Wills and Inheritance Key Terminology Crossword

Administrator - A person appointed by the court to administer the estate in cases of total or partial intestacy.
Attestation – The witnessing of a will.
Attestation clause – A clause at the foot of the will for the signature of the will maker and the witnesses to the will.
Beneficiary – A person who receives benefits under the will.
Bequest – A gift of personal property by means of a will, usually not money.
Devise – A gift of real property (house or land).
Die without issue – Die without children.
Estate – All assets and all liabilities (that being, everything the will maker owns and all their debts).
Executor – A person appointed to carry out the directions regarding property contained in the will.
Grant of probate – The giving of approval to the executor to deal with the estate after the registrar of probates or the Supreme Court has accepted the will as valid.
Interested witness – A person who is a beneficiary under the will, or whose spouse is a beneficiary.
Intestate – Dying without a will.
Joint proprietors – When two or more people own a property as joint proprietors, and one dies, the remaining joint owner automatically owns the whole property. One person’s share of the property cannot be left to someone else in a will.
Legacy – A gift of money.
Letters of administration – The giving of approval to an appointed administrator to deal with the estate of a person who has died without a will. The registrar of probates of the Supreme Court must be satisfied that there was no valid will.
Partial intestacy – Where a will distributes only part of a deceased's estate (meaning that the person died partially intestate). The part of the estate that has not been disposed of by the will is divided according to the statutory order.
Probate parchment – Document certifying that the will has been proved (declared valid).
Real property – Land including vacant land, the family home, other real estates, business properties and farms.
Tenants in common – When two or more peoples own a property as tenants in common (in equal or unequal shares), each owner can separately dispose of their portion of the property. Their share forms part of their estate and is an asset to be disposed of by a will.
Testator – A person who makes a will.
Trust – The holding of property for the benefit of another person.