Estate Planning Terms, in Plain English

This is a plain-English glossary of California estate planning terms. Every word here is defined the way you would explain it to a friend, in one or two sentences, with no guessing. Whether you just finished settling an estate or you are starting your own plan, this is the page that tells you what everyone keeps saying.

The documents

Living trust

A document that holds your property while you are alive and hands it to the people you name when you die, without going through court. It is the workhorse of most California estate plans because it keeps your family out of probate.

Revocable trust

A trust you can change or cancel any time while you are alive and have the capacity to do it. Almost every living trust is revocable, which means nothing is locked in until you die.

Irrevocable trust

A trust you generally cannot change or undo once it is set up. People use these for specific reasons like tax planning or protecting assets, and the trade-off is that you give up control in exchange.

Will

A document that says who gets your stuff and who you want raising your kids after you die. On its own, a will does not avoid probate in California, it just tells the court what you wanted.

Pour-over will

A backup will that catches anything you left outside the trust and pours it into the trust after you die. Think of it as the net under the trapeze, there to grab whatever you forgot to retitle.

Durable power of attorney

A document that names someone to handle your money and property if you cannot do it yourself. The word durable means it keeps working even if you become incapacitated, which is the whole point of having one.

Advance health care directive

A document that names who makes your medical decisions if you cannot speak for yourself, and spells out what kind of care you do and do not want. It is the form that keeps your family from guessing in a hospital hallway.

HIPAA authorization

A signed permission slip that lets named people see your medical records and talk to your doctors. Without it, privacy law can lock out the very people trying to help you.

The people and roles

Trustee

The person in charge of a trust, who manages the property and follows the trust’s instructions. While you are alive and well, that is usually you.

Successor trustee

The person who steps in to run the trust when you die or can no longer handle it. This is the person who actually carries out your plan, so pick someone organized and trustworthy.

Settlor

The person who creates the trust and puts property into it, also called the grantor or trustor depending on which form you are reading. They all mean the same thing, the person whose trust it is.

Executor

The person named in a will to handle the estate through probate court after death. They gather the assets, pay the bills, and distribute what is left under the court’s supervision.

Personal representative

The umbrella term California uses for whoever is running an estate in probate, whether named in a will or appointed by the judge. Executor and administrator are both kinds of personal representative.

Beneficiary

A person or organization who is set to inherit something from a trust, a will, or an account. If your name is on the list to receive money or property, you are a beneficiary.

Heir

A relative who would inherit under California law if there were no will or trust. Every heir is a possible beneficiary, but a beneficiary can be anyone you name, heir or not.

Probate and court

Probate

The public court process that sorts out who gets what after someone dies when there is no trust holding the property. In California it is slow and the fees are set by statute, which is why so many people set up a trust to skip it. Here is more on how probate works in California.

Intestate

Dying without a will. When that happens, California law decides who inherits, which may not match what you would have chosen.

Conservatorship

A court process where a judge appoints someone to manage the finances or personal care of an adult who can no longer manage their own. It is expensive and public, and good planning is how you avoid it. Here is more on conservatorship and how to avoid it.

Guardianship

A court process that puts a responsible adult in charge of a minor child’s care or money when the parents cannot. In your estate plan, naming a guardian is how you say who raises your kids instead of letting a judge decide.

Spousal property petition

A short court filing a surviving spouse can use to transfer property that belonged to the couple, without a full probate. It is a faster, cheaper path when most of the estate was going to the husband or wife anyway.

Small estate affidavit

A signed form that lets you collect a modest estate without opening probate, as long as the total value is under California’s limit. It is the do-it-without-court option for smaller estates.

Heggstad petition

A court request to pull an asset into a trust when the owner clearly meant to include it but never got around to retitling it. It can save a family from full probate over one account or one house that slipped through the cracks. Here is more on filing a Heggstad petition.

How trusts actually work

Funding a trust

Actually moving your house and accounts into the trust’s name, by changing the title and the paperwork. A trust that owns nothing does nothing, so funding the trust is the step that makes it real.

Beneficiary designation

The form on an account, like a retirement plan or life insurance, that names who inherits it directly. It overrides your will and your trust, so an out-of-date form can send money to the wrong person no matter what your other documents say.

Per stirpes

A rule that says if one of your beneficiaries dies before you do, their share drops down to their kids instead of vanishing. It is the legal way to say the grandchildren still get their parent’s portion.

No-contest clause

A line in a trust or will that says anyone who challenges the document and loses gives up what they were going to get. It is meant to discourage a sore relative from dragging everyone into a fight.

Special needs trust

A trust built to provide for someone with a disability without knocking them off government benefits like Medi-Cal or SSI. It pays for extras and quality of life while keeping the person eligible for the help they rely on. Here is more on special needs trusts.

QTIP or marital trust

A trust that provides for a surviving spouse for life while controlling where the money goes after that spouse dies. People use it most in second marriages, so the current spouse is taken care of but the kids from the first marriage still inherit.

Property and taxes

Proposition 19

A California law that changed when children can inherit a parent’s property without the tax bill jumping to current market value. It narrowed an old break, so families now have to plan carefully to keep a low property tax rate. Here is more on planning around Proposition 19.

Step-up in basis

The tax reset that bumps an asset’s value up to what it is worth on the day the owner dies. It can wipe out the capital gains tax the heirs would have owed if they sold, which is one of the biggest tax breaks in estate planning.

Community property

Property a married couple earns or buys during the marriage, which California treats as owned half and half. It usually includes income, the house bought together, and savings built during the years you were married.

Separate property

Property one spouse owned before the marriage, or received during it as a gift or inheritance. It stays that spouse’s own, as long as it was kept separate and not mixed in with the couple’s shared money.

Estate planning terms FAQs

What is the difference between a will and a living trust?

A will tells the court what you wanted and then goes through probate, the public court process that can take a year or more in California. A living trust skips that process, so your family inherits without court, usually in weeks instead of months, and without your business becoming a public record.

What does it mean to fund a trust?

Funding a trust means actually changing the title on your house, bank accounts, and other property so the trust owns them instead of you personally. A trust that is signed but never funded does not protect anything, because the property is still in your own name and still has to go through probate.

What is the difference between an executor and a trustee?

An executor handles a will through probate court, under a judge’s supervision, after you die. A trustee manages a trust and can hand out the property without court at all, which is one reason a funded trust moves so much faster than a will.

Written by Eric D. Ridley. Estate Planning Attorney at Ridley Law, serving Ventura County since 2010. Learn more about Eric →