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.
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