Glossary
Every term, defined in plain English.
Probate, LPAs, wills, digital assets and everything else a UK household needs to know.
- Administrator
- The person who deals with an estate when there is no valid will, or no executor able to act.
- Advance decision
- A legally binding refusal of specific medical treatment, in defined circumstances, made while you have capacity.
- Advance statement
- A written record of your general wishes and preferences for care, which guides decisions without being legally binding.
- Attorney
- The person you appoint under a power of attorney to make decisions on your behalf.
- Beneficiary
- Someone who inherits money, property or possessions from an estate.
- Bereavement team
- The dedicated department at a bank, insurer or other provider that handles an account after a customer dies.
- Codicil
- A legal document that changes part of an existing will rather than replacing it.
- Confirmation
- The Scottish equivalent of probate, granted by the sheriff court.
- Death certificate
- The official record of a death, issued when the death is registered.
- Death Notification Service
- A free UK service that lets you tell several banks and building societies about a death in a single online submission.
- Deed of variation
- A document that changes who inherits from an estate, agreed by the affected beneficiaries after a death.
- Digital estate
- Everything you own or hold online: accounts, photos, files, subscriptions and digital assets.
- Digital executor
- The person you nominate to handle your online accounts and digital estate after you die.
- Estate
- Everything a person owns at death, minus everything they owe.
- Executor
- The person named in a will who is responsible for carrying out its instructions and settling the estate.
- Grant of probate
- The official document confirming an executor’s authority to deal with an estate in England and Wales.
- Grant of representation
- The umbrella term for the official document confirming someone’s authority to deal with an estate.
- Inheritance tax
- Tax that may be due on an estate valued above the available threshold.
- Intestacy
- What happens to an estate when someone dies without a valid will.
- Lasting power of attorney
- A legal document letting you appoint someone to make decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself.
- Letters of administration
- The grant issued to an administrator where there is no will, or no executor able to act.
- Mental capacity
- The ability to understand and make a particular decision at the time it needs to be made.
- Nil-rate band
- The amount of an estate that can pass free of inheritance tax.
- Probate
- The legal process of dealing with the estate of someone who has died, including proving that a will is valid.
- Residuary estate
- What is left of an estate after debts, taxes, expenses and any specific gifts have been paid.
- Tell Us Once
- A government service that reports a death to most government departments in a single step.
- Testator
- The person who makes a will.
- Trustee
- Someone who holds and manages assets in a trust for the benefit of others.