Texas Property Code 240.002 – Definitions
Terms Used In Texas Property Code 240.002
- 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.
- 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.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- 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.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. Source: OCC
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
- United States: includes a department, bureau, or other agency of the United States of America. See Texas Government Code 311.005
In this chapter:
(1) “Charity” means a charitable entity or a charitable trust, as those terms are defined by § 123.001.
(1-a) “Current beneficiary” and “presumptive remainder beneficiary” have the meanings assigned by § 112.071.
(2) “Disclaim” means to refuse to accept an interest in or power over property, including an interest or power the person is entitled to:
(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; or
(H) by an instrument creating a trust.
(3) “Disclaimant” means:
(A) the person to whom a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made;
(B) the estate to which a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made by the personal representative of the estate; or
(C) the trust into which a disclaimed interest or power would have passed had the disclaimer not been made by the trustee of the trust.
(4) “Disclaimed interest” means the interest that would have passed to the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made.
(5) “Disclaimed power” means the power that would have been possessed by the disclaimant had the disclaimer not been made.
(6) “Disclaimer” means the refusal to accept an interest in or power over property.
(7) “Estate” has the meaning assigned by § 22.012, Estates Code.
(8) “Fiduciary” means a personal representative, a trustee, an attorney in fact or agent acting under a power of attorney, or any other person authorized to act as a fiduciary with respect to the property of another person.
(9) “Guardian” has the meaning assigned by § 1002.012, Estates Code.
(10) Notwithstanding § 311.005, Government Code, “person” means an individual, corporation, including a public corporation, business trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, governmental entity, including a political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal entity.
(11) “Personal representative” has the meanings assigned by Sections 22.031 and 1002.028, Estates Code.
(12) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The term includes an Indian tribe or band, or Alaskan native village, recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state.
(13) “Survivorship property” means property held in the name of two or more persons under an arrangement in which, on the death of one of the persons, the property passes to and is vested in the other person or persons. The term includes:
(A) property held by an agreement described in § 111.001, Estates Code;
(B) property held by a community property survivorship agreement defined in § 112.001, Estates Code; and
(C) property in a joint account held by an agreement described in § 113.151, Estates Code.
(14) “Trust” has the meaning assigned by § 111.003.
(15) “Ward” has the meaning assigned by § 22.033, Estates Code.