people who assume you already know them. Each term has its own page, with how it differs by state where it does.
A
- Abatement The order in which gifts in a will are reduced when the estate cannot pay for everything.
- ABLE account A savings account a disabled person can hold without losing means-tested benefits.
- Abstract of death A short official record of a death, accepted in place of a full certificate where a state allows it.
- Accelerated death benefit A payment from a life insurance policy to the insured person while they are still alive, when they are terminally or chronically ill.
- Accounting of disclosures A list of certain disclosures of someone's medical records in the six years before the request. Narrower than it sounds: treatment, payment and the provider's own operations are left out.
- Activities of daily living The everyday self-care tasks — bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet, moving from a bed to a chair, continence — that care assessments and insurance policies measure.
- Ademption What happens when a will leaves a specific item that no longer exists at death: the gift usually simply fails.
- Administrator The person a court appoints to handle an estate when there is no will, or no usable executor.
- Adult day services A daytime program providing supervision, activity and often health care outside the home.
- Adult Protective Services The state agency that investigates suspected abuse, neglect or financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.
- Advance directive A document recording your medical wishes, and naming who should speak for you if you cannot.
- Advancement A gift made during life that counts against what that person inherits at death.
- Affidavit A written statement you sign swearing it is true, usually in front of a notary.
- Affidavit of domicile A sworn statement of where somebody legally lived when they died, used to transfer securities.
- Affidavit of heirship A sworn statement of who a person's heirs are, recorded in the land records where no probate established it.
- Age-restricted community A neighborhood that may lawfully require residents to be over a certain age, usually 55 or 62.
- Alternate valuation date An election to value an estate six months after death instead of on the day of it.
- Amending a death certificate Correcting an error on the record after it has been registered — which is done, and is not quick.
- Anatomical gift A legally binding decision to donate organs, tissue or a body, which the family generally cannot override.
- Ancillary probate A second, smaller probate in another state, for property located there.
- Annuity death benefit What an annuity pays when the owner dies — which depends entirely on the contract and its phase.
- Anti-lapse statute The rule that sends a gift to the children of a beneficiary who died before the person who made the will.
- Apostille A certificate authenticating a public document so it can be used in another country.
- Appraisal A professional opinion of what something was worth on a particular date — usually the date of death.
- Area Agency on Aging A local agency, part of a national network, that arranges and coordinates services for older adults in its own area.
- Assessed value What a taxing authority says a property is worth, which is rarely what it would sell for.
- Assisted living Housing with help for daily tasks and staff on site, but without the licensed clinical care a nursing facility provides.
- Attorney-in-fact The person a power of attorney gives authority to. Not a lawyer.
- Augmented estate A wider pot than the probate estate, used to work out what a surviving spouse may claim.
- Authorized signer Somebody a bank permits to transact on an account they do not own. It is access without ownership, and it ends at the account holder's death.
B
- Beneficiary Someone who receives something because a document says so.
- Beneficiary claim The request a named person makes to an institution to be paid what they were named on. It is not a claim against the estate, and the two are opposites.
- Beneficiary designation A named person on an account or policy who receives it directly on death, without it passing through the will or probate.
- Beneficiary vs heir A beneficiary is named in a document. An heir is designated by statute when nothing names anybody.
- Benefit period The unit Medicare counts hospital and rehabilitation days in — and it is not a calendar year.
- Benefit trigger The condition a long-term care insurance policy requires before it starts paying — usually needing help with a stated number of daily activities, or having cognitive impairment.
- Bill of sale A written record that ownership of something passed from one person to another, with the date, the parties and the price.
- Bona fide purchaser Somebody who buys property for value, in good faith, without notice of anyone else's claim to it. The law usually protects them, even against the rightful owner.
- Branded title A permanent mark on a title recording that the vehicle was once written off or badly damaged.
- Burial transit permit The permit that authorizes burial, cremation or moving a body — usually before anything else can happen.
C
- Capacity Whether somebody is able to understand a decision and its consequences well enough to make it. It is decided decision by decision, not once and for all.
- Carryover basis When property is given away during life, the recipient generally takes over the giver's own basis in it, rather than a fresh valuation.
- Cash advance item Anything the funeral home bought from somebody else on your behalf — the flowers, the clergy honorarium, the death certificates — which must be itemized separately.
- Cash surrender value What a permanent life insurance policy is worth if it is cashed in during the insured person's lifetime.
- Casket price list A separate itemized list of caskets and prices that a funeral provider must show you before showing you the caskets.
- Catalog of electronic communications The list of who was written to and when — as distinct from what the messages said.
- Certificate of title The state-issued document that proves who owns a vehicle — and whose issuing state decides the procedure after a death.
- Certificate of trust A short document proving a trust exists and what the trustee may do, without revealing its terms.
- Certified copy A copy issued by the office that holds the original, carrying a seal or stamp that says so. A photocopy is not one.
- Claiming successor The person who signs a small-estate affidavit and collects the property.
- Cloud on title Anything in the public record that leaves ownership of a property open to question.
- Co-signer Somebody who takes on full liability for another person's loan without necessarily owning anything.
