Texas Estates Code 122.001 – Definitions
Terms Used In Texas Estates Code 122.001
- Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
- Person: includes a natural person and a corporation. See Texas Estates Code 22.027
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
In this subchapter:
(1) “Beneficiary” includes a person who would have been entitled, if the person had not made a disclaimer, to receive property as a result of the death of another person:
(A) by inheritance;
(B) under a will;
(C) by an agreement between spouses for community property with a right of survivorship;
(D) by a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship;
(E) by a survivorship agreement, account, or interest in which the interest of the decedent passes to a surviving beneficiary;
(F) by an insurance, annuity, endowment, employment, deferred compensation, or other contract or arrangement;
(G) under a pension, profit sharing, thrift, stock bonus, life insurance, survivor income, incentive, or other plan or program providing retirement, welfare, or fringe benefits with respect to an employee or a self-employed individual;
(H) by a transfer on death deed; or
(I) by a beneficiary designation as defined by § 115.001.
(2) “Disclaim” and “disclaimer” have the meanings assigned by § 240.002, Property Code.