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Missing Heirs
A missing heir is a person related to a ''decedent'' (dead person), or testator of a will, but whose residence, domicile, Post office, or other address is not known. A missing heir may be an orphan or other person under a disability, who may need a guardian or custodian of funds. ''Missing heirs'' often come up in the context of legal actions involving wills, title to real property, or a quiet title action. A private investigator, probate research firm or forensic genealogist may be hired by the executor, trustee, or administrator to find the missing heirs. A probate court or surrogate judge may require the service of a citation, notice of petition, summons, or subpoena to the relevant persons who may be missing persons, or may know the whereabouts of such person. Some courts, such as Suffolk County Probate Court in Boston, actively solicit missing heirs. Probate research Probate research deals with finding heirs and proving their right to an inheritance. In some estates t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Testator
A testator () is a person who has written and executed a Will (law), last will and testament that is in effect at the time of their death. It is any "person who makes a will."Gordon Brown, ''Administration of Wills, Trusts, and Estates'', 3d ed. (2003), p. 556. . Related terms * A female testator is sometimes referred to as a testatrix (), plural testatrices (), particularly in older cases. *In Ahmadiyya Islam, a testator is referred to as a moosi, who is someone that has signed up for Wasiyyat or a will, under the plan initiated by the Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Promised Messiah, thus committing a portion, not less than one-tenth, of his lifetime earnings and any property to a cause. * The adjective, adjectival form of the word is testamentary, as in: # Testamentary capacity, or mental capacity or ability to execute a will and # Testamentary disposition, or gift made in a will (see that article for types). # Testamentary trust, a trust (law), trust that is created in a will. * A will (la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Executor
An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used. Overview An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a will or nominated by the testator to carry out the instructions of the will. Typically, the executor is the person responsible for offering the will for probate, although it is not required that they fulfill this. The executor's duties also include disbursing property to the beneficiaries as designated in the will, obtaining information of potential heirs, collecting and arranging for payment of debts of the estate and approving or disapproving creditors' claims. An executor will make sure estate taxes are calculated, necessary forms are filed, and . They will also assist the attorney with the estate. Additionally, the executor acts as a legal conveyor who designates where the donations will be sent using the information left in ''bequ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoenas: # ''subpoena ad testificandum'' orders a person to testify before the ordering authority or face punishment. The subpoena can also request the testimony to be given by phone or in person. # ''subpoena duces tecum'' orders a person or organization to bring physical evidence before the ordering authority or face punishment. This is often used for requests to mail copies of documents to requesting party or directly to court. Etymology The term ''subpoena'' is from the Middle English ''suppena'' and the Latin phrase ''sub poena'' meaning "under penalty". It is also spelled "subpena".See, e.g., ; ; ; and . The subpoena has its source in English common law and it is now used almost with universal application throughout the English co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summons
A summons (also known in England and Wales as a claim form and in the Australian state of New South Wales as a court attendance notice (CAN)) is a legal document issued by a court (a ''judicial summons'') or by an administrative agency of government (an ''administrative summons'') for various purposes. Judicial summons A judicial summons is served on a person involved in a legal proceeding. Legal action may be in progress against the person, or the person's presence as witness may be required. In the former case, the summons will typically announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a case has been initiated in the issuing court. In some jurisdictions, it may be drafted in legal English difficult for the layman to understand, while several U.S. states expressly require summonses to be drafted in plain English and that they must start with this phrase: "Notice! You have been sued." The summons announces a dat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citation
A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears. Generally, the combination of both the in-body citation and the bibliographic entry constitutes what is commonly thought of as a citation (whereas bibliographic entries by themselves are not). Citations have several important purposes. While their uses for upholding intellectual honesty and bolstering claims are typically foregrounded in teaching materials and style guides (e.g.,), correct attribution of insights to previous sources is just one of these purposes. Linguistic analysis of citation-practices has indicated that they also serve critical roles in orchestrating the state of knowledge on a particular topic, identi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Probate Court
A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the Administration of an estate on death, administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as Orphans' Courts or courts of ordinary. In some jurisdictions probate court functions are performed by a chancery court or another court of equity, or as a part or division of another court. Probate courts administer proper distribution of the assets of a Death, decedent (one who has died), Adjudication, adjudicates the validity of will (law), wills, enforces the provisions of a valid will (by issuing the Probate, grant of probate), prevents malfeasance by executors and administrators of Estate (law), estates, and provides for the equitable distribution of the assets of persons who die intestate (without a valid will), such as by granting a Letters of Administration, grant of administration giving judicial approval to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Administrator (law)
In law an administrator (or administratrix for women) can be: * a person appointed by the court to handle the estate of someone who died without a will (administrator of an estate). * In United Kingdom bankruptcy law, an office holder appointed under an Administration Order in relation to a company in financial difficulty, as an alternative to liquidation. See also *''Beswick v. Beswick'' *De bonis non administratis De bonis non administratis, Latin for "of goods not administered," is a legal term for assets remaining in an estate after the death or removal of the estate administrator. The second administrator is called the administrator ''de bonis non'' and ... English contract law {{Law-term-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to transfer the title of ownership to the person named as the new owner, in a trust instrument, called a beneficiary. A trustee can also be a person who is allowed to do certain tasks but not able to gain income, although that is untrue.''Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition'' (1979), p. 1357, . Although in the strictest sense of the term a trustee is the holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary, the more expansive sense encompasses persons who serve, for example, on the board of trustees of an institution that operates for a charity, for the benefit of the general public, or a person in the local government. A trust can be set up either to benefit particular persons, or for any charitable purposes (but not generally for non-charitable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Probate Research
Probate research deals with finding heirs and proving their right to an inheritance. In some estates there may be no known heirs, or there may be missing heirs whose names are known but their contact information is not. There also may be known heirs from one part of the family, but another part of the family may be unknown. In all these instances, professional probate researchers work to trace the next-of-kin. Probate researchers are also called heir hunters, heir searchers, and forensic genealogists. Intestacy laws vary enormously from one country to another, and in the US, they also vary from state to state. Thus probate researchers must have extensive knowledge of the law to know which family members are legally entitled to inherit. They also employ specialized genealogical and investigative techniques to search public records and databases to identify the extended family of the deceased, often starting with no more than a name and date of death and in some cases looking for r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy. Though it has at times been thought that a "will" historically applied only to real property while "testament" applied only to personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "last will and testament"), the historical records show that the terms have been used interchangeably. Thus, the word "will" validly applies to both personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary trust that is effective only after the death of the testator. History Throughout most of the world, the disposition of a dead person's estate has been a matter of social custom. According to Plutarch, the written will was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators often work for attorneys in civil and criminal cases. History In 1833, Eugène François Vidocq, a French soldier, criminal, and privateer, founded the first known private detective agency, "Le Bureau des Renseignements Universels pour le commerce et l'Industrie" ("The Office of Universal Information For Commerce and Industry") and hired ex-convicts. Much of what private investigators did in the early days was to act as the police in matters for which their clients felt the police were not equipped or willing to do. Official law enforcement tried many times to shut it down. In 1842, police arrested him in suspicion of unlawful imprisonment and taking money on false pretences after he had solved an embezzlement case. Vidocq later suspecte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
