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S1325................................................by JUDICIARY AND RULES
PROBATE CODE - Amends existing law relating to the Uniform Probate Code to
revise the definition for "interested person."
01/30 Senate intro - 1st rdg - to printing
01/31 Rpt prt - to Jud
]]]] LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ]]]]
Fifty-eighth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2006
IN THE SENATE
SENATE BILL NO. 1325
BY JUDICIARY AND RULES COMMITTEE
1 AN ACT
2 RELATING TO THE UNIFORM PROBATE CODE; AMENDING SECTION 15-1-201, IDAHO CODE,
3 TO REVISE THE DEFINITION FOR "INTERESTED PERSON" AND TO MAKE A TECHNICAL
4 CORRECTION.
5 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:
6 SECTION 1. That Section 15-1-201, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby
7 amended to read as follows:
8 15-1-201. GENERAL DEFINITIONS. Subject to additional definitions con-
9 tained in the subsequent chapters which are applicable to specific chapters or
10 parts, and unless the context otherwise requires, in this code:
11 (1) "Application" means a written request to the registrar for an order
12 of informal probate or appointment under part 3 of chapter 3 of this code.
13 (2) "Augmented estate" means the estate described in section 15-2-202,
14 Idaho Code.
15 (3) "Beneficiary," as it relates to trust beneficiaries, includes a per-
16 son who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent, and also
17 includes the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer and as it
18 relates to a charitable trust, includes any person entitled to enforce the
19 trust.
20 (4) "Child" includes any individual entitled to take as a child under
21 this code by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is
22 involved and excludes any person who is only a stepchild, a foster child, a
23 grandchild or any more remote descendant.
24 (5) "Claims," in respect to estates of decedents and protected persons,
25 includes liabilities of the decedent or protected person whether arising in
26 contract, in tort or otherwise, and liabilities of the estate which arise at
27 or after the death of the decedent or after the appointment of a conservator,
28 including funeral expenses and expenses of administration. The term does not
29 include estate or inheritance taxes, other tax obligations arising from activ-
30 ities or transactions of the estate, demands or disputes regarding title of a
31 decedent or protected person to specific assets alleged to be included in the
32 estate.
33 (6) "Court" means the court or branch having jurisdiction in matters
34 relating to the affairs of decedents, minors, incapacitated and disabled per-
35 sons. This court in this state is known as the district court.
36 (7) "Conservator" means a person who is appointed by a court to manage
37 the estate of a protected person and includes limited conservators as
38 described by section 15-5-420, Idaho Code.
39 (8) "Determination of heirship of community property" shall mean that
40 determination required by the provisions of section 15-3-303, Idaho Code, upon
41 an application for informal probate not accompanied by presentation of a will.
42 (9) "Determination of heirship" shall mean that determination of heirship
43 required by section 15-3-409, Idaho Code, upon a finding of intestacy.
2
1 (10) "Devise," when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of
2 real or personal property and when used as a verb, means to dispose of real or
3 personal property by will.
4 (11) "Devisee" means any person designated in a will to receive a devise.
5 In the case of a devise to an existing trust or trustee, or to a trustee or
6 trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee and the benefi-
7 ciaries are not devisees.
8 (12) "Disability," with respect to an individual, means any mental or
9 physical impairment which substantially limits one (1) or more major life
10 activities of the individual including, but not limited to, self-care, manual
11 tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, or working, or a record
12 of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. Dis-
13 ability shall not include transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia,
14 exhibitionism, voyeurism, other sexual behavior disorders, or substance use
15 disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, or pyromania. Sexual preference
16 or orientation is not considered an impairment or disability. Whether an
17 impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be determined
18 without consideration of the affect effect of corrective or mitigating mea-
19 sures used to reduce the effects of the impairment.
20 (13) "Distributee" means any person who has received property of a dece-
21 dent from his personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. A
22 testamentary trustee is a distributee only to the extent of distributed assets
23 or increment thereto remaining in his hands. A beneficiary of a testamentary
24 trust to whom the trustee has distributed property received from a personal
25 representative is a distributee of the personal representative. For the pur-
26 pose of this provision "testamentary trustee" includes a trustee to whom
27 assets are transferred by will, to the extent of the devised assets.
28 (14) "Emancipated minor" shall mean any male or female who has been mar-
29 ried.
30 (15) "Estate" means all property of the decedent, including community
31 property of the surviving spouse subject to administration, property of
32 trusts, and property of any other person whose affairs are subject to this
33 code as it exists from time to time during administration.
34 (16) "Exempt property" means that property of a decedent's estate which is
35 described in section 15-2-403, Idaho Code.
36 (17) "Fiduciary" includes personal representative, guardian, conservator
37 and trustee.
38 (18) "Foreign personal representative" means a personal representative of
39 another jurisdiction.
40 (19) "Formal proceedings" means those conducted before a judge with notice
41 to interested persons.
42 (20) "Guardian" means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor
43 or incapacitated person pursuant to testamentary or court appointment and
44 includes limited guardians as described by section 15-5-304, Idaho Code, but
45 excludes one who is merely a guardian ad litem.
46 (21) "Heirs" means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are
47 entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a dece-
48 dent.
49 (22) "Incapacitated person" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.
50 (23) "Informal proceedings" means those conducted without notice to inter-
51 ested persons by an officer of the court acting as a registrar for probate of
52 a will or appointment of a personal representative.
