Estate planning has a vocabulary problem: the words are Latin, the stakes are your family, and most definitions online are written by lawyers for lawyers. This glossary is the plain-language version - every term linked to the Arizona guide where it matters.
- Certificate of trust - A certificate of trust proves your trust exists without revealing its private contents. Why banks ask for it and what it contains.
- Codicil - A codicil is a formal amendment to an existing will, signed with the same formalities. When one makes sense and when a new will is the better tool.
- Death tax - Death tax is the informal name for estate and inheritance taxes. Arizona has neither.
- Estate account - An estate account is a bank account opened for a deceased person's estate during probate. Who can open one, what it requires, and why trusts skip the step.
- Fiduciary - A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest, not their own. What the duty covers and why it matters when choosing an estate advisor.
- Heir vs beneficiary - Heirs are defined by statute; beneficiaries are chosen by documents. Why the distinction decides who actually inherits.
- Intestate - Intestate means dying without a valid will. What happens next in Arizona: the statutes decide who inherits, in a fixed order you never chose.
- Letters testamentary - Letters testamentary are the court document proving a personal representative's authority over an estate. How they're issued in Arizona and who asks for them.
- Life estate - A life estate splits property between a lifetime owner and a remainderman. How it works, its rigidity, and why Arizona's beneficiary deed usually beats it.
- Per stirpes - Per stirpes means a deceased beneficiary's share passes down to their children. What the term controls and why the choice matters in every will and trust.
- Personal representative - Arizona's term for executor: what a personal representative does, who can serve, and what the job actually involves during probate.
- Pour-over will - A pour-over will catches anything left outside your trust at death and directs it into the trust. Why every trust-centered plan includes one.
- Probate assets - Only assets titled solely in the deceased's name with no designated route go through probate. The two lists every Arizona family should understand.
- Right of survivorship - Right of survivorship means a co-owner's share passes automatically to the surviving owner at death.
- Settlor - Settlor, grantor, and trustor all mean the same thing: the person who creates and funds a trust. What the settlor controls and when the role ends.
- Step-up in basis - Inherited property generally resets to date-of-death value for capital gains purposes. How the step-up works and why community property gets a double step-up.
- Successor trustee - The successor trustee takes over a living trust at the creator's death or incapacity. What the role involves and how to choose the right person.
- Testator - The testator is the person who makes a will. What the word means, what capacity requires, and the terms that travel with it.
- Trust funding - Funding a trust means retitling assets into it. Why an unfunded trust fails, what gets retitled, and what gets aimed at the trust instead.
Educational information only, not legal advice.