Estate Law Law & Legal Definition
The term "estate" has different meanings in legal terminology. In one usage, estate may mean all the possessions of one who has died and are subject to probate administration supervised by the court and distribution to heirs and beneficiaries. The Uniform Probate Code has shaped state law in this field. It includes provisions dealing with affairs and estates of the deceased and laws dealing with specified nontestamentary transfers (transfers not through a will), like trusts and their administration. Since its creation, over thirty percent of states have adopted the Code substantially in whole.
Since many individuals neither set up trusts nor execute wills, state intestate succesion laws are an important complement to trust and estate law. They determine where an individual's assets go upon death in the absence of a will.
Estate may also refer to all the possessions which a guardian manages for the ward whose protection and administration of affairs they are responsible for. It may also mean the assets a conservator manages for a conservatee (a person whose physical or mental lack of competence requires administration of his/her affairs). Another usage of the term estate refers to a class of real property interest, such as "life estate," "estate for years," or "real estate."
Legal Definitions
Search Definitions
Get a Term Defined
- Request a legal definition! Submit a term you need defined.
- » Request Legal Definition
Submit a Definition
- Submit a Definition Help us build our database. Free listings for attorneys.
- » Submit a Definition
Help Build USLegal
- Join our Team and help build USLegal. Many opportunities for participation so Join our Network.
Build USLegal
Read a Law Digest
- Need to read the law or find an answer to a legal question? Visit our Law Digest for the largest selection of law digests and answers available.
Go to Law Digest
Form Packages
- Select from our most popular legal form packages.
- » Bankruptcy
- » Contract for Deed
- » Divorce
- » Employment Packages
- » Home Sales
- » Incorporation
- » LLC Formation
- » Landlord Tenant
- » Mutual Wills
- » Name Change
- » Personal Planning
- » Partnerships
- » View All Packages
Legal Life
- Organize your legal life today! View our free online guide to creating a Life Documents File and related products.
- » Life Documents File
- » Personal Planning Package
- » Life Documents Packages
- » New Parents
- » Newlyweds
- » Baby Boomers
- » Military
- » Other
Form Drafting
- Can′t find the form you need, or need a form we offer revised for your situation? Submit your request and our attorneys will review the request and let you know if the form can be provided.
Submit a drafting request...
