Demystifying terms used by estate planning attorneys

Agent: The person given legal authority to make financial decisions for a person through a durable power of attorney document or the legal authority to make health and medical decisions for a person through a health care proxy document.

Artificial Life Support: Medical equipment and other technology used to prolong the life of a person who is seriously ill by sustaining essential body functions, like breathing.

Assets: Personal possessions of value, including cash, bank accounts, real estate, vehicles and investments.

Beneficiaries: The people named in the will to receive the estate of the person upon his or her death.

Conservator: The person appointed by the courts to make financial decisions on behalf of a person.

Custody: Legal responsibility of a person.

DNR:  Stands for “Do not resuscitate” and refers to a person’s instructions that, if his or her heart or breathing stops, the doctor should not try to restart it.

Durable: When a power of attorney document is durable, it is valid even after the person with dementia can no longer make his or her own decisions.

Execute: To legally sign or “carry out” a legal document.

Executor: The person named in a will to manage the estate of the person upon his or her death.

Grantor: The person for whom a living trust is created.

Guardian: The person appointed by the courts to make health care decisions on behalf of a person (sometimes also includes financial decisions.)

Health care agent: The person given legal authority to make health care decisions for a person through a health care proxy document.

Legal capacity: The level of judgment and decision-making ability needed to sign official documents.

Probate:   The process used by the court to distribute the property of a person who has died.

Trustee: The individual or bank chosen to manage the property (assets) in the trust document of a person.



by: Todd C. Ratner, Esc.