Estate Planning

A trustee is defined as someone who holds and administers property rights for the benefit of another person. That individual gives the trustee these property rights by signing a legal title. You might say that a trustee is a stand-in for someone and has specific legal authority to act on that person's behalf.

A revocable living trust—sometimes simply called a living trust—is a legal entity created to hold ownership of an individual's assets. The person who forms the trust is called the grantor or the trustmaker, and they also serve as the trustee of this type of trust in most cases, controlling and managing the assets they've placed there.

An irrevocable trust is one that generally cannot be amended, modified, or revoked once it is created. The written terms of the trust agreement—the trust's formation document—are set in stone, with only rare exceptions.

Probate is the court-supervised process of authenticating a last will and testament if the deceased made one. It includes locating and determining the value of the person's assets, paying their final bills and taxes, and distributing the remainder of the estate to their rightful beneficiaries.

An executor is a person appointed by law to oversee the execution of someone's will after they have died. This role varies depending on the person in question, but in general, it involves gathering assets, settling debts, and distributing belongings to heirs.

A beneficiary is the person(s) or entity that you designate to receive assets after your death. If you don't name a beneficiary, your assets will go to the person designated next in line by your state or by the institution that holds those assets.

The federal estate tax is collected on the transfer of a person's assets to heirs and beneficiaries after death. The total tax due is calculated by adding up the fair market values of all the decedent's assets as of his date of death, although the executor or administrator of the estate can elect to have everything valued on an alternate date six months later instead.

A codicil is a legal document that changes specific provisions of a last will and testament but leaves all the other provisions the same. You can modify, update, or even completely revoke your last will and testament at any time, as long as you're mentally competent.

Financial power of attorney is a legal document that enables a designated person to handle another person’s financial affairs. When creating an estate plan, an individual should put a financial power of attorney in place. The person giving the power is called the “principal” while the person receiving the power is called the “agent” or “attorney-in-fact.”

A last will and testament is a legal document that explains when and how your beneficiaries will inherit your property and assets. It should also name your choice of an executor, sometimes called a personal representative. This is the individual who will be in charge of settling your final affairs and guiding your estate through the probate process.

An inheritance tax is a state tax that heirs and beneficiaries who receive property from a deceased person's estate sometimes have to pay. The tax is typically a percentage of the value of what they receive, based on their degree of kinship to the deceased.