Glossary

You may encounter hard-to-understand legal terms as you go through the probate process.

The following is a list of terms and definitions:

• Administrator/Administratrix – Person appointed by the courts to take charge of the estate of a decedent who dies without a will.
• Beneficiary – Person designated to receive money, property or benefits in a will.
• Bequest – A gift of personal property by a will.
• Bequeath – To dispose of personal property through a will.
• Codicil – An addition or supplement to an original will that adds to or deletes only part of a will.
• Decedent – A deceased person.
• Devise – A gift of real estate through a will.
• Escheat – Property reverting to the state for want of any legal heir.
• Estate – Property and possessions owned by an individual.
• Executor/Executrix – Person named in a will to carry out the wishes and intentions of the will.
• Guardian – Person entrusted by the law with the personal and/or fiduciary care of another.
• Heir – Person who inherits property from a deceased person through a blood relationship, including legal adoptions.
• Intestate – When a person dies without a will.
• Legatee – Person who receives a gift under a will.
• Personal property – Intangible property, such as stock, bonds or bank accounts and tangible property such as jewelry, furniture or an automobile
• Probate – Official proof of the authenticity or validity of a will.
• Real Property – Land or building.
• Surrogate – Elected county official who oversees probate in the State of New Jersey.
• Testator/testatrix – Person who makes a will.
• Trust – Property owned or managed by a person for another.
• Trustee – Person holding property in trust for another.
• Will – A legal declaration of the manner in which a person wishes his or her estate to be distributed after death.
• Witness – Person who observes the signing of a document and attests to the signatures.