- COBRA continuation coverage The right to keep an employer's health insurance for a period after the event that would otherwise end it — including the death of the employee.
- Codicil An amendment to a will. It changes part of it and leaves the rest standing.
- Commingling Mixing separate property with shared property so thoroughly that it stops being possible to tell them apart.
- Community development district A local government unit that funds a community's infrastructure and bills residents for it, separately from the association.
- Community property In some states, most of what a married couple acquires during the marriage belongs to both of them equally, whatever the paperwork says.
- Community spouse resource allowance What the husband or wife still at home may keep when the other qualifies for Medicaid care.
- Compelled account A court order that makes a fiduciary produce the books, obtained by somebody with an interest in the estate.
- Congregate meals Meals eaten together at a center or site, funded under the Older Americans Act and not means-tested.
- Conservatorship A court appointing somebody to manage the money and property of an adult who cannot manage it themselves.
- Content of an electronic communication What the messages actually said — the half of a digital account that is hardest to reach, and impossible to arrange for after capacity is gone.
- Contestability period The window, usually two years, in which a life insurer may investigate and rescind a policy.
- Contingent beneficiary The person who receives an account or policy if the first-named beneficiary has died or cannot take it.
- Continuing care retirement community A campus offering independent living through to nursing care, usually entered by paying a large fee up front.
- Creditable coverage Drug coverage at least as good as Medicare's — losing it involuntarily opens a window to enroll.
- Creditor claim period The window, set by state law, in which somebody owed money by the estate has to present the claim or lose it.
- Critical access hospital A small rural hospital with its own Medicare designation — and the same discharge and appeal rules as any other.
- Custodial care Help with everyday living rather than medical treatment — bathing, dressing, eating, moving about. It is what most long-term care actually is.
- Custodian (of a digital asset) The company holding the account — and, under the digital-assets statutes, the party an executor or agent is actually asking.
D
- Date-of-death value What something was worth on the day the person died. It is the number the estate, and often the tax, is measured by.
- DD Form 214 The discharge document proving military service. Almost every veterans' benefit after a death depends on producing it.
- Death certificate The official record of a death, issued by a state or local vital records office, and the document nearly every organization will ask to see.
- Death Master File A federal record of reported deaths, used by insurers and institutions to identify account holders who have died.
- Decedent The legal word for the person who died. It appears on almost every form you will fill in.
- Declarant The person who signed the advance directive — named this way because the document speaks for them once they cannot.
- Deed The recorded document that says who owns a piece of real property, and how they hold it.
- Dependent Somebody who relies on you. It is a defined term in tax and in benefit programs, and it is not a category in inheritance law at all.
- Deposit insurance The federal guarantee on money held in a bank or credit union, which continues for a period after the account holder dies.
- Designated beneficiary The person actually named on an account or policy. In the retirement-account rules it is also a narrower term, and an estate does not qualify as one.
- Devise A gift made by will — historically of land, and in modern statutes of anything.
- Digital asset An online account or file that has value or meaning — email, photographs, cloud storage, domains, currency accounts, loyalty balances.
- Direct cremation Cremation without a viewing or ceremony beforehand. It is one of the least expensive options a funeral provider must offer.
- Discharge planner The hospital staff member responsible for what happens after a stay ends.
- Disclaimer of inheritance Formally refusing an inheritance, so that it passes as though you had died first.
- Dissociation A partner ceasing to be a partner — by death, by incapacity, or by leaving — without the partnership ending.
- Distributee A person entitled to receive property from an estate — the word statutes use where a family would say heir.
- Do-not-resuscitate order A medical order saying that if the heart or breathing stops, no attempt at resuscitation should be made.
- Domestic partner A legally registered relationship short of marriage. Whether it carries inheritance rights depends entirely on the state.
- Domicile The one state a person legally belongs to, where they intend to remain. It decides where the estate is administered and which state's law governs their personal property.
- Down payment The part of a home's purchase price paid from the buyer's own funds rather than borrowed on the mortgage.
- Due-on-sale clause A mortgage term letting the lender demand the whole balance if the property changes hands — with exceptions that cover inheritance.
- Duplicate title A replacement certificate of title, issued when the original is lost, destroyed or was never received.
- Durable power of attorney A power of attorney that keeps working after the person who signed it loses the ability to make decisions — which is usually the whole point of signing one.
E
- Eldercare Locator A national public service that connects people to the aging services agency covering a particular address.
- Elective share A surviving spouse's right to claim a minimum portion of the estate, even if the will leaves them less or nothing.
- Electronic title A title a state holds as a record rather than as a piece of paper. Nothing arrives in the post, and there is nothing in the drawer to find.
- Elimination period A waiting period after a long-term care claim is approved, during which the family pays and the policy does not.
- Embalming A chemical preservation of the body. It is rarely required by law, and a funeral provider must not tell you otherwise.
- Employer identification number for an estate A tax identification number for the estate itself, which becomes its own taxpayer once the person's Social Security number stops being usable.
- ERISA The federal law governing most employer retirement and benefit plans. It is the reason a plan's own beneficiary form usually beats a will or a state law.
