Glossary of Terms: R

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Estate Planning has its own vocabulary. To help you speak the language, we've created a glossary of the more commonly used words and phrases. This glossary is comprised of 26 individual pages, one for each letter of the alphabet. To find a particular word or phrase that starts with the letter "R" - simply scroll down the list below. If your word or phrase starts with another letter, please use the alphabet index below.

Remainder person

A "remainder person" (previously called a "remainder man") is a principal beneficiary who gets the remaining assets after a predesignated period of time or after a certain event. For example, X leaves a specific bequest of $1,000 to A, provided that A survives X. X leaves all the rest and remainder of his property to B. B is a remainder person or remainder beneficiary.

Residence

The term "residence" means the place in which one lives; dwelling.

There is a difference between a person's residence and his domicile. A person's domicile may be in New York and he may still have a residence in Florida and Colorado. A residence is a place where a person lives without the intent to make that place a permanent home; whereas, a domicile is a place where a person intends to live permanently. As such, it is clear that a person may have several residences, but can have only one domicile. See "domicile."

Revocable trusts

A "revocable trust" is a living trust that the grantor has retained the right to amend or terminate at any time. Because the grantor retains the right to amend or terminate the trust, the grantor is treated as the owner of all property placed in the trust. Therefore, for federal income tax purposes, all income earned by the trust is taxed directly to the grantor and is required to be reported on the grantor’s federal income tax return. Accordingly, there are no tax benefits to the grantor in establishing a revocable trust. As discussed elsewhere, however, there are distinct non-tax benefits to establishing a revocable trust.

Rule against perpetuities