<section number="75-1-201"><effdate>5/7/2025</effdate><histories><history>Amended by Chapter <modchap sess="2025GS">310</modchap>, 2025 General Session</history><modyear>2025</modyear><history>Amended by Chapter <modchap sess="2025GS">338</modchap>, 2025 General Session</history><modyear>2025</modyear><history>Amended by Chapter <modchap sess="2025GS">533</modchap>, 2025 General Session</history><modyear>2025</modyear></histories><catchline>Title definitions.</catchline><tab/>As used in this title:<subsection number="75-1-201(1)">"Agent" includes an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney, an individual authorized to make decisions concerning another's health care, and an individual authorized to make decisions for another under a natural death act.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(2)">"Application" means a written request to the registrar for an order of informal probate or appointment under <xref depth="2" refnumber="75-3-3">Chapter 3, Part 3</xref>, Informal Probate and Appointment Proceedings.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)"><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(a)">"Beneficiary," as it relates to trust beneficiaries, includes:<subsection number="75-1-201(3)(a)(i)">a person who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent; and</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(a)(ii)">the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(b)">"Beneficiary," as it relates to a charitable trust, includes any person entitled to enforce the trust.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)">"Beneficiary," as it relates to a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, means a beneficiary of:<subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)(i)">an insurance or annuity policy;</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)(ii)">an account with POD designation;</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)(iii)">a security registered in beneficiary form (TOD);</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)(iv)">a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; or</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(c)(v)"> other nonprobate transfer at death.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(d)">"Beneficiary," as it relates to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument, includes:<subsection number="75-1-201(3)(d)(i)">a grantee of a deed, a devisee, a trust beneficiary, a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, a donee, appointee, or taker in default of a power of appointment; and</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(3)(d)(ii)">a person in whose favor a power of attorney or a power held in any individual, fiduciary, or representative capacity is exercised.</subsection></subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(4)">"Beneficiary designation" means a governing instrument naming a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with POD designation, of a security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), or of a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, or other nonprobate transfer at death.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(5)"><subsection number="75-1-201(5)(a)">"Child" includes any individual entitled to take as a child under this title by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(5)(b)">"Child" does not include an individual who is only a stepchild, a foster child, a grandchild, or any more remote descendant.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(6)"><subsection number="75-1-201(6)(a)">"Claims," in respect to estates of decedents and protected persons, includes liabilities of the decedent or protected person, whether arising in contract, in tort, or otherwise, and liabilities of the estate which arise at or after the death of the decedent or after the appointment of a conservator, including funeral expenses and expenses of administration.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(6)(b)">"Claims" does not include estate or inheritance taxes, or demands or disputes regarding title of a decedent or protected person to specific assets alleged to be included in the estate.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(7)">"Community property with a right of survivorship" means joint tenants with the right of survivorship.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(8)">"Conservator" means a person who is appointed by a court to manage the estate of a protected person.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(9)">"Court" means any of the courts of record in this state having jurisdiction in matters relating to the affairs of decedents.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(10)">"Descendant" means all of an individual's descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definition of child and parent contained in this title.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(11)">"Devise," when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property and, when used as a verb, means to dispose of real or personal property by will.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(12)">"Devisee" means any person designated in a will to receive a devise.  For the purposes of <xref depth="3" refnumber="Chapter 3, Probate of Wills and Administration">Chapter 3, Probate of Wills and Administration</xref>, in the case of a devise to an existing trust or trustee, or to a trustee in trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee, and the beneficiaries are not devisees.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(13)">"Disability" means cause for a protective order as described by Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-5-401">75-5-401</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(14)">"Distributee" means any person who has received property of a decedent from his personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser.  A testamentary trustee is a distributee only to the extent of distributed assets or increment thereto remaining in his hands.  A beneficiary of a testamentary trust to whom the trustee has distributed property received from a personal representative is a distributee of the personal representative.  For purposes of this provision, "testamentary trustee" includes a trustee to whom assets are transferred by will, to the extent of the devised assets.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(15)">"Estate" includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(16)">"Exempt property" means that property of a decedent's estate which is described in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-2-403">75-2-403</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(17)">"Fiduciary" includes a personal representative, guardian, conservator, and trustee.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(18)">"Foreign personal representative" means a personal representative of another jurisdiction.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(19)">"Formal proceedings" means proceedings conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(20)">"General personal representative" does not include a special administrator.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(21)">"General power of appointment" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75A-4-102">75A-4-102</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(22)">"Governing instrument" means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with POD designation, security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney, a supported decision-making agreement, or a dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(23)"><subsection number="75-1-201(23)(a)">"Guardian" means a person appointed by the court to make decisions with respect to the personal affairs of an individual.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(23)(b)">"Guardian" includes a coguardian.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(23)(c)">"Guardian" does not include a guardian ad litem.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(24)">"Heirs," except as controlled by Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-2-711">75-2-711</xref>, means persons, including the surviving spouse and state, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(25)">"Incapacitated" means an adult's ability to do the following is functionally impaired to the extent that the individual lacks the ability, even with appropriate technological assistance, to meet the essential requirements for financial protection or physical health, safety, or self-care:<subsection number="75-1-201(25)(a)">receive and evaluate information;</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(25)(b)">make and communicate decisions; or</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(25)(c)">provide for necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, health care, or safety.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(26)">"Incapacity" means the state of being incapacitated.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(27)">"Informal proceedings" mean a proceeding conducted without notice to interested persons by an officer of the court acting as a registrar for probate of a will or appointment of a personal representative.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(28)"><subsection number="75-1-201(28)(a)">"Interested person" includes heirs, devisees, children, spouses, creditors, beneficiaries, and any others having a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward, or protected person. The meaning of interested person as it relates to particular persons may vary from time to time and is determined according to the particular purposes of, and matter involved in, any proceeding.