probate
Posthumous legal process
Probate is the legal process of validating a deceased person's will and settling their estate.
A court confirms the will is authentic, appoints an executor, and oversees distribution of assets to heirs.
As a verb, to probate a will is to submit it to this process: The estate took two years to probate.
Probate can be costly and time-consuming, which is why some people structure their assets to avoid it.
Legal term for deceased
- assetsOwned items of value
- debtsSums owed to others
- claimsStatements of truth
- inventoryCatalog of held assets
appraisal · valuation · distribution · liquidation · administration · executor · executrix · administrator
Faculty of deliberate choice
- testamentWritten proof or legacy
- testatorOne who makes bequests
- testatrixFemale will-maker
- codicilWill modification document
holographic · attested · witnessed · revocation · republication · incorporation · pour-over · execution
One who receives legacy
- heirsThose who inherit
- beneficiaryDesignated asset receiver
- deviseeBeneficiary of bequeathed property
- legateeRecipient of bequest
intestate · testate · succession · descendant · disinherit · bequest · devise · legacy
One acting for another
- jurisdictionLegal authority's scope
- adjudicateFormally decide a dispute
- filingStoring documents systematically
- petitionFormal written appeal
hearing · judge · docket · clerk · decree · order · supervised · unsupervised
Confirming genuine identity
- verificationProving something accurate
- attestationFormal declaration confirming truth
- witnessingSeeing something occur
- notarizationOfficial document verification
affidavit · certification · legitimization · confirmation · acknowledgment
decedent
Legal term for deceased
inventory · appraisal · valuation · distribution · liquidation · administration · executor · executrix · administrator · fiduciary
will
Faculty of deliberate choice
codicil · holographic · attested · witnessed · revocation · republication · incorporation · pour-over · execution · formalities
heir
One who receives legacy
- heirsThose who inherit
- beneficiaryDesignated asset receiver
- deviseeBeneficiary of bequeathed property
legatee · intestate · testate · succession · descendant · disinherit · bequest · devise · legacy · residuary
surrogate
One acting for another
- jurisdictionLegal authority's scope
- adjudicateFormally decide a dispute
- filingStoring documents systematically
petition · hearing · judge · docket · clerk · decree · order · supervised · unsupervised · formal
authentication
Confirming genuine identity
- verificationProving something accurate
- attestationFormal declaration confirming truth
- witnessingSeeing something occur
notarization · affidavit · certification · legitimization · confirmation · acknowledgment
trustee
One managing another's assets
revocable · irrevocable · corpus · principal · spendthrift
- legallawyer, judge, jury, trial, verdict
- willstestator, last will, testament, codicil, bequest
- estate taxesestate tax, inheritance tax, death tax, death duty, death duties
- medieval documentscharter, royal charter, town charter, indenture, patent
- special proceedingsmandamus, certiorari, conservatorship, receivership, condemnation
- Tribal Inheritanceheirs, heirship, inheritance disputes, descent, beneficiary
- on probationServing trial period
- probation officerCourt-appointed offender monitor
- probation periodConditional employment phase
- academic probationConditional student standing for underperformance
- probation violationBreaking supervised release conditions
- juvenile probationMonitored release for minors
probation, reprobate, approbation, probationer, reprobation, probationers, probates, probated, probating