- Escheat What happens when property nobody has claimed is handed to the state. In most cases the state holds it as custodian for the owner rather than taking ownership of it.
- Estate Everything the person owned at the moment they died, treated as one thing that has to be settled.
- Estate account A bank account in the estate's own name. Estate money must not pass through anybody's personal account.
- Estate accounting A statement of everything that came into the estate and everything that went out, presented before the estate can be closed.
- Estate sale A sale of the contents of a house, usually run by a company on commission. It is one of several ways to clear a home, and rarely the only one worth considering.
- Estate tax A tax on the value of what somebody left, paid by the estate before anything is distributed.
- Executor The person named in a will to carry it out — once a court actually appoints them.
- Executor compensation An executor may generally be paid for the work. The payment is taxable income; an inheritance usually is not.
- Extra Help A federal subsidy that pays most of the cost of Medicare prescription drug coverage.
- Extraordinary services Work by an executor or estate lawyer beyond routine administration, paid for on top of the ordinary fee.
F
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act The federal law limiting what a debt collector may do — including who they may discuss a dead person's debt with.
- Fair market value What a willing buyer would pay a willing seller, neither under pressure and both knowing the facts.
- Family allowance Money a court may allow a surviving spouse and dependent children to draw from the estate while it is being settled, ahead of most creditors.
- Family and Medical Leave Act The federal law giving eligible employees unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a seriously ill family member, or for their own condition.
- Federal retirement benefits The pension and insurance system for federal civilian employees — FERS or the older CSRS, plus group life cover, each with its own beneficiary record.
- Fiduciary Anybody who holds power over somebody else's money or decisions and is legally required to use it for them rather than for themselves.
- Fiduciary duty The obligation to act for somebody else's benefit rather than your own — and to be able to show you did.
- Fiduciary return The income tax return an estate or trust files for money it earns after the death.
- Final disposition What ultimately happens to the body — and the phrase every authorization form uses, which is why it appears on paper before anybody has explained it.
- Final income tax return The last income tax return in the person's own name, covering the part of the year they were alive.
- Financial exploitation Taking or misusing an older or vulnerable person's money or property. It is usually done by somebody they know.
- Firearms after a death Guns in an estate are property with their own federal and state rules, and moving one to the wrong person can be a criminal offense rather than a paperwork error.
- Force-placed insurance Hazard cover a mortgage servicer buys for a property when the owner's policy lapses, and charges to the loan.
- Formal administration Probate supervised by a judge, with petitions, notice and hearings. It is the default in some states and the fallback everywhere.
- Funding a trust Actually moving property into a trust — retitling accounts and deeds into its name. An unfunded trust generally does not control assets that were never transferred into it.
- Funeral trust Money set aside to pay for a funeral, held so it cannot be spent and often so it does not count for Medicaid.
G
- General price list The itemized list of prices a funeral provider must hand you to keep, as soon as arrangements are discussed in person.
- Geriatric care manager A professional, usually a nurse or social worker, hired to assess an older person's needs and coordinate their care.
- Gift letter The signed statement a mortgage lender requires saying that money toward a purchase is a gift and will not be repaid.
- Governing instrument Whichever document actually controls an asset — a will, a trust, a beneficiary form, a deed, a partnership agreement.
- Grantor The person who creates a trust and puts property into it.
- Gross estate Everything counted before anything is subtracted — which is not the same as what the family ends up with.
- Group life insurance Life insurance provided through an employer, union or association rather than bought individually.
- Guardian ad litem Somebody the court appoints to speak for an interest that cannot speak for itself in one case.
- Guardian nomination Naming, in a will, who should raise your children — or care for a dependent adult — if you cannot.
- Guardianship A court appointing somebody to make decisions for an adult who cannot make them, usually about care, housing and medical treatment.
H
- Head of household A filing status an unmarried child supporting a parent can reach without the parent living with them, if three separate conditions are all met.
- Health care agent The person named in a health care proxy to make medical decisions when the patient cannot.
- Health care proxy A document naming somebody to make medical decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself.
- Heir Someone entitled to inherit under state law when there is no will — not simply a relative.
- Heirs' property Land or a home that passed informally to several generations of heirs, so that many people own undivided shares and nobody has clear title.
- HIPAA authorization Written permission for a doctor, hospital or insurer to share somebody's medical information with a named person.
- Holographic will A will written entirely in the person's own handwriting. Some states accept one without witnesses; many do not accept one at all.
- Home and community-based services waiver A Medicaid program paying for care at home instead of in a nursing facility.
- Home care Non-medical help at home — bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, company. Medicare does not pay for it.
- Home Equity Conversion Mortgage The federally insured kind of reverse mortgage. What happens to the house after the borrower dies is set by its own rules.
- Home health Skilled clinical care delivered at home, ordered by a doctor. Medicare may pay for it while the clinical need lasts.
- Home-delivered meals Meals brought to the house under the Older Americans Act, assessed on need rather than on income.
- Homeowners association The body that enforces a neighborhood's rules and collects its dues, with real power over the property.
