Who's your first round pick? Breaking legal jargon down for the everyday person!

Today we're discussing legal jargon and how to break it down. When you're working with an attorney; legal jargon used on your documents and in emails, etc. can be a little confusing and daunting. So let's break it down.

The definition of jargon is: special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.

We're going to talk about some "jargony" words that are thrown around a lot in probate court. You're going to hear them every time you talk to an attorney about updating or revising your will, and your going to be asked a couple things, like do you want an independent executor... "uh okay what's an executor" or "will we create a trust" or "what kind of a trustee you're going to have."

Let's just look at it this way, they are people who - I think the simplest way to look at it - will be in charge of all your affairs, to distribute your assets to your loved ones, etc... who are your first round draft pick.

That's your executor. And if you're going to create a trust - a trust is a declaration- think about it like forming a corporate entity. You create a legal entity by drafting a document that is called the trust. That trust, will be given an asset at some point either immediately or later. Some trusts are called a "pour over trust."

For example: you have a cup, this is the trust declaration, the document that says what all the trust duties are, it is empty until you give it something.

Usually the proceeds of a life insurance policy are poured over and filling up the trust with assets. Then they are distributed for your minor children in case of something tragic happening to mom or dad. So the trustee handles the management and the distribution of those assets.

Join us again on Monday as we wrap up jargon talk, on our next blog!