Estate Planning Terms, in Plain English

By Eric Ridley, attorney, Ridley Law. Updated September 2026.

This is a plain-English glossary of California estate planning, trust, and probate terms. Each entry gives a short definition and links to its own page on how the term works under California law. Whether you just finished settling an estate or you’re starting your own plan, this is the page that tells you what everyone keeps saying.

Jump to a letter: A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U W

A

• Abatement: Abatement is the order in which gifts in a will or trust are reduced or eliminated when the estate does not have enough assets to pay debts and satisfy every gift in full.
• Ademption: Ademption happens when a specific gift named in a will or trust no longer exists at death (the house was sold, the car was totaled), so the named beneficiary receives nothing in its place.
• Administrator: An administrator is the person a probate court appoints to run an estate when there is no will, or when the will names no executor able to serve. Once appointed, an administrator has the same basic duties as an executor.
• Advance Healthcare Directive: An advance healthcare directive names a healthcare agent and states a person’s medical treatment wishes for use if they can no longer decide for themselves.
• Affidavit of Death of Joint Tenant: An affidavit of death of joint tenant is a sworn form a surviving owner records with the county, along with a death certificate, to show that a deceased joint tenant’s interest has ended.
• Affidavit of Death of Trustee: An affidavit of death of trustee is a sworn form a successor trustee records with the county, along with a death certificate, to show that the prior trustee has died so the successor can deal with trust real property.
• Ancillary Probate: Ancillary probate is a second probate case in another state, needed when a person who lived in one state owned real property in another. California handles ancillary administration for nonresidents who owned property here.
• Anti-Lapse Statute: California’s anti-lapse statute saves a gift to a predeceased beneficiary’s descendants when the beneficiary was a close relative of the person who made the will or trust, instead of letting the gift lapse.

B

• Beneficiary: A beneficiary is a person or organization named in a will, trust, or account to receive property, and California law gives trust beneficiaries specific rights to information and accountings.
• Beneficiary Designation: A beneficiary designation is the form that names who receives a retirement account, life insurance policy, or payable-on-death account at death. It controls that asset directly and overrides what a will or trust says about it.
• Bequest: A bequest is a gift of property in a will or trust. A specific bequest names a particular item, a general bequest is an amount such as a sum of cash, and a residuary bequest passes whatever is left.
• Bypass Trust (AB Trust): A bypass trust, the B trust in an AB trust plan, holds the first spouse’s share at death so it stays out of the surviving spouse’s taxable estate. Portability has made it unnecessary for many married couples.

C

• Certification of Trust: A certification of trust is a short document that proves a trust exists and states the trustee’s powers without disclosing the trust’s full terms, used to satisfy banks and title companies.
• Charitable Remainder Trust: A charitable remainder trust is an irrevocable trust that pays income to the donor or other named people for life or a term of up to 20 years, then passes what remains to charity. The donor receives an income tax deduction when the trust is funded.
• Codicil: A codicil is a written amendment to an existing will that adds, changes, or revokes specific provisions. California treats a codicil as part of the will, so it has to be signed with the same formalities as a will.
• Community Property: Community property is property either spouse acquires during marriage in California, owned equally by both spouses regardless of whose name is on the title.
• Community Property with Right of Survivorship: Community property with right of survivorship is a way for spouses or registered domestic partners to hold title so the survivor automatically owns the whole property, while keeping community property tax treatment. The deed has to say so expressly.
• Conservatorship: A conservatorship is a court proceeding that appoints someone to manage the person or finances of an adult who can no longer safely manage their own affairs.

D

• Decedent: A decedent is the person who has died, in the language of wills, trusts, probate, and tax returns. Court papers and statutes use the word for the person whose estate is being settled.
• Disclaimer (Disclaiming an Inheritance): A disclaimer is a beneficiary’s written, irrevocable refusal to accept an inheritance. The property then passes as if the disclaiming person had died before the decedent, and a disclaimer made within nine months is presumed timely.
• Durable Power of Attorney: A durable power of attorney stays in effect if the person who signed it later becomes incapacitated, which is what makes it useful for incapacity planning rather than a single transaction.