- Homestead exemption A protection for the family home — from creditors, from being sold to pay debts, or as a right for the surviving spouse to keep living there.
- Hospice Care that focuses on comfort rather than cure, for someone expected to live six months or less.
- Hospice vs palliative care Palliative care can start at any time and alongside treatment. Hospice starts when the goal is comfort rather than cure.
I
- Immediate burial Burial shortly after death without embalming, viewing or a ceremony at the funeral home.
- Incapacitated principal The person who signed a power of attorney, after they have lost capacity — and the statutes are explicit that no court has to have said so.
- Income in respect of a decedent Income the person had earned but not received when they died, taxed to whoever receives it.
- Indemnity A promise to make good somebody else's loss — and on several small-estate forms, the price of the shortcut.
- Independent administration Administering an estate without the court supervising each step — and it is granted in opposite ways in different states.
- Independent living Age-restricted housing with services and no personal care — the step before assisted living.
- Informal probate Probate handled administratively by a court official rather than by a judge, where nobody is contesting anything.
- Inheritance tax A tax on what a person receives from an estate, charged to the recipient rather than to the estate — and only in a few states.
- Inheritance tax waiver A document from a state tax authority releasing an asset so it can be transferred, used in the few states that charge inheritance tax.
- Inherited IRA A retirement account received from somebody who died, held under rules that differ from an account you opened yourself.
- Insolvent estate An estate that owes more than it holds. State law then decides who gets paid, in what order, and who gets nothing.
- Instrumental activities of daily living The harder-to-see tasks — money, medication, cooking, transport, the telephone. Difficulty here usually appears long before difficulty with bathing or dressing.
- Intangible personal property Property with value but no physical form — bank accounts, shares, policies, pensions, patents, a debt somebody owes.
- Interested person Anybody the law says has a stake in an estate — an heir, a beneficiary, a creditor, sometimes a fiduciary. It decides who gets told and who may object.
- Intestate Dying without a valid will, so the estate passes by the state's own rules rather than by anybody's wishes.
- Inventory and appraisement A list of everything in the estate with a value against each item, filed with the court or given to the beneficiaries.
- Irrevocable trust A trust that generally cannot be changed or undone once created. Giving up control is the point of it.
J
L
- Lapsed policy A life insurance policy that has ended because premiums were not paid — sometimes without anybody realizing.
- Legacy contact A person you name inside an online account itself, whom the provider will let reach it after you die. It usually beats anything written in a will.
- Legal and equitable title Ownership split in two: one person holds the property, another holds the benefit of it.
- Letter of instruction An informal document left alongside a will, saying the practical things a will has no room for.
- Letters The court's certificate that somebody has been appointed to act for an estate: letters testamentary when there is a will, letters of administration when there is not.
- Letters of administration The court document proving somebody has been appointed to handle an estate where there is no will.
- Letters testamentary The court document proving that the person named in a will has actually been appointed to act.
- License plate transfer What happens to the plates when a vehicle changes hands — which depends on whether the state ties them to the car or the owner.
- Lien A recorded claim against property, securing a debt, that has to be dealt with before the property can be transferred cleanly.
- Lien release A document from a lender confirming a loan is paid off, so the lien can be removed from a title.
- Lienholder The lender recorded on a vehicle's title as having a secured interest in it.
- Life estate An arrangement where one person has the right to use property for their lifetime, and somebody else automatically owns it afterwards.
- Life policy locator A free search service run by the insurance regulators, which asks participating insurers whether a person held a policy.
- Lifetime reserve days Sixty extra hospital days a person may draw on once in their life, and never get back.
- Living will A written statement of what medical treatment you would and would not want if you could not say so at the time.
- Local administration Administration opened in a state that is not where the person lived, because they left something there — the second estate the first one does not mention.
- Long-term care insurance A policy that pays toward help with daily living — at home, in assisted living, or in a nursing facility — which health insurance and Medicare do not cover.
- Long-term care ombudsman An independent advocate for residents of nursing homes and other care facilities, who investigates complaints and works to resolve them.
- Look-back period The stretch of time before a Medicaid application during which gifts and transfers are examined, and can delay eligibility.
- Lump-sum death payment A one-off Social Security payment to a surviving spouse or, in some cases, a dependent child.
M
- Maintenance coverage Medicare cover for skilled care that will not improve the patient, but prevents deterioration or preserves what they have.
- Marital property Property treated as belonging to the marriage rather than to either spouse alone.
- Medallion signature guarantee A bank's stamp guaranteeing a signature on a securities transfer. It is not a notarization.
- Medicaid A joint federal and state program that pays for health care, including long-term care, for people with limited income and assets.
- Medicaid estate recovery A state's claim against the estate of somebody whose long-term care Medicaid paid for, to recover what it spent.
- Medical examiner The official who investigates and certifies certain deaths — and whose sign-off everything else waits on.
- Medical expense deduction What you paid for a parent's care may be deductible even if their income is too high to claim them.
- Medicare The federal health insurance program for people aged sixty-five and over, and for some younger people with disabilities. It does not pay for long-term care.
- Medicare Advantage Medicare delivered by a private insurance plan instead of directly by the government. It is also called Part C.
