Interested person

What it means

The definition is statutory, and it reaches further than the phrase suggests. It usually covers everyone named in the will, everyone who would inherit without one, and anyone the estate owes money to.

Interested persons are entitled to notice of the important steps, and standing to object — to a will being admitted, to an appointment, to an accounting.

Who is interested can change as the estate proceeds: a creditor paid in full generally stops being one.

Why it matters

It answers the question a family asks constantly: does my sister have to be told, and can she stop this? Usually yes to the first, and sometimes to the second.

It also constrains the executor, whose duty to inform runs to this group rather than to whoever asks.

When you are likely to meet it

• When a court requires notice before a step can be taken.
• When a relative wants to object to something.
• When deciding who must sign a consent or a waiver.

How this varies by state

Who counts as an interested person, and what notice they are owed, are set by state law.

Related terms

• Accounting of disclosuresA 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.
• BeneficiarySomeone who receives something because a document says so.
• DistributeeA person entitled to receive property from an estate — the word statutes use where a family would say heir.
• Estate accountingA statement of everything that came into the estate and everything that went out, presented before the estate can be closed.
• Extraordinary servicesWork by an executor or estate lawyer beyond routine administration, paid for on top of the ordinary fee.
• FiduciaryAnybody who holds power over somebody else's money or decisions and is legally required to use it for them rather than for themselves.
• Fiduciary dutyThe obligation to act for somebody else's benefit rather than your own — and to be able to show you did.
• Guardian ad litemSomebody the court appoints to speak for an interest that cannot speak for itself in one case.
• HeirSomeone entitled to inherit under state law when there is no will — not simply a relative.
• Named insuredThe person the policy is written for — which, after a death, is the person who has died.
• No-contest clauseA clause disinheriting anybody who challenges the will. Whether it works depends on the state.
• Notice to creditorsA formal announcement that an estate has been opened, which starts the clock on how long anyone owed money has to say so.
• Personal representativeThe neutral term for whoever is authorized to act for an estate, whether named in a will or appointed by a court.
• Petition for dischargeThe filing that asks a court to release the executor and close the estate — and that starts your deadline to object.
• Probate courtThe court that supervises estates. In many states it is a division of a general trial court and goes by another name.
• Special proceedingA court case built to be decided quickly, used where waiting for an ordinary lawsuit would defeat the point.
• SurchargeA court order that an executor personally repay the estate for a loss their own breach of duty caused.
• Waiver of accountingA signed document giving up your right to a formal account of what the executor did with the estate.
• Waiver of noticeA signed form in which somebody entitled to be told about a court step agrees they do not need to be told.
• Will contestA formal challenge to whether a will is valid, brought in the probate court by somebody who would be affected if it were not.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Being an executor