E

• Elective Share: An elective share is a surviving spouse’s statutory right in many states to claim a set percentage of the deceased spouse’s estate regardless of the will; California, a community property state, has no elective share and instead protects a spouse through community property and omitted-spouse rules.
• Executor: An executor is the person named in a will to carry out its instructions: filing for probate, collecting assets, paying debts, and distributing what remains to beneficiaries.

F

• Fiduciary Duty: A fiduciary duty is the legal obligation a trustee, executor, or agent under a power of attorney owes to act in the beneficiaries’ best interest, in good faith, and with reasonable care.

G

• Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax: The generation-skipping transfer tax is a federal tax on transfers to grandchildren or others two or more generations younger, on top of estate or gift tax, once transfers exceed the donor’s exemption. California has no tax of its own like it.
• Grantor Trust: A grantor trust is a trust whose income is taxed to the person who created it rather than to the trust, under federal income tax rules. Every revocable living trust is a grantor trust while the settlor is alive.
• Guardian ad Litem: A guardian ad litem is a person the court appoints to represent the interests of a minor or an incapacitated person in a probate or trust proceeding they cannot represent themselves.
• Guardianship: A guardianship is a court appointment of an adult to care for a minor child, the child’s property, or both, when neither parent can. Parents can nominate a guardian in a will, and courts give that nomination strong weight.

H

• Heggstad Petition: A Heggstad petition asks the court to confirm that an asset the settlor never formally transferred still belongs to their living trust, avoiding full probate for that one asset.
• Heir: An heir is a person entitled to inherit under California’s intestate succession rules when someone dies without a will. A beneficiary is chosen in a document. An heir is set by family relationship.
• HEMS Standard: HEMS stands for health, education, maintenance, and support, the standard many trusts use to limit a trustee’s discretion over distributions to a beneficiary.
• HIPAA Authorization: A HIPAA authorization is a signed release that lets doctors and hospitals share a person’s medical information with the people it names, such as a healthcare agent or a successor trustee who needs proof of incapacity.
• Holographic Will: A holographic will is a will handwritten and signed by the testator without witnesses; California recognizes it as valid under Probate Code section 6111 if the material terms are in the testator’s own hand.

I

• Independent Administration of Estates Act: The Independent Administration of Estates Act lets a California executor or administrator handle many estate tasks, such as selling property, without first asking the court. Many of those actions require a notice of proposed action instead.
• Inherited IRA: An inherited IRA is a retirement account a beneficiary receives after the owner dies. Most beneficiaries other than a surviving spouse must empty it within 10 years under federal rules, while a few categories of beneficiary have more flexible options.
• Intestate Succession: Intestate succession is the set of rules California uses to distribute a person’s estate when they die without a valid will, based on the surviving relatives’ relationship to the decedent.
• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT): An irrevocable life insurance trust, or ILIT, owns a life insurance policy so the death benefit stays out of the insured person’s taxable estate. The insured gives up control of the policy, and the trustee collects and distributes the proceeds.
• Irrevocable Trust: An irrevocable trust cannot be changed or revoked by the settlor once created (with narrow exceptions), which is what gives it asset-protection and tax advantages a revocable trust does not have.

J

• Joint Tenancy: Joint tenancy is co-ownership in which each owner holds an equal share with a right of survivorship. When one joint tenant dies, that share passes automatically to the surviving owners, outside probate and outside any will or trust.

L

• Lapse (Lapsed Gift): A lapse occurs when a beneficiary named in a will or trust dies before the person who made it, so the gift fails unless California’s anti-lapse statute redirects it to the beneficiary’s descendants.
• Letters of Administration: Letters of administration are the court order appointing an administrator to run an estate when there is no valid will or no executor able to serve. California sets the order of who has priority for appointment in Probate Code section 8461.
• Letters Testamentary: Letters testamentary are the court order that lets a named executor act for an estate: open accounts, sell property, and sign for the decedent under Probate Code section 8400 and following.
• Lineal Descendants: Lineal descendants are a person’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on down the direct line. California’s Probate Code calls them issue, and many wills and trusts leave property to issue or descendants.
• Living Trust: A living trust is a trust created and funded during the settlor’s lifetime that holds title to assets and avoids probate for anything properly transferred into it before death.
• Living Will: A living will is a written statement of the medical treatment a person wants or refuses if they can no longer speak for themselves. In California it is usually part of an advance health care directive, which also names an agent to make decisions.