- Medicare Part D Medicare's prescription drug coverage, bought as a separate plan from a private insurer.
- Medicare Savings Program A state-run program that pays Medicare premiums, and sometimes the deductibles too.
- Medication therapy management A Part D service that reviews everything a person takes at once, with a written summary — and enrols people automatically.
- Medigap A private policy that pays some of what Original Medicare leaves the patient to pay. It cannot be combined with a Medicare Advantage plan.
- Memory care Residential care designed for dementia — secured, higher-staffed, and more expensive than ordinary assisted living.
- Motor vehicle agency The state office that issues titles and registrations. It goes by a different name and a different set of initials in almost every state.
- Multiple support agreement How one of several children can claim a parent when none of them pays half.
- Muniment of title A procedure in a few states where a will is admitted purely to prove ownership, with no executor appointed and no administration.
N
- Naked ownership Owning something in Louisiana that somebody else has the right to use.
- Named insured The person the policy is written for — which, after a death, is the person who has died.
- Negotiable instrument A check, draft or similar paper that can be passed on by endorsing it.
- Next of kin The closest living relative or relatives, as the law of a particular state defines them — not as a family would.
- No-contest clause A clause disinheriting anybody who challenges the will. Whether it works depends on the state.
- Non-probate asset Something that passes to a new owner automatically, without a court.
- Notarization A notary public confirming who you are and witnessing your signature, so that a document can be relied on by somebody who was not there.
- Notice to creditors A formal announcement that an estate has been opened, which starts the clock on how long anyone owed money has to say so.
O
- Observation status Being in a hospital bed as an outpatient, which changes what Medicare pays for afterwards.
- Odometer disclosure A statement of a vehicle's mileage at the moment of transfer, required by federal law for most transfers.
- Operating agreement The document setting out how a limited liability company is run — including what happens to a member's interest when they die.
- Organ procurement organization The body that federal designation puts in charge of recovering organs — and, in practice, whoever telephones the family in the first hours.
- Outer burial container A vault or liner placed around a casket in the grave. Cemeteries often require one; state law usually does not.
P
- Palliative care Care aimed at relieving symptoms and stress, available at any stage of a serious illness.
- Partition action A court case brought by one co-owner to divide property, or force its sale, when the owners cannot agree.
- Partition in kind Physically dividing co-owned land between the owners, rather than selling it and dividing the money.
- Payable on death (POD) A bank-account instruction that pays the balance to a named person on the owner's death.
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation The federal agency that pays pensions when the employer's plan has failed — and holds pensions nobody claimed.
- Per capita A way of dividing an inheritance among the beneficiaries who are actually alive, so a deceased beneficiary's children receive nothing.
- Per stirpes A way of dividing an inheritance so that if a beneficiary has died, their share passes down to their own children rather than to the other beneficiaries.
- Personal care agreement A written contract under which a family member is paid to provide care.
- Personal representative The neutral term for whoever is authorized to act for an estate, whether named in a will or appointed by a court.
- Pet trust A legal arrangement funding the care of an animal after its owner dies or can no longer look after it.
- Petition for discharge The filing that asks a court to release the executor and close the estate — and that starts your deadline to object.
- POLST A medical order form covering more than resuscitation, signed by a clinician, meant to travel with the patient between home, hospital and care facility.
- Polypharmacy Taking enough different medicines that the combination becomes a risk in its own right.
- Portability A surviving spouse's right to use whatever federal estate tax exclusion their spouse did not — but only if it is claimed.
- Postnuptial agreement The same kind of agreement, made by a couple who are already married.
- Pour-over will A short will used alongside a living trust, directing anything left outside the trust into it.
- Power of attorney A document letting somebody act for you while you are alive — and which stops working the moment you die.
- Preneed funeral contract An agreement, usually paid for in advance, for funeral goods and services to be provided when the person dies.
- Preneed guardian Somebody named in advance, in a signed declaration, to be appointed guardian if a person or their children later need one.
- Prenuptial agreement A written agreement signed before a marriage that changes some of the financial and property rules the marriage would otherwise bring with it.
- Pretermitted heir A child left out of a will who was born or adopted after it was signed, and who may inherit anyway.
- Pretermitted spouse Someone who married after their partner made a will, and who some states give a share of the estate anyway.
- Prima facie Enough on its face. A document or a fact that is accepted as proof unless somebody produces something better.
- Primary beneficiary The first person in line on an account or policy, ahead of any contingent beneficiary.
- Priority of claims The statutory order in which an estate's debts are paid. Paying out of order is the executor's own liability.
- Probate The court process that confirms who has authority to deal with what somebody owned when they died.
- Probate asset Something owned in the deceased person's name alone, with nobody named to receive it.
- Probate bond An insurance policy a court can require, protecting an estate against the person running it.
- Probate court The court that supervises estates. In many states it is a division of a general trial court and goes by another name.
- Promissory note The written promise to repay a loan, on stated terms. What turns a family understanding into a loan anybody can act on.
- Property tax sale The process by which a county sells a property, or a lien on it, because the property taxes went unpaid.
