Glossary of Terms
(Surrogate's Court Procedure Act §103; Black’s Law Dictionary)
Administrator: Any person to whom letters of administration have been issued by a court; a person appointed by the court to manage the assets and liabilities of an intestate decedent.
Alleged: Asserted to be true as described, but not yet proved (e.g. Alleged Distributee).
Beneficiary: Any person entitled to any part or all of an estate.
Citation: A court-issued writ (order) that commands a person to appear at a certain time and place to do something demanded in the writ, or to show cause for not doing so.
Distributee(s): (also called: Heir; next-of-kin). Any person or persons entitled to take or share in the property from a decedent who has not left a will; the person or persons most closely related by blood to a decedent.
Due Diligence: The diligence reasonably expected from, and ordinarily exercised by, a person who seeks to satisfy a legal requirement or to discharge an obligation.
Domicile: A fixed, permanent and principal home to which a person, wherever temporarily located, always intends to return.
Domiciliary: A person whose domicile is within the state of New York.
Estate: All of the property of a decedent; all that a person owns and the liabilities of the decedent.
Executor: A person named by a testator to carry out the provisions of the testator’s will; any person to whom letters testamentary have been issued by a court.
Fiduciary: One who owes to another the duties of good faith, trust, confidence and candor; one who must exercise a high standard of care in managing another’s money or property (e.g.: an administrator, executor, public administrator).
Funeral Expense: Includes reasonable expense of a funeral, suitable church or other services as an integral part thereof, expense of interment or other disposition of the body, a burial lot and suitable monumental work thereon and a reasonable expenditure for perpetual care of a burial lot of the decedent.
Genealogy: A family tree; descent in a direct line from a progenitor; pedigree; the study of pedigrees.
Guardian: Any person to whom letters of guardianship have been issued by a court of this state, pursuant to the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, the Family Court or Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law.
Guardian ad Litem: A guardian, usually a lawyer, appointed by the court to appear in a lawsuit or court proceeding on behalf of an incapacitated person or a party who is a minor.
Incapacitated Person: Any person who, for any cause, is incapable adequately to protect his or her rights, including a person for whom a guardian has been appointed pursuant to Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law; a person who is impaired by an intoxicant, by mental illness or deficiency, or by physical illness or disability to the extent that personal decision-making is impossible.
Infant (Minor): A person who has not attained the age of 18 years.
Intestate: Of or relating to a person who has died without a valid will (never having made a will, he/she was intestate when he/she died); of or relating to the property owned by a person who died without a valid will (an intestate estate).
Issue: The descendants in any degree from a common ancestor. In kinship cases, the term “issue” refers to one’s children (whole or half-blood) and includes adopted children, but not stepchildren.
Kinship: Relationship by blood, marriage or adoption.
Letters: (Includes letters of administration, letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, etc.). A formal document issued by the Surrogate’s Court to appoint the administrator or executor of an estate, or to appoint the guardian of a minor or incapacitated person.
Probate: The judicial procedure by which a testamentary document is established to be a valid will; the proving of a will to the satisfaction of the court.
Public Administrator: A state-appointed officer who administers intestate estates that are not administered by a relative of the decedent.
Spouse and Issue Witness: A disinterested party who can testify at the kinship trial as to whether or not the decedent ever married or had children, natural or adopted.
Surrogate’s Court: A court with the power to declare wills valid or invalid, to oversee the administration of estates, and appoint guardians and approve the adoption of minors. In many states it is call Probate Court.