M

• Marital Deduction: The marital deduction is the federal estate and gift tax rule that lets a person leave or give an unlimited amount to a spouse who is a U.S. citizen without tax. It defers the tax until the surviving spouse’s death.

N

• No-Contest Clause: A no-contest clause disinherits a beneficiary who challenges a will or trust in court; California limits its enforcement to a narrow set of challenges under Probate Code section 21310 and following.
• Notice of Proposed Action: A notice of proposed action is the notice an executor or administrator with independent administration authority gives to beneficiaries before taking certain steps, such as selling real property. A timely objection sends the matter to court.

O

• Omitted Spouse: An omitted spouse is a spouse married after a will or trust was signed and never added to it; California law gives that spouse a share of the estate unless the document shows the omission was intentional.

P

• Payable-on-Death Account: A payable-on-death account is a bank account that names a beneficiary to receive the balance when the owner dies. The money passes directly to that person outside probate, and the owner keeps full control while alive.
• Per Capita: Per capita divides an inheritance equally among all living beneficiaries at the same generational level, rather than passing a deceased beneficiary’s share down to their children.
• Per Stirpes: Per stirpes divides an inheritance by family branch, so a deceased beneficiary’s share passes down to their own children rather than being redistributed among the surviving beneficiaries.
• Personal Representative: Personal representative is the general term California law uses for whoever the probate court appoints to run an estate: an executor named in a will, or an administrator when there is no will or no executor able to serve.
• POLST: A POLST, short for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, is a medical order signed by a seriously ill patient and a clinician that tells emergency and hospital staff which life-sustaining treatments the patient wants.
• Portability: Portability lets a surviving spouse use the unused federal estate tax exemption of the spouse who died first. It is not automatic: the executor has to elect it on a timely federal estate tax return, even when no tax is owed.
• Pour-Over Will: A pour-over will is a backup will that transfers any assets left outside a living trust at death into that trust, catching property the settlor forgot to fund.
• Power of Attorney: A power of attorney is a document giving a named agent authority to act for another person in financial, legal, or health matters, either immediately or on the occurrence of a stated event.
• Pretermitted Heir: A pretermitted heir is a child born or adopted after a will was signed and left out of it; California law presumes the omission was accidental and gives that child an intestate share.
• Probate: Probate is the California court process that validates a will (or applies intestate rules), appoints an executor or administrator, and supervises paying debts and distributing assets under Probate Code section 8000 and following.
• Probate Bond: A probate bond is insurance an executor or administrator posts to protect the estate against mismanagement. It is required unless the will waives it or the beneficiaries waive it in writing, and the court can still order one.
• Probate Code Section 16061.7 Notice: A section 16061.7 notice is the formal notice a trustee must send beneficiaries and heirs when a trust becomes irrevocable, usually at the settlor’s death. It starts the deadline to contest the trust, generally 120 days.
• Probate Code Section 850 Petition: A section 850 petition asks the probate court to resolve a dispute over who owns an asset claimed by an estate or trust, commonly used to pull a missing asset into a trust or estate.
• Probate Referee: A probate referee is a state-appointed appraiser who values most non-cash assets in a California probate estate, such as real estate and stock, for the court. The referee’s commission is set by statute.
• Proposition 19: Proposition 19 is the 2020 California measure that narrowed the parent-to-child property tax exclusion. A child keeps the parent’s assessed value only on a family home the child moves into, up to a cap, so most other inherited property is reassessed.

Q

• QTIP Trust: A QTIP trust pays all of its income to a surviving spouse for life, qualifies for the federal estate tax marital deduction, and then passes to the beneficiaries the first spouse chose, often children from an earlier marriage.

R

• Residuary Estate: The residuary estate is what is left in a will or trust after debts, expenses, and specific and general gifts are paid. A residuary clause names who receives it, and it is often the largest share of the estate.
• Revocable Trust: A revocable trust is a trust the settlor can change or cancel at any time during life. In California a trust is revocable unless the document expressly makes it irrevocable. Most living trusts are revocable trusts.

