Glossary of Probate Terms: A Comprehensive Guide

The probate process involves various legal terms that can often be complex and difficult to understand. This glossary aims to Clear up these terms, providing a clear and concise explanation for each.

Administrator:

The person appointed by, and qualified before, the Clerk to administer the decedent’s estate when the decedent has no will or has a will that does not name an executor or all executors named decline to serve.

 

Beneficiary:

A person or entity entitled to receive a portion of the estate.

 

Bond:

A written promise, recorded in the Clerk’s Office, by the administrator to perform his or her obligations and duties.

 

Certificate of Qualification:

The written document created by the Clerk, under seal, at the time the personal representative qualifies to administer the estate. Sometimes referred to as “letters testamentary.”

 

Clerk or Clerk’s Office:

The Clerk of the Circuit Court that has jurisdiction to probate the will and appoint the administrator or executor of the estate.

 

Commissioner of Accounts:

The person appointed by the Court to oversee the reports and activities of personal representatives.

 

Court:

The Circuit Court that has jurisdiction to probate wills and to qualify administrators and executors.

 

Creditor:

A person or organization owed money by the decedent.

 

Decedent:

The deceased person.

 

Estate:

The decedent’s property, including real estate, personal property and any other assets owned or controlled by the decedent at the time of his or her death.

 

Executor:

The person named in the decedent’s will to administer the estate who accepts appointment by qualifying before the Clerk.

 

Fiduciary:

A person in a position of trust with respect to another’s property; a general term used to refer to executor, administrator or trustee.

 

Heirs/Heirs at Law:

The persons who would inherit the decedent’s estate if the decedent died intestate, as determined by law at the time of the decedent’s death.

 

Intestate:

Dying without a will.

 

Intestate Succession:

The order in which family members are to inherit property from a decedent who dies intestate, as set forth at Virginia Code Sections 64.2-200 and 64.2-201.

 

Inventory:

The list or schedule describing the decedent’s assets over which the personal representative has authority. (Clerk will provide a printed form.)

Legatee:

 

A person who may inherit property under a will; a more technical name for beneficiary.

 

Notice of Probate:

The required notice of certain information given to beneficiaries and heirs. (Clerk will provide a printed form.)

 

Personal Representative:

A term used to mean either the executor or the administrator of the estate, as the context requires.

 

Probate:

The procedure whereby a will is admitted to record in the Clerk’s Office; the process of qualifying a person as executor or administrator of an estate; also sometimes used generally to refer to the entire process of administering an estate.

 

Qualification:

The procedure whereby a person is appointed by the Clerk to serve as executor or administrator of a decedent’s estate.

 

Self-Proving Affidavit:

An affidavit, given under oath, by the testator and witnesses, and notarized, that proves the Will was signed and witnessed in accordance with Virginia law.

 

Testate:

Dying with a will.

 

Testator:

A person who makes a will.

 

Will:

A written document that directs how, when, and to whom the Testator wants his or her property distributed after death.