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(28)(b)">"Interested person" includes persons having priority for appointment as personal representative, other fiduciaries representing interested persons, a settlor of a trust, if living, or the settlor's legal representative, if any, if the settlor is living but incapacitated.  </subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(29)">"Issue" means a descendant of an individual.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(30)"><subsection number="75-1-201(30)(a)">"Joint tenants with the right of survivorship" includes coowners of property held under circumstances that entitle one or more to the whole of the property on the death of the other.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(30)(b)">"Joint tenants with the right of survivorship" does not include forms of coownership registration in which the underlying ownership of each party is in proportion to that party's contribution.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(31)">"Lease" includes an oil, gas, or other mineral lease.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(32)">"Letters" includes letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration, and letters of conservatorship.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(33)">"Minor" means an individual who is under 18 years old.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(34)">"Minor protected person" means a minor for whom a conservator has been appointed because of minority.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(35)">"Minor ward" means a minor for whom a guardian has been appointed solely because of minority.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(36)">"Mortgage" means any conveyance, agreement, or arrangement in which property is used as security.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(37)">"Nongeneral power of appointment" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75A-4-102">75A-4-102</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(38)">"Nonresident decedent" means a decedent who was domiciled in another jurisdiction at the time of the decedent's death.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(39)">"Organization" means an association, a business trust, a corporation, a partnership, a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, an estate, a limited liability company, a joint venture, a trust, or any other legal or commercial entity.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(40)"><subsection number="75-1-201(40)(a)">"Parent" includes any person entitled to take, or who would be entitled to take if the child died without a will, as a parent under this title by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(40)(b)">"Parent" does not include any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(41)">"Payor" means a trustee, insurer, business entity, employer, government, governmental agency or subdivision, or any other person authorized or obligated by law or a governing instrument to make payments.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(42)">"Person" means an individual or an organization.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(43)">"Personal representative" means an executor, an administrator, a successor personal representative, a special administrator, or a person who performs substantially the same function under the law governing the person's status.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(44)">"Petition" means a written request to the court for an order after notice.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(45)">"Power of appointment" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75A-4-102">75A-4-102</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(46)">"Proceeding" includes action at law and suit in equity.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(47)">"Property" means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest in anything that may be the subject of ownership.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(48)">"Protected person" means a person for whom a conservator has been appointed.  </subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(49)">"Protective proceeding" means a proceeding described in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-5-401">75-5-401</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(50)">"Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(51)">"Registrar" means the official of the court designated to perform the functions of registrar as provided in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-1-307">75-1-307</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(52)">"Security" includes any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest, or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease, collateral trust certificate, transferable share, voting trust certificate, and, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation, any temporary or interim certificate, receipt, or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(53)">"Settlement," in reference to a decedent's estate, includes the full process of administration, distribution, and closing.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(54)">"Settlor" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75B-1-101">75B-1-101</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(55)">"Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record other than a will that is not an electronic will as defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-2-1402">75-2-1402</xref>:<subsection number="75-1-201(55)(a)">to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(55)(b)">to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(56)">"Special administrator" means a personal representative as described in Sections <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-3-614">75-3-614</xref> through <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-3-618">75-3-618</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(57)">"State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, or a Native American tribe or band recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(58)">"Successor personal representative" means a personal representative, other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously appointed personal representative.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(59)">"Successors" means persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under the decedent's will or this title.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(60)">"Supervised administration" means the proceedings described in <xref depth="2" refnumber="75-3-5">Chapter 3, Part 5</xref>, Supervised Administration.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(61)"><subsection number="75-1-201(61)(a)">"Survive" means, except for <xref depth="2" refnumber="75-6-3">Chapter 6, Part 3, Uniform Transfer on Death Security Registration Act</xref>, that an individual has neither predeceased an event, including the death of another individual, nor is considered to have predeceased an event under Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-2-104">75-2-104</xref> or <xref depth="3" refnumber="75-2-702">75-2-702</xref>.  </subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(61)(b)">"Survive" includes its derivatives, such as "survives," "survived," "survivor," and "surviving."</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(62)">"Testacy proceeding" means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(63)">"Testator" means an individual, of either sex, who has made a will.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(64)">"Trust" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75B-1-101">75B-1-101</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(65)">"Trustee" means the same as that term is defined in Section <xref depth="3" refnumber="75B-1-101">75B-1-101</xref>.</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(66)">"Ward" means an individual for whom a guardian has been appointed.  </subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)"><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(a)">"Will" means a writing or other record:<subsection number="75-1-201(67)(a)(i)">by which an individual directs the disposition of the individual's estate upon the individual's death; and</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(a)(ii)">only effective upon the death of the individual.</subsection></subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)">"Will" includes a writing or the other record described in Subsection <xref refnumber="1-null-130">(67)(a)</xref> that is:<subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(i)">a codicil; or</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(ii)">an instrument that merely:<subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(ii)(A)">appoints a personal representative;</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(ii)(B)">nominates a guardian for a minor or an individual who is incapacitated;</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(ii)(C)">revokes or revises a prior writing or other record described in Subsect<xref depth="4" refnumber="75-1-201(67)(a)(67)(a)">ion (67)(a)</xref>; or</subsection><subsection number="75-1-201(67)(b)(ii)(D)">expressly limits or excludes the right of an individual or class to succeed to property by interstate succession.</subsection></subsection></subsection></subsection></section>