3B:1-1 Definitions A to H.

3B:1-1. As used in this title, unless otherwise defined:

"Administrator" includes general administrators of an intestate and unless restricted by the subject or context, administrators with the will annexed, substituted administrators, substituted administrators with the will annexed, temporary administrators and administrators pendente lite.

"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, and includes any person entitled to enforce the trust.

"Child" means any individual, including a natural or adopted child, entitled to take by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved and excludes any individual who is only a stepchild, a resource family child, a grandchild or any more remote descendant.

"Claims" include liabilities whether arising in contract, or in tort or otherwise, and liabilities of the estate which arise at or after the death of the decedent, including funeral expenses and expenses of administration, but does not include estate or inheritance taxes, demands or disputes regarding title to specific assets alleged to be included in the estate.

"Cofiduciary" means each of two or more fiduciaries jointly serving in a fiduciary capacity.

"Descendant" of an individual means all of his progeny of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definition of child contained in this section and parent contained in N.J.S.3B:1-2.

"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.

"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 of a trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee and the beneficiaries are not devisees.

"Distributee" means any person who has received property of a decedent from his personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. A trustee is a distributee only to the extent of a distributed asset or increment thereto remaining in his hands. A beneficiary of a trust to whom the trustee has distributed property received from a personal representative is a distributee of the personal representative.

"Domestic partner" means a domestic partner as defined in section 3 of P.L.2003, c.246 (C.26:8A-3).

"Domiciliary foreign fiduciary" means any fiduciary who has received letters, or has been appointed, or is authorized to act as a fiduciary, in the jurisdiction in which the decedent was domiciled at the time of his death, in which the ward is domiciled or in which is located the principal place of the administration of a trust.

"Estate" means all of the property of a decedent, minor or incapacitated individual, trust or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as the property is originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration.

"Fiduciary" includes executors, general administrators of an intestate estate, administrators with the will annexed, substituted administrators, substituted administrators with the will annexed, guardians, substituted guardians, trustees, substituted trustees and, unless restricted by the subject or context, temporary administrators, administrators pendente lite, administrators ad prosequendum, administrators ad litem and other limited fiduciaries.

"Governing instrument" means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with the designation "pay on death" (POD) or "transfer on death" (TOD), security registered in beneficiary form with the designation "pay on death" (POD) or "transfer on death" (TOD), pension, profit-sharing, retirement or similar benefit plan, instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney, or a dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type.

"Guardian" means a person who has qualified as a guardian of the person or estate of a minor or incapacitated individual pursuant to testamentary or court appointment, but excludes one who is merely a guardian ad litem.

"Heirs" means those persons, including, but not limited to, the surviving spouse, the domestic partner and the descendants of the decedent, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.

L.1981, c.405, s.3B:1-1, eff. May 1, 1982; amended 1997, c.379, s.2; 2004, c.130, s.15; 2004, c.132, s.1; 2005, c.331, s.1.