- Protected person The person a conservatorship or guardianship is about — and a term whose meaning is not the same in every state.
Q
- Qualified domestic relations order A court order dividing a workplace retirement plan between spouses after a divorce, which the plan must be given in order to act.
- Qualifying hospital stay The three consecutive inpatient days Medicare requires before it will pay for rehabilitation in a nursing facility.
- Qualifying relative The dependency test that reaches a parent — three conditions, and living with you is not one of them.
- Quality Improvement Organization The independent body that reviews a Medicare discharge or a termination of cover, free and fast, at the patient's request.
- Quiet title action A court case asking a judge to decide, once and for all, who owns a piece of property.
- Quitclaim deed A deed transferring whatever interest the signer has, with no promise that they have any.
R
- Railroad retirement benefits A separate federal retirement and survivor system for railroad workers, run by its own board rather than by Social Security.
- Real property Land and what is permanently attached to it — a house, a barn, a fixed structure. Everything else a person owns is personal property.
- Rebuttable presumption A starting position a court must take unless somebody shows a reason not to.
- Recording Filing a document with the county so that it is on the public record.
- Refunding bond A beneficiary's written promise to give part of their share back if the estate turns out to need it.
- Release from administration A court order that ends an estate instead of opening one.
- Renunciation Declining an appointment as executor. It is always allowed, and it is done in writing.
- Repossession A lender taking back property that secures a loan, when the payments stop.
- Representative payee Somebody appointed by Social Security to receive and manage benefits for a person who cannot manage them.
- Required minimum distribution The amount that has to be taken out of a retirement account each year once the rules require withdrawals to begin.
- Residuary estate Whatever is left after specific gifts, debts, taxes and expenses have been dealt with. Most wills give it away in a single clause.
- Respite care Short-term care that gives an unpaid family caregiver a break — a few hours, a day, or a stay of some days.
- Retained asset account An account an insurer opens in the beneficiary's name instead of sending a check, holding the life insurance proceeds until they are drawn.
- Retitle Putting an asset into a new owner's name on the official record.
- Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act The law, adopted in most states, that gives an executor, trustee or agent a route to a person's digital accounts.
- Revocable living trust A trust you create during your lifetime, keep control of, and can change or cancel at any time. Property held in it does not go through probate.
- Right of redemption A period after a tax or foreclosure sale during which somebody with an interest in the property can pay what is owed and get it back.
- Right of survivorship A form of shared ownership where the survivor automatically takes the whole thing.
- Right to control disposition The legal authority to decide what happens to a person's body — who holds it, and how a state decides when people disagree.
S
- Safe-deposit box A box rented at a bank. Getting into one after the renter has died is its own procedure, and often a slower one than the family expects.
- Salvage title A title branded to record that a vehicle was declared a total loss. The brand stays with the vehicle permanently.
- Secured and unsecured debt Whether a debt is attached to a particular thing. It decides who has to be paid, in what order, and what happens if the estate cannot pay everyone.
- Self-proving affidavit A sworn statement attached to a will, signed by the witnesses in front of a notary, so that a court can accept the will without tracking them down.
- Separate property In a community property state, what belongs to one spouse alone — usually what they brought into the marriage, and what they inherited or were given.
- Serious health condition The federal family leave law's definition of the illness that entitles an eligible employee to take protected leave.
- Service area The geographic area a Medicare Advantage plan is sold for — and outside which a person may not stay enrolled.
- Set-aside A court order handing a small estate straight to the family without any administration.
- Share transfer restriction A limit on who may hold shares in a private company — enforceable only if it is written on the certificate.
- Simultaneous death The rule deciding who inherits when two people die together and the order cannot be established.
- SIPC The scheme that returns customers' securities if a brokerage fails. It does not cover losses in the market.
- Skilled care Care so complex that only professional or technical staff can safely provide or supervise it — the test Medicare coverage turns on.
- Skilled nursing facility A facility providing nursing and rehabilitation care that has to be delivered by licensed clinical staff — not the same thing as a nursing home in the everyday sense.
- Slayer rule A person who unlawfully kills somebody cannot inherit from them.
- Small asset A single item measured on its own against a ceiling — not the whole estate.
- Small-estate affidavit A sworn statement a state allows instead of a full probate case for an estate under its ceiling. What it is called, what it reaches and whether a court is involved differ by state.
- Social Security overpayment after a death A benefit is not payable for the month somebody dies, and anything paid after has to go back.
- Sole heir The only person entitled to an estate — a status several shortcuts depend on, and one families claim too readily.
- Special administrator Somebody appointed to do one urgent thing before a full appointment exists.
- Special enrollment period A window outside the annual one in which Medicare coverage can be changed, opened by a named life event.
- Special needs trust A trust that holds money for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from means-tested benefits.
- Special proceeding A court case built to be decided quickly, used where waiting for an ordinary lawsuit would defeat the point.
- Specific bequest A gift in a will of a particular thing — a named account, a ring, a car — rather than a share of what is left.
- Spend-down Using up income or assets on care until they fall below the limit at which Medicaid will start paying.
