Legal Terms Chapter 25 - Wills, Testaments, and Advance Directives

Question 1

Advance directives

Answer 1

A written statement specifying whether a person wants life-sustaining medical treatment if he or she becomes desperately ill, and if so, what types of treatments; includes the use of a living will.

Question 2

Agent

Answer 2

A person authorized to act on behalf of another and subject to the other’s control; also called surrogate.

Question 3

Attest

Answer 3

To bear witness to.

Question 4

Attesting witnesses

Answer 4

People who witness the signing of a document.

Question 5

Beneficiary

Answer 5

Someone who actually receives a gift under a will and more of a general term; also, one for whose benefit a trust is created. Also called cestui que trust.

Question 6

Bequeath

Answer 6

To give personal property in a will.

Question 7

Bequest

Answer 7

A gift of personal property in a will; also called legacy.

Question 8

Decedent

Answer 8

A deceased person.

Question 9

Devise

Answer 9

A gift of real property in a will.

Question 10

Devisee

Answer 10

A person to whom real property is given by will.

Question 11

Devisor

Answer 11

A person who gives real property by will.

Question 12

Directive to physicians

Answer 12

A written expression of a person’s wishes to be allowed to die a natural death and not be kept alive by heroic or artificial methods; also called living will, health care declaration, or medical directive.

Question 13

Disinterested witnesses

Answer 13

An attesting witness to a will who will not inherit property under the will.

Question 14

DNR

Answer 14

Do not resuscitate. A medical order written by a doctor, but at the wishes of the patient, instructing medical personnel that the patient is refusing CPR.

Question 15

Durable power of attorney

Answer 15

A document authorizing another person to act on one’s behalf, with language indicating that the authorization either is to survive one’s incapacity or is to become effective when one becomes incapacitated.

Question 16

Estate planning

Answer 16

Arranging a person’s assets in a way that maintains and protects the family most effectively, both during the person’s life and after the person’s death.

Question 17

Euthanasia

Answer 17

An active procedure to hasten the death of one who is terminally ill or in immense suffering.

Question 18

Exordium clause

Answer 18

The introductory paragraph of a will; also called publication clause.

Question 19

Health care declaration

Answer 19

A written expression of a person’s wishes to be allowed to die a natural death and not be kept alive by heroic or artificial methods; also called directive to physicians, living will, or medical directive.

Question 20

Health care proxy

Answer 20

A written statement authorizing an agent or a surrogate to make medical treatment decisions for another in the event of the other’s inability to do so; also called medical power of attorney.

Question 21

Holographic will

Answer 21

A will written entirely in the hand of the testator and not signed by the required number of witnesses.

Question 22

Instrument

Answer 22

A formal or written legal document, such as a deed, contract, or will.

Question 23

Intestate share

Answer 23

An amount that is inherited when a decedent has died without a will.

Question 24

Legacy

Answer 24

A gift of personal property in a will.

Question 25

Legatee

Answer 25

A person who receives a gift of personal property under a will.

Question 26

Legator

Answer 26

A person who makes a gift of personal property by a will.

Question 27

Living will

Answer 27

A written expression of a person's wishes to be allowed to die a natural death and not be kept alive by heroic or artificial methods; also called directive to physicians, health care declaration, or medical directive.

Question 28

Nuncupative will

Answer 28

An oral will.

Question 29

Predecease

Answer 29

To die before.

Question 30

Proponent

Answer 30

One who proposes or argues in support of something, such as the allowance of a will.

Question 31

Self-proving will

Answer 31

A will with a self-proving clause (or affidavit), allowing the will to be accepted as valid without the testimony of witnesses as it is made at the time of subscription.

Question 32

Soundness of mind

Answer 32

Sufficient mental ability to make a will; also called testamentary capacity.

Question 33

Springing power

Answer 33

A power in a durable power of attorney that does not become effective until the person making it actually becomes incapacitated.

Question 34

Subscribe

Answer 34

To sign below at the end; to write underneath.

Question 35

Surrogate

Answer 35

A person authorized to act on behalf of another and subject to the other's control; also called agent.

Question 36

Surrogate decision-making laws

Answer 36

Laws that permit close relatives to make healthcare decisions for family that have no advance directives and are unable to make their own decisions.

Question 37

Testament

Answer 37

Under early English common law, a legal instrument stating a person's wishes as to the disposition of personal property at death; now, just generally called a will.

Question 38

Testamentary disposition

Answer 38

A gift of property that is not to take effect until the one who makes the gift dies.

Question 39

Testate

Answer 39

The condition of a person having made a valid will.

Question 40

Testator

Answer 40

A man who makes or has made a testament or will; now used interchangeably for both genders.

Question 41

Testatrix

Answer 41

A woman who makes or has made a testament or will.

Question 42

Uniform Probate Code

Answer 42

A uniform code attempting to standardize and modernize laws relating to the affairs of decedents, minors, and certain other people who need protection.

Question 43

Will

Answer 43

Originally, a legal instrument stating a person's wishes as to the disposition of real property at death, but now referring to both real and personal property.