Terms Used In Texas Estates Code Chapter 401 - Creation

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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}
• Claims: includes :
  (1) liabilities of a decedent that survive the decedent's death, including taxes, regardless of whether the liabilities arise in contract or tort or otherwise;
  (2) funeral expenses;
  (3) the expense of a tombstone;
  (4) expenses of administration;
  (5) estate and inheritance taxes; and
  (6) debts due such estates. See Texas Estates Code 22.005
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Distributee: means a person who is entitled to a part of the estate of a decedent under a lawful will or the statutes of descent and distribution. See Texas Estates Code 22.010
• Estate: means a decedent's property, as that property:
  (1) exists originally and as the property changes in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise;
  (2) is augmented by any accretions and other additions to the property, including any property to be distributed to the decedent's representative by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the decedent's death, and substitutions for the property; and
  (3) is diminished by any decreases in or distributions from the property. See Texas Estates Code 22.012
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Independent executor: means the personal representative of an estate under independent administration as provided by Chapter 401 and § 402. See Texas Estates Code 22.017
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Judge: means the presiding judge of any court having original jurisdiction over probate proceedings, regardless of whether the court is:
  (1) a county court in the exercise of its probate jurisdiction;
  (2) a court created by statute and authorized to exercise probate jurisdiction; or
  (3) a district court exercising probate jurisdiction in a contested matter. See Texas Estates Code 22.019
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Minor: means a person younger than 18 years of age who:
  (1) has never been married; and
  (2) has not had the disabilities of minority removed for general purposes. See Texas Estates Code 22.022
• personal representative: include :
  (1) an executor and independent executor;
  (2) an administrator, independent administrator, and temporary administrator; and
  (3) a successor to an executor or administrator listed in Subdivision (1) or (2). See Texas Estates Code 22.031
• Probate: Proving a will
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Remainderman: One entitled to the remainder of an estate after a particular reserved right or interest, such as a life tenancy, has expired.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Surety: includes a personal surety and a corporate surety. See Texas Estates Code 22.032
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.