The words, andwhat they mean

Administrator

The person a court appoints to settle an estate when there is no will, or when the will named nobody who can act. The equivalent role to an executor, with the difference that the estate did not choose them.

See also: Executor / Intestacy

Advance directive

Your written instructions about the medical care you would and would not want if you could not say so yourself. On this platform it is part of the Medical Power of Attorney rather than a separate document, because an appointment without instructions leaves your agent guessing.

Agent

The person you authorise to act for you under a power of attorney. Sometimes called an attorney in fact, which does not mean they are a lawyer. A financial agent handles money and property; a healthcare agent speaks to your doctors.

See also: Power of attorney

Beneficiary

Whoever receives something: under a will, under a trust, or by designation on an account. The detail that catches people is that a beneficiary designation on a retirement account or a policy governs that asset directly, whatever a later will says about it.

See also: Beneficiary designation

Beneficiary designation

The form you filled in when you opened a retirement account or bought a policy. It passes that specific asset to the person named on it, so a form completed years ago can quietly override a will you signed last week. Worth checking every few years.

Capacity

Being able to understand what you are signing and what it does. It is one of the requirements for a valid will or trust, and it is judged at the moment of signing rather than afterwards.

Codicil

A formal amendment to an existing will, executed with the same requirements as the will itself. Largely a paper era instrument: where a document can be regenerated and re-signed, replacing the whole will is cleaner than layering a change on top of it.

Community property

The rule in a minority of states that most property acquired during a marriage belongs equally to both spouses regardless of whose name is on it. It changes what each spouse is free to leave, which is why the platform asks which state you live in early.

See also: Marital agreement

Descendant

Your children, their children, and onward down the line. Wills use it rather than listing names, so a grandchild born after signing is still covered.

Durable

Of a power of attorney: authority that continues if you become unable to act for yourself. That is the entire point, since a non durable power of attorney ends at exactly the moment it becomes necessary.

Estate

Everything you own and everything you owe, at the moment it has to be dealt with. Not a word about size: a rented flat and a savings account is an estate.

Executor

The person named in a will to gather what you owned, pay what you owed, and pass on the rest. Naming one with no alternate is the most common and most expensive omission in a will.

See also: Administrator

Funding a trust

Actually moving assets into a trust: retitling the house, re-registering accounts, transferring what you want it to hold. A trust governs only what it owns, so an unfunded trust is a signed document that governs nothing. It is where most trust based plans stall.

Grantor

The person who creates a trust and puts things into it. Also called a settlor or trustor. With a revocable living trust you are usually the grantor, the trustee and the beneficiary all at once while you are alive.

See also: Trustee / Revocable living trust

Guardian

The person who raises your children if you cannot. Appointed in a will and nowhere else, which is why a trust based plan still needs one. Name an alternate: an appointment with no backup is one phone call from being empty.

Intestacy

What applies when somebody dies without a valid will. Each state has a statute that distributes an estate in a fixed order, written for an average family. It has no way of knowing about a stepchild you raised or a partner you never married.

Legacy Counsel™

A full consultation with an independent estate attorney, licensed in your state, for a situation that genuinely needs one. They charge you for the service they provide, with the scope agreed before anything starts.

Legacy Lens™

The dashboard at the centre of the platform: net worth over time, your goals, your documents and your LQ™ Score in one view, with the recommendations ranked by what each one is worth.

Legacy Professionals™

The verified network of advisors, planners, estate attorneys, CPAs and insurance producers matched to households by state. Every licence is checked with the body that issued it before anybody is listed.

Legacy Vault™

Encrypted storage for the documents you create and anything you upload beside them. On Legacy Complete™ and above you can share a single document with a single person and revoke it in one action.

LQ™ Score

The Legacy Quotient: one number out of 100 for how ready your family is if something happened tomorrow, across four pillars. The pillars are not counted evenly, because the risks are not even.

Marital agreement

A written agreement between spouses about what is separate property and what is shared, signed before the wedding (prenuptial) or after it (postnuptial). Whether one holds up turns heavily on how it was made: full disclosure, real time to consider it, and in several states independent counsel for each party.

Per stirpes

A distribution instruction meaning a deceased beneficiary’s share passes down to their own children rather than being split among the surviving beneficiaries. Two words that decide whether your grandchildren inherit their parent’s share.

Pour over will

A short will whose main instruction is that anything not already held by your trust should go to it. The companion document to a revocable living trust, and the place guardianship is appointed in a trust based plan.

Power of attorney

A document authorising someone to act for you while you are alive. Financial powers cover money and property; medical powers cover healthcare decisions. Both end at death, which is where a will takes over.

Probate

The court supervised process of administering an estate: proving the will, appointing the executor, settling debts and distributing what is left. It is a matter of public record, and a clear will is the instruction manual for it.

Residuary estate

Everything left after specific gifts, debts and taxes. The residuary clause is what stops something being undistributed because nobody thought to name it.

Revocable living trust

A structure that holds what you own while you are alive and sets out how it passes when you are not. Revocable means you can change or dissolve it at any time you have capacity. It is an organising instrument, not protection from tax or from your own creditors.

Self proving affidavit

A short attachment in which your witnesses swear to what they saw you sign, usually notarised. Optional in most states and worth doing, because without it an executor may have to find those witnesses years later.

Smart Review™

A flat fee review of a document you have already created by a verified legal professional, returned as written findings rather than a phone call. Available on every plan.

Spousal elective share

The portion of an estate a surviving spouse can claim in many states regardless of what the will says. It is the reason a will and a marital agreement have to agree with each other.

See also: Marital agreement

Successor trustee

Whoever takes over running your trust when you cannot. The single most important appointment in a trust, and the one most often left without an alternate.

See also: Trustee

Testator

The person making a will. The word you sign under, and the one on the signature block.

Trustee

Whoever holds and manages trust property under the terms of the trust, with a legal duty to the beneficiaries. With a revocable living trust you are normally your own first trustee.

See also: Successor trustee / Grantor

Will

Written instructions taking effect at death: who receives what, who administers the estate, and who raises your children. It does not operate while you are alive, which is what powers of attorney are for.

Witness

Somebody who watches you sign a will and signs to say so. Your state sets how many are required, and in most states a beneficiary should not be one. Getting this wrong is the most common way a valid will fails.