Glossary of Elder Law & Estate Terms

38 of 38 terms

Advance Healthcare Directive

A legal document in which an adult states their preferences for medical care if they lose the ability to make decisions, or appoints someone (a health care proxy) to speak for them.

Befriending Service

A program that matches an older or isolated person with a volunteer who calls or visits regularly for friendly conversation. It goes by names like "friendly visitor", "telephone reassurance" or "senior companion". It is companionship, not counseling or care.

Beneficiary

A person or organization designated to receive cash, property, or income from a will, trust, life insurance policy, retirement account, or bank account.

Capacity

The legal and cognitive ability of a person to understand the nature and consequences of a decision or legal document (such as signing a will, deed, or power of attorney).

Certification of Trust

A short, notarized summary of a trust agreement that proves the trustee's identity and authority without disclosing private distribution instructions or asset amounts to banks.

Community Property

In some states, most property earned by either spouse during the marriage belongs to both spouses equally. It affects how property passes at death.

Crisis Line

A free, confidential phone, text or chat service for anyone in emotional distress, thinking about suicide, or worried about someone else. Most are open day and night. You do not need to be suicidal to call; overwhelming stress is reason enough.

Durable Power of Attorney

A legal document granting a trusted agent the authority to manage finances and property. The word "durable" means the power remains valid even if the person becomes mentally incapacitated. All powers of attorney end at death.

Executor

The person named in a will and formally appointed by a probate court to collect estate assets, pay valid debts and taxes, and distribute what remains to heirs.

Fiduciary

Someone who must manage money or property for another person's benefit, honestly and carefully, and never for their own gain. Agents under a power of attorney, executors and trustees are fiduciaries.

Guardianship

A court case that gives someone legal authority to make decisions for an adult who can no longer make them. Some states call it conservatorship when it covers money. Having a durable power of attorney and a health care proxy in place usually avoids it.

Health Care Proxy

A legal document naming a specific person to make medical decisions on a patient's behalf if the patient is unconscious, confused, or unable to communicate.

Hospice Care

Specialized compassionate medical, nursing, and emotional care for patients with a terminal illness who have a prognosis of six months or less, focusing on comfort and dignity rather than curative treatment.

Intestate

Dying without a valid will. State law then decides who inherits.

Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship

A form of co-ownership of real estate or financial accounts. When one owner dies, their share transfers automatically to the surviving owner without passing through probate.

Letters Testamentary

The official legal certificates issued by a probate court empowering an executor or administrator to access the deceased's bank accounts, sell property, and settle debts.

Loneliness

The painful feeling that your connections with other people are fewer or less close than you want. It is about how relationships feel, so a person can feel lonely in a busy household, or content while living alone.

Medicaid Estate Recovery

A federally mandated state program that seeks repayment from a deceased recipient's estate for long-term care services paid by Medicaid after age 55.

Medicaid Look-Back Period

A period (typically 60 months / 5 years in most states) before applying for long-term care Medicaid, during which the state examines asset transfers or gifts made for less than fair market value. Penalties delay benefits.

Palliative Care

Specialized medical care providing relief from pain, stress, and symptoms of a serious illness, available at any stage of disease alongside curative treatments.

Payable on Death (POD) / Transfer on Death (TOD)

A bank or brokerage designation naming a beneficiary who immediately inherits the account upon the primary owner's death, completely bypassing probate court.

Per Capita

A Latin term meaning "by the head." When a child who would have inherited has died, "per capita at each generation" divides that share so that relatives in the same generation (for example, all the grandchildren who inherit through a parent who died) receive equal amounts. It is different from "per stirpes," which divides by family branch.

Per Stirpes

A Latin legal term meaning "by branch" or "by roots." If a named child dies before the parent, that child's share passes equally down to that child's own children (the parent's grandchildren).

POLST / MOLST

Physician/Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. Actionable medical orders signed by a physician and patient translating preferences into bedside orders for emergency paramedics.

Pour-Over Will

A backup will used in conjunction with a living trust. It directs that any forgotten or omitted assets held in the deceased's personal name "pour over" into the revocable trust.

Probate

The formal, court-supervised legal process of proving a will's validity, inventorying assets, paying creditors, and distributing the remaining property to heirs.

Respite Care

Short-term care for a person who needs looking after, so that their usual caregiver can rest. It can last a few hours or a few days, at home, in an adult day program or in a care facility.

Revocable

Able to be changed or cancelled. A revocable living trust can be changed by the person who made it at any time while they are able.

Revocable Living Trust

A legal arrangement created during life where you transfer ownership of assets to a trustee (initially yourself) for your benefit. At incapacity or death, a successor trustee manages and distributes the property privately without probate.

Self-Proving Affidavit

A sworn statement signed by the person making a will and the witnesses, in front of a notary. It lets the court accept the will without calling the witnesses to testify.

Settlor

The person who creates a trust. Also called the grantor or trustor.

Small Estate Affidavit

A short sworn form that lets heirs collect a modest estate without a full probate case. Each state sets its own dollar limit and rules.

Social Isolation

Having few relationships or little regular contact with other people. It can be counted (who someone sees, how often) and often grows in later life with hearing loss, giving up driving, illness or the death of friends. Isolation and loneliness often, but not always, go together.

Spendthrift Clause

A protective trust provision preventing a beneficiary from pledging away their future inheritance and shielding trust assets from a beneficiary's outside creditors or lawsuits.

Step-Up in Basis

A tax benefit where the cost basis of inherited assets (like real estate or stocks) is adjusted to fair market value on the date of death, eliminating capital gains tax on prior appreciation.

Successor Trustee

The trusted individual or institution appointed in a trust agreement to step in and manage trust assets when the original trustee becomes incapacitated or passes away.

Transfer-on-Death Deed

A deed, available in many states, that names who will receive a home or land at the owner's death, without probate. The owner keeps full control while alive and can change it.

Undue Influence

Excessive persuasion or manipulation by a person in a position of trust or authority that overpowers the free will of a vulnerable or frail elderly adult.