A grass track running between orchard rows

Plain language

Estate planning terms, in plain language

Most estate-planning vocabulary exists to describe something simple.

Here is what each word actually means, what it does for an Oklahoma family, and where it falls short. Where we have a fuller page on the subject, the definition says so. If a term you were given is not here, ask us.

Ask us your question See all our services

Revocable living trust

A trust you create and control during your lifetime and can change or revoke at any time. Assets titled in the trust generally pass to your beneficiaries without probate, stay private, and remain manageable by your successor trustee if you become incapacitated. A trust only protects what is actually transferred into it, which is why funding matters as much as drafting.

Funding a trust

The step of retitling assets into the name of your trust and updating beneficiary designations to match the plan. An unfunded trust is the single most common defect we find in Oklahoma estate plans: the document is perfect, the house and the accounts are still in an individual name, and the family ends up in probate anyway.

Probate

The court process that transfers property from someone who has died to the people entitled to receive it. In Oklahoma it is filed in the district court of the county where the person lived, it is a public record, and a traditional administration commonly runs six to twelve months. Oklahoma sets probate attorney fees by statute.

Summary administration

A shortened Oklahoma probate available for smaller estates, reaching up to $200,000 in value. It is faster than a traditional administration but it is still a court proceeding and still a public filing.

Small estate affidavit

An Oklahoma procedure under Title 58, Section 393 that lets an heir collect personal property of $50,000 or less without opening probate, usable ten days or more after the death. It does not cover real estate, which is why it rarely solves an estate that includes a house.

Intestate succession

What happens when someone dies without a valid will. Oklahoma statute decides who inherits, and the result surprises most families: a surviving spouse generally shares the estate with the children rather than receiving all of it, and the division changes again for blended families.

Transfer-on-death deed

A deed authorized by Oklahoma's Nontestamentary Transfer of Property Act that names who receives a piece of real estate when you die, without probate. It must be signed, notarized and recorded before death, and you can revoke it while living. It moves one asset; it does nothing about incapacity and does not coordinate the rest of your plan.

Beneficiary designation

The form that decides who receives a retirement account, a life insurance policy or a payable-on-death account. Designations pass outside your will and override it. A designation set years ago at a bank counter and never revisited is one of the most common ways a carefully drafted plan is quietly defeated.

Durable power of attorney

A document naming someone to handle your financial and legal affairs if you cannot. It operates while you are alive, which is exactly the gap a will does not cover. Without one, a family often has to ask a court to appoint a guardian before anyone can act.

Advance directive and health care proxy

The documents that name who makes medical decisions for you and state what care you do and do not want. They are the papers families most often wish they had, and the ones most often missing, because they matter on a day nobody schedules.

Guardian nomination

Naming who should raise your minor children if you cannot. Oklahoma lets you nominate a guardian, and the court gives that nomination real weight. Without one, a judge chooses among whoever comes forward, using a preference for relatives.

Trustee and successor trustee

The person or institution that manages a trust. You typically serve as your own trustee while able, and your successor trustee steps in on your incapacity or death. Choosing a successor is often the hardest and most consequential decision in a plan, and it is worth more thought than the documents usually get.

Step-up in basis

The adjustment of an asset's tax basis to its value at the owner's death, which can eliminate capital gains built up over a lifetime for the heirs who inherit it. It is one reason gifting an appreciated asset during life is sometimes far worse for a family than leaving it at death.

Portability

The rule that lets a surviving spouse use a deceased spouse's unused federal estate tax exemption, so a married couple can generally shelter both. In 2026 the federal exemption is $15 million per person. Portability is not automatic; it has to be elected on a timely federal estate tax return.

Medicaid look-back

The period Oklahoma reviews when deciding eligibility for long-term care coverage under SoonerCare. The look-back is 60 months, and transfers made for less than fair value inside that window can create a penalty period. It is the reason care planning done years ahead has options that crisis planning does not.

Estate Planners for Life

The name our firm goes by with families, and the name of its maintenance relationship: a plan that is reviewed on a regular cadence and updated as your family, your assets and the law change, rather than signed once and left in a drawer. It exists because most estate plans fail from neglect rather than from bad drafting.

Member

What we call a family inside the Estate Planners for Life maintenance relationship, rather than a client who signed once and left. Membership is what keeps a plan current: regular reviews, updates as the law and your family change, and training for the helpers you have named. It runs both ways. We commit to keeping the plan working, and you commit to telling us when your family, your assets or your wishes change, because a plan we do not hear about cannot be kept current.