- Spendthrift clause A term in a trust preventing a beneficiary from selling or pledging their interest, and preventing their creditors from reaching it.
- Spousal support Money one spouse pays the other after a marriage ends. Some states call it alimony, some maintenance.
- Springing power of attorney A power of attorney that only takes effect once a stated condition is met — usually a doctor confirming the person can no longer manage their affairs.
- Standby guardian A guardian named in advance who steps in on a trigger, without a fresh contest over who it should be.
- Statutory citation The reference that says exactly where in a state's law a rule is written — the abbreviation, the section number and the subsection.
- Step-up in basis The tax rule that resets an inherited asset's value to what it was worth on the date of death.
- Stepchild A partner's child you did not adopt. Generally not a descendant for inheritance, however they were raised.
- Succession Louisiana's word for the whole of what other states call probate — and for the estate itself.
- Successor agent The person a power of attorney names to act if the first-named agent cannot. Without one, the document can be left with nobody able to use it.
- Successor in interest Somebody who receives an interest in a mortgaged home from a borrower who died, and gains the borrower's rights.
- Successor trustee The person who takes over a trust when the original trustee dies, resigns, or can no longer serve.
- Summary administration A shortened court procedure for smaller or simpler estates, with fewer steps and less supervision than full administration.
- Surcharge A court order that an executor personally repay the estate for a loss their own breach of duty caused.
- Survivor annuity A continuing pension payment to a surviving spouse, if that option was chosen when the pension started.
- Survivor benefit A continuing payment to a spouse, child or other dependant after somebody dies — from Social Security, a pension, or an annuity.
T
- Tangible personal property Things you can touch and move — furniture, jewellery, tools, a car, the contents of a house. Not land, and not accounts or shares.
- Tenancy by the entirety A form of joint ownership available only to married couples in some states, with survivorship and unusually strong protection from one spouse's creditors.
- Tenancy in common Co-ownership where each owner has their own share, and that share passes to their heirs rather than to the other owners.
- Terms of a trust Not the same as the trust document — the terms are what the person who created it meant, and evidence outside the paper can establish them.
- Testamentary capacity The mental capacity required to make a valid will. The standard is lower than the phrase “sound mind” suggests.
- Testamentary trust A trust created by a will, coming into existence only when the person dies.
- Testator The person who made the will.
- The Funeral Rule A federal consumer protection rule that gives you the right to prices in writing and the right to buy only what you want.
- Thrift Savings Plan The retirement savings plan for federal employees and members of the uniformed services.
- Title application The form that asks a state to issue a certificate of title in a new name. It is the central document in almost every vehicle transfer.
- Title insurance Cover against defects in ownership that already existed when the property was bought.
- Title jumping Selling a vehicle on a title signed by somebody else without ever putting it in your own name. It is illegal everywhere.
- Title search A check of the public record for what is registered against a property or a vehicle — owners, liens, brands, claims.
- TOD vs POD Two names for the same idea, applied to different kinds of property.
- Transfer agent The company a corporation employs to keep its share register and to move shares from one owner to another.
- Transfer on death (TOD) A designation that passes an asset directly to a named person when the owner dies, without probate.
- Transfer-on-death deed A recorded deed naming who receives real property on death, with no probate and no present interest for the person named.
- Trusted contact person Somebody named on a financial account whom the firm may contact if it is worried — about the account holder's health, or about a transaction.
- Trustee The person or institution that holds and manages trust property for the people it is meant to benefit.
U
- UGMA and UTMA accounts Custodial accounts holding money for a child, which the child takes control of outright at an age set by state law.
- Unclaimed property Money and accounts a business has lost touch with the owner of, turned over to a state which then holds it indefinitely.
- Undivided interest A share of the whole of a property, rather than a piece of it. A one-third interest is not one third of the land.
- Undue influence Pressure that overcomes somebody's own wishes, so that a will, gift or transfer reflects the influencer's intentions rather than theirs.
- Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act A model law on the partition of co-owned family property, enacted in a version by a number of states.
- Uniform Probate Code A model act many states adopted in part — which is why their probate rules rhyme without matching.
- Usufruct A Louisiana right to use property and take its income, while somebody else owns it.
V
- Vacant and unoccupied Two words an insurer uses differently, and the difference can void the cover on an empty house after a death.
- Vehicle identification number The unique code identifying a specific vehicle. Every title, registration and transfer form is matched against it.
- Vehicle insurance after a death The policy does not simply continue. Canceling it before the title moves is the expensive mistake.
- Vehicle registration Permission to use a vehicle on public roads. It is renewed periodically and is not the same as the title.
- Vehicle transfer taxes and fees What a state charges to put a title into a new name — a title fee, a transfer fee, and sometimes a tax on the value of the vehicle.
- Veterans' burial benefits What a veteran's family may claim after a death: interment in a national cemetery, a headstone or marker, a burial flag, and in some cases an allowance toward costs.
- VIN inspection A physical check that the vehicle's identification number matches its paperwork.
- Vital records office The state or county office that registers births and deaths and issues certified copies of the certificates.
- Voluntary administrator Somebody allowed to settle a small estate without being formally appointed — with less power than the title suggests.
