Glossary of Terms

Administration	The distribution of the assets and discharging of liabilities of your estate according to your Will and the law.
Administrator	If you do not leave a Will, or make a Will and do not appoint an executor, or where the executor named in a Will is unable or unwilling to act, the person appointed to administer your estate is known as the administrator.
Assets	Includes everything that you own at the date of your death e.g. house, land, shares, bank accounts, credit union accounts, saving certificates and bonds, life insurance, car, jewelry, etc.
Beneficiary	A person who receives a benefit under your Will or a share of your estate on intestacy.
Bequest	A gift left to a beneficiary in your Will. The gift can be an object or property, a specified sum of money or what’s left of your estate once all the other gifts have been distributed.
Child	Child includes non marital children. It does not include step children or foster children. Adopted children are considered a child of the adopted parents from the date of the Adoption Order.
Civil Partner	The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 came into effect from the 1^st January 2011 and introduced rights for couples who are not married, including same sex couples. Civil partners can now register their civil partnership after certain criteria are complied with.
Cohabitant	Cohabitants are individuals who are not married to each other or married to another (unless living apart from their spouse for at least 4 of the previous 5 years), not in a registered civil partnership, not related and living together in an intimate and committed relationship.
Estate	All of your assets and liabilities at your date of death.
Executor	A person you appoint in your Will to administer your estate
Grant of Probate	This is a High Court document which gives validity to the Will and confirms the Will as the last Will of the deceased. The Grant of Probate authorises someone to deal with a deceased person's estate. The executor of the estate applies for the Grant of Probate. Where there is no Will the administrator applies for Letters of Administration Intestate.
Guardian	If you have young children you should appoint guardians to look after your children in the event of your death when the other parent has predeceased you or where both parents die in a common circumstance. It is important to note that where you are survived by the other parent, in the majority of cases, the surviving parent is the legal guardian of the children.
Inheritance Tax	Is a tax which arises where a beneficiary receives a gift in a Will or on intestacy when someone dies. The amount of inheritance tax payable by you is determined by a number of factors e.g. your relationship to the deceased person, whether you received any previous gifts etc. See here for more details.
Intestacy	The legal term used to describe when someone has dies without making a valid Will.
Minor Child	A child who is under the age of 18.
Personal Representative	A common term used to describe the person who administers your estate; also know as an executor when they are appointed in a Will or an administrator when there is no Will.
Probate	The legal process that gives validity to the Will.
Residue	The balance of your estate that is not specifically dealt with in your Will (also includes a gift in your Will that fails e.g. if a beneficiary has predeceased you). This can be left to more than one beneficiary.
Residuary Clause or Bequest	This is the section in your Will that sets out how the remainder of your estate, not specifically dealt with in the Will, should be distributed. It is an important clause in a Will.
Trust	An arrangement to manage a bequest which can be used in the case of minor children or those with special needs
Trustee	A person you appoint to manage a trust created in your will according to the terms of the trust as outlined in your Will.

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