Editing Probate (section)

==Terminology==

===Executor===
{{main|Executor}}
An executor is a person appointed by a will to act on behalf of the estate of the will-maker (the "[[testator]]") upon his or her death. An executor is the [[legal personal representative]] of a deceased person's estate. The appointment of an executor only becomes effective after the death of the testator. After the testator dies, the person named in the will as executor can decline or renounce the position, and if so should quickly notify the probate court accordingly.

Executors "step into the shoes" of the deceased and have similar rights and powers to wind up the personal affairs of the deceased. This may include continuing or filing lawsuits that the deceased was entitled to bring, making claims for [[wrongful death]], paying off creditors, or selling or disposing of assets not particularly gifted in the will, among others. But the role of the executor is to resolve the testator's estate and to distribute the estate to the beneficiaries or those otherwise entitled.

Sometimes, in England and Wales, a professional executor is named in the will – not a family member but (for example) a solicitor, bank or other financial institution. Professional executors will charge the estate for carrying out duties related to the administration of the estate; this can leave the family facing additional costs. It is possible to get a professional executor to renounce their role, meaning they will have no part in dealing with the estate; or to reserve their power, which means the remaining executors will carry out the related duties, but without the involvement of the professional executor.

===Administrator===
When a person dies without a will then the legal personal representative is known as the "administrator".

This is commonly the closest relative, although that person can renounce their right to be administrator, in which case the right moves to the next closest relative. This often happens when parents or grandparents are first in line to become the administrator but renounce their rights on the grounds that they are elderly, do not possess knowledge of estate law, or feel that someone else is better suited to the task.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

The appointment of an administrator follows a codified list establishing priority appointees. Classes of persons named higher on the list receive priority of appointment to those lower on the list. Although relatives of the deceased frequently receive priority over all others, creditors of the deceased and 'any other citizen [of that jurisdiction]'{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} may act as an administrator if there is some cognizable reason or relationship to the estate. Alternatively, if no other person qualifies or no other person accepts appointment, the court will appoint a representative from the local public administrator's office.

===Etymology===
The English noun "probate" derives directly from the [[Latin]] verb ''probare'',<ref>Collins Dictionary of the English Language</ref> to try, test, prove, examine,<ref>Cassell's Latin Dictionary</ref> more specifically from the verb's [[past participle]] nominative neuter ''probatum'',<ref>''Testamentum'', the participle refers to, being a neuter noun</ref> "having been proved". Historically during many centuries a paragraph in Latin of standard format was written by scribes of the particular probate court below the transcription of the will, commencing with the words (for example): ''Probatum Londini fuit huiusmodi testamentum coram venerabili viro'' (name of approver) ''legum doctore curiae prerogativae Cantuariensis...'' ("A testament of such a kind was proved at London in the presence of the venerable man ..... doctor of law at the [[Prerogative Court]] of Canterbury...")<ref>Text from will of [[James Boevey]] (d.1696)</ref> The earliest usage of the English word was in 1463, defined as "the official proving of a will".<ref name="etymonline-probate">{{OEtymD|probate|accessdate=5 January 2007}}</ref> The term "[[probative]]", used in the law of [[evidence]], comes from the same Latin root but has a different English usage.