FAQ Friday: Terms
On Friday, October 20th, Attorney Candice Joy discusses common terms you may come across in estate planning.
Personal representative, trustee, fiduciary and agent are the four terms most commonly brought up as most confusing.
Personal representative should generally mostly be seen in your Will or in your documents that are referring to your Will. Your personal representative will administer your Will to your wishes. If an estate is in a trust or there are beneficiary designations, then your personal representative will not be in charge of those assets. Your personal representative administers any unfunded assets via the pour over will if there is a trust involved.
The trustee is the one who administers your assets that are funded in your trust, if you have one. During your life, you are your own trustee. However, during incapacity or death, your successor trustee will step in.
Agent usually refers to the person named in your power of attorney. It’s also an umbrella term as it can be used generically as well.
A fiduciary is an even more generic term. This doesn’t have to be specific to trustee or personal representative. What it really means is a person in a position of trust.
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