53 (24) "Interested person" includes heirs, devisees, children, spouses,
54 creditors, beneficiaries and any others having a property right in or claim
55 against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward or protected person
3
1 which may be affected by the proceeding. It also includes persons having pri-
2 ority for appointment as personal representative, and other fiduciaries repre-
3 senting interested persons. The meaning as it relates to particular persons
4 may vary from time to time and must be determined according to the particular
5 purposes of, and matter involved in, any proceeding. It also includes any gov-
6 ernmental agency paying or planning to pay monetary benefits to the ward or
7 protected person and, in a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding, any
8 public or charitable agency that regularly concerns itself with methods for
9 preventing unnecessary or overly intrusive court intervention in the affairs
10 of persons for whom protective orders may be sought and that seeks to partici-
11 pate in the proceedings.
12 (25) "Issue" of a person means all his lineal descendants of all genera-
13 tions, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being
14 determined by the definitions of child and parent contained in this code.
15 (26) "Lease" includes an oil, gas, or other mineral lease.
16 (27) "Letters" includes letters testamentary, letters of guardianship,
17 letters of administration, and letters of conservatorship.
18 (28) "Minor" means a male under eighteen (18) years of age or a female
19 under eighteen (18) years of age.
20 (29) "Mortgage" means any conveyance, agreement or arrangement in which
21 property is used as security.
22 (30) "Nonresident decedent" means a decedent who was domiciled in another
23 jurisdiction at the time of his death.
24 (31) "Organization" includes a corporation, government or governmental
25 subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or associa-
26 tion, two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other
27 legal entity.
28 (32) "Parent" includes any person entitled to take, or who would be enti-
29 tled to take if the child died without a will, as a parent under this code by
30 intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question and
31 excludes any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent.
32 (33) "Person" means an individual, a corporation, business trust, estate,
33 trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture,
34 public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instru-
35 mentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.
36 (34) "Personal representative" includes executor, administrator, successor
37 personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform sub-
38 stantially the same function under the law governing their status. "General
39 personal representative" excludes special administrator.
40 (35) "Petition" means a written request to the court for an order after
41 notice.
42 (36) "Proceeding" includes action at law and suit in equity.
43 (37) "Property" includes both real and personal property or any interest
44 therein and means anything that may be the subject of ownership.
45 (38) "Protected person" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.
46 (39) "Protective proceeding" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho
47 Code.
48 (40) "Quasi-community property" is the property defined by section
49 15-2-201, Idaho Code.
50 (41) "Registrar" refers to magistrates or judges of the district court who
51 shall perform the functions of registrar as provided in section 15-1-307,
52 Idaho Code.
53 (42) "Security" includes any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture,
54 evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in an oil,
55 gas or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a
4
1 title or lease, collateral trust certificate, transferable share, voting trust
2 certificate or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a
3 security, or any certificate of interest or participation, any temporary or
4 interim certificate, receipt or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or
5 right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing.
6 (43) "Settlement," in reference to a decedent's estate, includes the full
7 process of administration, distribution and closing.
8 (44) "Special administrator" means a personal representative as described
9 by sections 15-3-614 through 15-3-618, Idaho Code.
10 (45) "State" includes any state of the United States, the District of
11 Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession
12 subject to the legislative authority of the United States.
13 (46) "Successor personal representative" means a personal representative,
14 other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously
15 appointed personal representative.
16 (47) "Successors" means those persons, other than creditors, who are enti-
17 tled to property of a decedent under his will or this code.
18 (48) "Supervised administration" refers to the proceedings described in
19 part 5, chapter 3, of this code.
20 (49) "Testacy proceeding" means a proceeding to establish a will or deter-
21 mine intestacy.
22 (50) "Trust" includes any express trust, private or charitable, with addi-
23 tions thereto, wherever and however created. It also includes a trust created
24 or determined by judgment or decree under which the trust is to be adminis-
25 tered in the manner of an express trust. "Trust" excludes other constructive
26 trusts, and it excludes resulting trusts, conservatorships, personal represen-
27 tatives, trust accounts as defined in chapter 6 of this code, custodial
28 arrangements pursuant to chapter 8, title 68, Idaho Code, business trusts pro-
29 viding for certificates to be issued to beneficiaries, common trust funds,
30 voting trusts, security arrangements, liquidation trusts, and trusts for the
31 primary purpose of paying debts, dividends, interest, salaries, wages, prof-
32 its, pensions, or employee benefits of any kind, and any arrangement under
33 which a person is nominee or escrowee for another.
34 (51) "Trustee" includes an original, additional, or successor trustee,
35 whether or not appointed or confirmed by court.
36 (52) "Ward" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.
37 (53) "Will" is a testamentary instrument and includes codicil and any tes-
38 tamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises
39 another will.
40 (54) "Separate property" is as defined in section 32-903, Idaho Code.
41 (55) "Community property" is as defined in section 32-906, Idaho Code.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
RS: 15748
The definition of "interested person" in the Probate Code is
extremely important, since many other statutes in the Probate Code
require notice to be given to, or consent obtained from, from any
interested person and also gives other rights to any interested
person. There are, however, two expansions of the definition of an
"interested person" buried in other areas of the probate code, but
not reflected or referenced in the definition of "interested
person". Many persons, including attorneys, using the probate code
look only to the main definition and are unaware of the other two
expansions of that definition. Therefore, to give better notice of
those two expansions of the definition, the exact language of those
expansions are added by this bill to the definition of "interested
person".
FISCAL NOTE
This bill will have no fiscal impact.
CONTACT:
Name: Robert L. Aldridge, Trust & Estate Professionals of Idaho, Inc.
Telephone: office: (208) 336-9880 Cell: (208) 631-2481
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE S 1325