S

• Separate Property: Separate property is property one spouse owned before marriage, or received during marriage by gift or inheritance, and it stays that spouse’s alone unless it is commingled or transmuted.
• Settlor: A settlor is the person who creates a trust and puts property into it. Documents also use trustor or grantor for the same role. In a typical living trust the settlor is also the first trustee and the lifetime beneficiary.
• Small Estate Affidavit: A small estate affidavit lets an heir collect a decedent’s personal property without full probate when the estate’s value is under the statutory threshold set by Probate Code section 13100.
• Special Needs Trust: A special needs trust holds money for a person with a disability without counting against eligibility for means-tested benefits such as SSI and Medi-Cal. The trustee pays for needs the benefits do not cover.
• Spendthrift Trust: A spendthrift trust bars a beneficiary from selling or pledging their interest and keeps most creditors from reaching trust money before it is paid out. California enforces these provisions, with exceptions for child support and certain other claims.
• Spousal Property Petition: A spousal property petition (form DE-221) is a simplified California probate procedure that confirms a surviving spouse’s ownership of community and separate property without full probate.
• Springing Power of Attorney: A springing power of attorney only takes effect once a stated condition happens, usually a doctor’s certification of incapacity, rather than the moment it is signed.
• Step-Up in Basis: A step-up in basis resets an inherited asset’s tax basis to its value on the owner’s date of death, often eliminating capital gains tax on appreciation that happened before that date.
• Successor Trustee: A successor trustee is the person or institution named in a trust to take over management and distribution once the original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated.
• Survivor's Trust: A survivor’s trust holds the surviving spouse’s share of a married couple’s trust after the first spouse dies, usually their half of the community property plus their separate property. The survivor can usually still change it.

T

• Testamentary Capacity: Testamentary capacity is the mental competence California law requires to make a valid will or trust: understanding the nature of the act, the property involved, and who would naturally inherit it.
• Testator: A testator is the person who makes a will. The word covers that person both while alive and after death, when the will is offered for probate.
• Transfer-on-Death Deed: A revocable transfer on death deed lets a California owner name who receives real property at death without probate. It has to be signed, notarized, and recorded while the owner is alive, and the owner can revoke it.
• Trust Administration: Trust administration is the process a successor trustee follows after a settlor dies or becomes incapacitated: giving notice, collecting assets, paying debts, and distributing what remains.
• Trust Amendment: A trust amendment is a signed document that changes specific terms of an existing trust while leaving the rest in place. It has to follow the method the trust itself sets for making changes.
• Trust Contest: A trust contest is a court challenge to a trust’s validity, usually claiming lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud, or a forged or improperly amended document.
• Trust Decanting: Trust decanting is a trustee’s power to move assets from an existing irrevocable trust into a new trust with updated terms, allowed in California under Probate Code section 19501 and following.
• Trust Funding: Trust funding is retitling assets into the name of a living trust by deed, account change, or assignment. A trust controls only what it owns, so an asset left out of it can still end up in probate.
• Trust Protector: A trust protector is a person named in a trust, separate from the trustee, who holds limited powers such as removing a trustee or updating administrative terms. The trust document itself sets what a protector can do.
• Trust Restatement: A trust restatement replaces the entire text of an existing trust with new terms while keeping the original trust’s name and date. It is used when changes are extensive, and assets already titled in the trust stay there.
• Trustee: A trustee is the person or institution that holds and manages trust property for the benefit of the beneficiaries, according to the terms the settlor set out in the trust document.
• Trustee Accounting: A trustee accounting is the periodic financial report a trustee must give beneficiaries, listing income, disbursements, and remaining assets under Probate Code section 16062 and following.
• Trustee Removal: Trustee removal is a court process that replaces a trustee for breach of duty, unfitness, or hostility with beneficiaries, governed in California by Probate Code section 15642.

U

• Undue Influence: Undue influence is excessive persuasion that overcomes a person’s free will and substitutes another’s intent, the most common ground for contesting a California will or trust.

W

• Will: A will is a signed document that says who receives a person’s property at death, names an executor, and can nominate a guardian for minor children. Property that passes under a will generally goes through probate.
• Will Contest: A will contest is a court challenge to a will’s validity, usually claiming lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud, or improper signing. In California it is raised by objecting before the will is admitted to probate or by petitioning to revoke probate afterward.

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.

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