- APR – Agricultural Property Relief
- Asset – something owned
- Attorney – a person or persons chosen by you to assist in making both property and financial decisions and health and welfare decisions should you be unable to make these yourself
- Beneficiary – recipient of assets from a will, a trust or a life policy
- Bequeath/bequest – to give something in a will/to receive something from a will
- BPR – Business Property Relief
- Capacity – an individual’s mental ability to make legal decisions
- Deputy – appointed by the court (and may be unknown to you) to make financial decisions if you lose capacity and do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney in Place
- Estate – all that a person owns at the date of their death
- Estate administration – can sometimes be referred to as probate – dealing with the assets of a deceased
- Executor – (masculine) the person named in a will who must ensure that the deceased’s will is administered in accordance with their wishes
- Executrix – (feminine) the person named in a will who must ensure that the deceased’s will is administered in accordance with their wishes
- Grant of Probate – legal term given to the document that allows the executors authority to administer the estate
- Guardian – a person appointed to look after any children of the deceased when both parents have passed away
- Inheritance Tax (IHT) – tax payable when the deceased’s estate exceeds the current tax limits
- Intestacy – when a person dies without leaving a will
- Intestate – the person who dies without making a will
- Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) – legal document that allows your attorney (chosen trusted person) to make health and welfare decisions and/or property and financial decisions on your behalf
- Legacy – a gift left to someone in a will
- Legatee – the person who receives a gift in a will
- Letters of Administration – the document that allows personal representatives to administer and estate where there is no will
- Mental Capacity Act 2005 – an act of Parliament that provides the legal framework for making decisions and acting on behalf of someone who lacks mental capacity
- NRB – Nil rate Band (IHT allowance)
- Personal Representative – person appointed to administer the estate of a person who dies intestate
- PET – Potentially Exempt Transfer
- Pilot Trust – a trust set up during your lifetime to receive assets (unlike a will trust which comes into effect on your death)
- Probate – see estate administration above
- Residue – balance of the estate when all legacies, liabilities, debts, taxes, expenses and legal fees have been distributed/paid
- RNRB – Residents Nil Rate Band (IHT allowance)
- Testator – person who makes a will (masculine)
- Testatrix – person who makes a will (feminine)
- Trust – a financial arrangement where property/assets/money are held by named people (Trustees) on behalf of someone else
- Trust Deed – the legal document used to make, amend, change or control a trust
- Trustee – the person who looks after trust assets on behalf of someone else
- Will – a legal document that allows the testator or testatrix to decide on the distribution of their assets on their death