W
- Waiver of accounting A signed document giving up your right to a formal account of what the executor did with the estate.
- Waiver of notice A signed form in which somebody entitled to be told about a court step agrees they do not need to be told.
- Will A written document saying who should receive what, and who should be in charge of seeing that it happens.
- Will contest A formal challenge to whether a will is valid, brought in the probate court by somebody who would be affected if it were not.
- Witness requirements Who must watch a document being signed, how many, and whether they may also benefit from it. Getting this wrong can void the whole document.
Y
Terms that belong to one state
These are the names particular states give to their own forms, offices and procedures. They are defined on that state's guide, where the rule that governs them is sourced — not here, because a form used in one state is not a general concept.
Alabama
Designated agent · Exempt property
Alaska
"OR" on an Alaska title · Closing Statement · Vehicle Transaction Application (Form V1)
Arizona
Certified copy of death certificate · Decedent
Arkansas
Affidavit of Inheritance · Certified by the clerk · Personal property assessment
California
Certified copy of death certificate · Decedent · REG 262 (Vehicle/Vessel Transfer and Reassignment)
Colorado
Authorized agent · Statement under penalty of perjury in the second degree · The adjusted ceiling · The public official having cognizance over the registered title
Connecticut
Form CT-706 NT · Joint ownership · Supplemental assignment of ownership
Delaware
Answerable and accountable · Motor vehicle document fee · Right to take possession
Florida
Certified copy of death certificate · Decedent · Formal administration
Georgia
County Tag Office · Form T-20 Affidavit of Inheritance · Title ad valorem tax · Year's Support
Hawaii
Answerable and accountable · Notice of transfer · Satellite city hall · State of Hawaii Safety Inspection Certificate
Idaho
Affidavit of Inheritance · County title administrative fee · Satisfactory proof of ownership · Title stop · Warrant and defend
Illinois
Attorney's affidavit · RUT-50
Indiana
Consideration · Speed title · Transfer without administration
Iowa
County treasurer · Indemnity agreement · Not Actual Mileage
Kansas
County treasurer's motor vehicle office · Decedent's Affidavit (TR-83a) · Verification of ownership
Kentucky
"Or" and "and" ownership · Attesting official · Motor vehicle usage tax · Speed title
Louisiana
Act of donation · Judgment of possession · Public Tag Agent · Succession
Maine
Joint ownership (as stated on the title) · MVT-22 · MVT-27 · Purchase and use tax
Massachusetts
Registration and Title Application · Voluntary administration
Michigan
Cost-of-living adjustment factor · Full Rights to Survivor · Letter of Authority · TR-40
Minnesota
Certified death record · Deputy registrar · Exempt property · Medical assistance claim
Mississippi
Fast Track title · Legislative Tag Credit · Widow's allotment
Missouri
Exempt property · Title penalty
Montana
Answerable and accountable · Involuntary transfer · Statement of transfer of interest
Nebraska
Abstract of death · County Treasurer
Nevada
Affiant · Applicable amount · Form VP-24 · Form VP-241 · May not refuse
New Hampshire
Affidavit of administration · Deemed to have been jointly held · Involuntary transfer · Transfer credit · Waiver of administration
New Jersey
County Surrogate · Form BA-62 · Inheritance tax waiver · Short Certificate
New Mexico
Motor Vehicle Excise tax · Title-only transaction
New York
Certified copy of death certificate · Decedent · Family exemption · Form MV-349.1 (Surviving Spouse's Affidavit)
North Carolina
Affidavit of Authority to Assign Title (MVR-317E) · Clerk of superior court · Highway-use tax · License plate agency · Year's allowance
North Dakota
Answerable and accountable · Instruments or documents of authority · Satisfactory proof of ownership · Summary administrative procedure
Ohio
Clerk of courts title office · Release from administration · Surviving spouse's selection
Oklahoma
Licensed Operator · Title holding state · Written notice of transfer
Oregon
Decree of Final Distribution · Inheritance affidavit · Proof of death · Title fee by MPG
Pennsylvania
Authorized agent · Family exemption · Form MV-39 · Form MV-4ST · Informant · Short Form Certificate · Tenancy by the entireties
Rhode Island
Immediate family (for vehicle taxation) · Notice of Appointment · Tangible personal property (as excluded from the count) · VIN inspection
South Carolina
"And" and "or" relationship
South Dakota
County treasurer · Ownership passing by operation of law · Vesting on death
Tennessee
Affidavit of Inheritance · Legal status code · Mutual relinquishment · Title only
Texas
Transfer by operation of law
Utah
Form TC-656
Vermont
Deemed to be the owner · Involuntary transfer · Ownership codes on the certificate · The ten-day penalty
Virginia
Or survivor · Qualification
Washington
Affidavit of Inheritance/Litigation · Nonintervention powers · Quick Title
West Virginia
Affidavit of Transfer of Ownership Without Consideration · Transfer by operation of law
Wisconsin
Priority of payment of claims · Qualifying family member · Solely-owned property · Transfer by affidavit
Wyoming
Before a notarial officer · Verified or certified statement of the transfer of interest