Plain-language guide

What the words actually mean

Probate has its own vocabulary, and nobody explains it to you at the moment you need it. Here's the whole lot, in plain English.

The basic words

Probate: The court process for transferring what someone owned after they die. It's a procedure, not a punishment — and for small estates most states offer a short version, or let you skip court entirely.
Estate: Everything the person owned at death, minus what they owed. It is not a fancy word for a big house; a bank account and a car is an estate.
Decedent: The person who died. You'll see it on every form. It means nothing more than that.
Heir: Someone entitled to inherit under state law when there's no will telling the court otherwise.
Beneficiary: Someone named to receive something — in a will, or directly on an account. A named beneficiary on a life insurance policy usually collects it without any court involvement at all.
Intestate: Dying without a will. It changes who inherits, not which procedure you use. Each state has an order it follows: spouse first, then children, then outward.

Executor: The person a will names to carry it out.
Administrator: The same job, when there's no will and the court appoints someone instead.
Personal representative: The umbrella term for either of the above. Many forms use this one.
Successor: On small-estate affidavits, simply the person entitled to receive the property. You may be a successor without being appointed anything by a court.

Real property: Land and buildings — the house. It has its own rules, and it's the single most common reason a simple route won't work: many out-of-court affidavits can move a bank account but cannot transfer a house.
Personal property: Everything else. Bank accounts, vehicles, furniture, investments.
Joint tenancy: Property owned with someone else where the survivor automatically takes full ownership at death. It usually passes outside probate entirely.
Payable-on-death / transfer-on-death: An instruction sitting on the account itself naming who gets it. Like joint tenancy, it typically skips probate — which can shrink an estate into a simpler procedure.
Community property: In some states, most of what a married couple acquires belongs to both of them equally. It changes what's even in the estate.
Lien: A debt secured against a specific thing — a mortgage on a house, a loan on a car. Liens come off the estate's value when the state sizes it.

Affidavit: A written statement you swear is true, usually in front of a notary. In the simplest routes you hand it directly to the bank or the DMV — nothing is filed with a court.
Petition: A written request asking a court to do something, like confirm who inherits the house. Petitions get filed; affidavits often don't.
Letters: The court's document proving someone has authority to act for the estate. Banks ask for these by name. Sometimes called letters testamentary or letters of administration.
Notice to creditors: A published announcement giving anyone owed money a fixed window to come forward. It's usually the longest wait in the whole process, and it exists to protect you: once it closes, late claims generally can't follow you.
Inventory: A list of what the estate contains, filed with the court in the longer procedures.
Distribution: Handing out what's left, after debts, to the people entitled to it. Get a signed receipt from everyone.
Statute / code section: The law itself, cited by number — NRS 146.080 in Nevada, Probate Code § 13100 in California. When a procedure is named with a citation, you can look it up and read it yourself.

Certified copy: An official copy with a raised seal or stamp, issued by the agency that holds the record. Institutions keep the copy you give them and will refuse a photocopy — which is why you order ten death certificates, not one.
Notary: Someone authorised to witness your signature and confirm you are who you say. Banks, shipping shops, and credit unions usually have one.
County recorder: The office holding land records. After a court order transfers a house, it gets recorded here — that's the step that actually changes the title on paper.
Filing fee: What the court charges to accept your paperwork. Set by the county, paid when you file, and entirely separate from anything you pay us.