TITLE 15

UNIFORM PROBATE CODE

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL PROVISIONS, DEFINITIONS AND PROBATE JURISDICTION OF COURT

PART 2.

DEFINITIONS

15-1-201.  General definitions. Subject to additional definitions contained in the subsequent chapters which are applicable to specific chapters or parts, and unless the context otherwise requires, in this code:

(1)  "Application" means a written request to the registrar for an order of informal probate or appointment under part 3 of chapter 3 of this code.

(2)  "Augmented estate" means the estate described in section 15-2-202, Idaho Code.

(3)  "Beneficiary," as it relates to trust beneficiaries, includes a person who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent, and also includes the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer and as it relates to a charitable trust, includes any person entitled to enforce the trust.

(4)  "Child" includes any individual entitled to take as a child under this code by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved and excludes any person who is only a stepchild, a foster child, a grandchild or any more remote descendant.

(5)  "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. The term does not include estate or inheritance taxes, other tax obligations arising from activities or transactions of the estate, demands or disputes regarding title of a decedent or protected person to specific assets alleged to be included in the estate.

(6)  "Community property" is as defined in section 32-906, Idaho Code.

(7)  "Conservator" means a person who is appointed by a court to manage the estate of a protected person and includes limited conservators as described by section 15-5-420, Idaho Code.

(8)  "Court" means the court or branch having jurisdiction in matters relating to the affairs of decedents, minors, incapacitated and disabled persons. This court in this state is known as the district court.

(9)  "Determination of heirship of community property" shall mean that determination required by the provisions of section 15-3-303, Idaho Code, upon an application for informal probate not accompanied by presentation of a will.

(10) "Determination of heirship" shall mean that determination of heirship required by section 15-3-409, Idaho Code, upon a finding of intestacy.

(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.

(12) "Devisee" means any person designated in a will to receive a devise. In the case of a devise to an existing trust or trustee, or to a trustee or trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee and the beneficiaries are not devisees.

(13) "Disability," with respect to an individual, means any mental or physical impairment which substantially limits one (1) or more major life activities of the individual including, but not limited to, self-care, manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, or working, or a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. Disability shall not include transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, other sexual behavior disorders, or substance use disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, or pyromania. Sexual preference or orientation is not considered an impairment or disability. Whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be determined without consideration of the effect of corrective or mitigating measures used to reduce the effects of the impairment.

(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 the purpose of this provision "testamentary trustee" includes a trustee to whom assets are transferred by will, to the extent of the devised assets.

(15) "Emancipated minor" shall mean any male or female who has been married.

(16) "Estate" means all property of the decedent, including community property of the surviving spouse subject to administration, property of trusts, and property of any other person whose affairs are subject to this code as it exists from time to time during administration.

(17) "Exempt property" means that property of a decedent’s estate which is described in section 15-2-403, Idaho Code.

(18) "Fiduciary" includes personal representative, guardian, conservator and trustee.

(19) "Foreign personal representative" means a personal representative of another jurisdiction.

(20) "Formal proceedings" means those conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons.

(21) "Guardian" means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor or incapacitated person pursuant to testamentary or court appointment and includes limited guardians as described by section 15-5-304, Idaho Code, but excludes one who is merely a guardian ad litem.

(22) "Heirs" means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.

(23) "Incapacitated person" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.

(24) "Informal proceedings" means those 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.

(25) "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 which may be affected by the proceeding. It also includes persons having priority for appointment as personal representative, and other fiduciaries representing interested persons. The meaning as it relates to particular persons may vary from time to time and must be determined according to the particular purposes of, and matter involved in, any proceeding. In a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding, it also includes any governmental agency paying or planning to pay benefits to the ward or protected person and any public or charitable agency that regularly concerns itself with methods for preventing unnecessary or overly intrusive court intervention in the affairs of persons for whom protective orders may be sought and that seeks to participate in the proceedings.

(26) "Issue" of a person means all his lineal descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definitions of child and parent contained in this code.

(27) "Lease" includes an oil, gas, or other mineral lease.

(28) "Letters" includes letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration, and letters of conservatorship.

(29) "Minor" means a male under eighteen (18) years of age or a female under eighteen (18) years of age.

(30) "Mortgage" means any conveyance, agreement or arrangement in which property is used as security.

(31) "Nonresident decedent" means a decedent who was domiciled in another jurisdiction at the time of his death.

(32) "Organization" includes a corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal entity.

(33) "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 code by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question and excludes any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent.

(34) "Person" means an individual, a corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.

(35) "Personal representative" includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. "General personal representative" excludes special administrator.

(36) "Petition" means a written request to the court for an order after notice.

(37) "Proceeding" includes action at law and suit in equity.

(38) "Property" includes both real and personal property or any interest therein and means anything that may be the subject of ownership.

(39) "Protected person" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.

(40) "Protective proceeding" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.

(41) "Quasi-community property" is the property defined by section 15-2-201, Idaho Code.

(42) "Registrar" refers to magistrates or judges of the district court who shall perform the functions of registrar as provided in section 15-1-307, Idaho Code.

(43) "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 or, 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.

(44) "Separate property" is as defined in section 32-903, Idaho Code.

(45) "Settlement," in reference to a decedent’s estate, includes the full process of administration, distribution and closing.

(46) "Settlor" includes grantor, trustor, and words of similar import.

(47) "Special administrator" means a personal representative as described by sections 15-3-614 through 15-3-618, Idaho Code.

(48) "State" includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States.

(49) "Successor personal representative" means a personal representative, other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously appointed personal representative.

(50) "Successors" means those persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under his will or this code.

(51) "Supervised administration" refers to the proceedings described in part 5, chapter 3, of this code.

(52) "Testacy proceeding" means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy.

(53) "Trust" includes any express trust, private or charitable, with additions thereto, wherever and however created. It also includes a trust created or determined by judgment or decree under which the trust is to be administered in the manner of an express trust. "Trust" excludes other constructive trusts, and it excludes resulting trusts, conservatorships, personal representatives, trust accounts as defined in chapter 6 of this code, custodial arrangements pursuant to chapter 8, title 68, Idaho Code, business trusts providing for certificates to be issued to beneficiaries, common trust funds, voting trusts, security arrangements, liquidation trusts, and trusts for the primary purpose of paying debts, dividends, interest, salaries, wages, profits, pensions, or employee benefits of any kind, and any arrangement under which a person is nominee or escrowee for another.

(54) "Trustee" includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by court.

(55) "Ward" is as defined in section 15-5-101, Idaho Code.

(56) "Will" is a testamentary instrument and includes codicil and any testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will.

History:

[15-1-201, as added by 1971, ch. 111, sec. 1, p. 233; am. 1971, ch. 126, sec. 1, p. 487; am. 1972, ch. 201, sec. 1, p. 510; am. 1973, ch. 167, sec. 3, p. 319; am. 1982, ch. 285, sec. 2, p. 719; am. 1997, ch. 113, sec. 1, p. 275; am. 2001, ch. 294, sec. 1, p. 1036; am. 2002, ch. 233, sec. 1, p. 666; am. 2003, ch. 139, sec. 1, p. 404; am. 2004, ch. 55, sec. 1, p. 253; am. 2006, ch. 163, sec. 1, p. 484; am. 2007, ch. 68, sec. 1, p. 174; am. 2007, ch. 71, sec. 1, p. 189.]