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The word comes from French héritier légitime, meaning "rightful heir." The legitime is usually a statutory fraction of the decedent's gross estate and passes as joint property to the decedent's next-of-kin in equal undivided shares. The legitime cannot be infringed in order to give a spouse or other beneficiary a greater share of the estate.
In common law jurisdictions, probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased; or whereby, in the absence of a legal will, the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy that apply in the jurisdiction where the deceased resided at the time of their death.
Eddie August Schneider's (1911–1940) death certificate, issued in New York.. A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as entered in an official register of deaths.
Codicil – (1) amendment to a will; (2) a will that modifies or partially revokes an existing or earlier will. Decedent – the deceased (U.S. term) Demonstrative Legacy – a gift of a specific sum of money with a direction that is to be paid out of a particular fund. Descent – succession to real property. Devise – testamentary gift of ...
An elective share is a term used in American law relating to inheritance, which describes a proportion of an estate which the surviving spouse of the deceased may claim in place of what they were left in the decedent's will. It may also be called a widow's share, statutory share, election against the will, or forced share.
The administrator of an estate is a legal term referring to a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of a deceased person who left no will. [1] Where a person dies intestate, i.e., without a will, the court may appoint a person to settle their debts, pay any necessary taxes and funeral expenses, and distribute the remainder according to the procedure set down by law.
Inheritance taxes are paid not by the estate of the deceased, but by the inheritors of the estate. For example, the Kentucky inheritance tax "is a tax on the right to receive property from a decedent's estate; both tax and exemptions are based on the relationship of the beneficiary to the decedent." [52]
Forced heirship is a form of testate partible inheritance which mandates how the deceased's estate is to be disposed and which tends to guarantee an inheritance for family of the deceased. In forced heirship, the estate of a deceased (de cujus) is separated into two portions. An indefeasible portion, the forced estate, [a] passing to the ...