Glossary of Terms
Terms
- Administrator: a person legally vested with the right of administration of an estate
- Certificate: a document containing a certified statement especially as to the truth of something; specifically
- Codicil: a legal instrument made to modify an earlier will
- Decedent: a deceased person - used chiefly in law
- Estate: the degree, quality, nature, and extent of one's interest in land or other property; possessions, property; especially: a person's real property; the assets and liabilities left by a person at death
- Executor: the person appointed by a testator to execute a will
- Inter vivos trust: living trust
- Intestate: having made no valid will
- License: a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful
- Lineal descendants: someone who is directly related to a person who lived in the past; son, daughter, grandchild
- Living trust: a trust that becomes effective during the lifetime of the settlor -called also inter vivos trust
- Personal Representative: Person named in a will (Executor/ Executrix) or appointed by the Register (Administrator/Administratrix) to administer an estate.
- Plenary: complete in every respect: absolute, unqualified
- Probate: the action or process of proving before a competent judicial authority that a document offered for official recognition and registration as the last will and testament of a deceased person is genuine
- Property: something owned or possessed; specifically: a piece of real estate; the exclusive rights to possess, enjoy, and dispose of a thing: ownership; something to which a person or business has a legal title; one (as a performer) who is under contract and whose work is especially valuable
- Settlor: one that makes a settlement or creates a trust of property
- Testate: having left a valid will
- Testament: an act by which a person determines the disposition of his or her property after death
- Testator/testatrix: a person who dies leaving a will or testament in force
- Trust: a property interest held by one person for the benefit of another
- Will: a written instrument legally executed by which a person makes disposition of his or her estate to take effect after death
Source
The definitions provided for the terms on this page were drawn from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary on April 23, 2012.
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Linda Bobrin, Esq.
Register of Wills & Clerk of the Orphans' Court
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Register of Wills
Physical Address
55 E Court Street
6th Floor
Doylestown, PA 18901
Phone: 215-348-6265
Lower Bucks County Government Service Center
7391 New Falls Rd.
Levittown, PA 19055
Phone: 267-580-3585Orphans' Court Contact
Email the Clerk of Orphans' Court
Hours
The Register of Wills/Clerk of the Orphans’ Court is open to the public from 8:00am until 4:15pm. Both virtual and in-person appointments are conducted. Please call 215-348-6254 or 215-348-6264 to schedule an appointment.
Disclaimer
All information on this webpage is to inform and not to advise. It is based upon Pennsylvania law. The statements are general, and individual facts in a given case may alter their application or involve other laws not referred to here.
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