Terminology

Question 1

Intestacy

Answer 1

refers to the circumstance of a person dying without a will.

Question 2

Intestate Distribution

Answer 2

involves distribution of a decedent’s assets not according to a will but according to a statute.

Question 3

Decedent

Answer 3

is a deceased individual.

Question 4

Heir

Answer 4

is a person statutorily entitled to inherit the decedent’s property when the decedent dies without a will.

Question 5

Lineal descendants

Answer 5

refer to both persons directly descended from the decedent (children, grandchildren, etc.), including children who are conceived before, but are not born until after, the death of the decedent, and to a decedent’s adopted children.

Question 6

Lineal ascendants

Answer 6

refer to those from whom the decedent is descendant (e.g., parents, grandparents, etc.).

Question 7

Collateral heirs

Answer 7

refer to descendants of the decedent’s grandparents who are not also descendants of the decedent (e.g, the decedent’s siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins).

Question 8

Intestate Estate

Answer 8

refers to any part of the decedent’s estate that is not effectively distributed by a valid will (and is thus distributed by intestate succession).

Question 9

Testacy

Answer 9

refers to the circumstance of a person dying with a will.

Question 10

Testate Estate

Answer 10

refers to that part of the decedent’s estate that is distributed according to the terms of a valid will.

Question 11

Testator

Answer 11

is a person who executes a valid will.

Question 12

Devises

Answer 12

are terms referring to testamentary gifts of property pursuant to the decedent’s will.

Question 13

Testamentary Disposition

Answer 13

refers to the making of a gift in a will, in which case the gift will be distributed through the probate process.

Question 14

Probate Estate

Answer 14

refers to anything that passes through the will.

Question 15

Non-Probate Assets

Answer 15

are interests in property that will pass at the decedent’s death outside the will.

Question 16

Per stirpes

Answer 16

means that the descendants of a deceased person take by representation the share that the deceased person would have taken had he survived to be an heir.

Florida follows a strict per stirpes rule, determining stirpital shares at the first generational level, whether or not there are any living takers at that level.