Define Heir

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EstateExec generically uses the term heir for someone who will inherit from the estate (see Determining Heirs for more information, and note that heirs may include charities or other organizations).

Create an Heir

To record the existence of an heir,

  1. Select the Heirs tab, and click the "Create Heir" button to add a row to the table.
  2. Click each cell for that heir to record the relevant information (ignore the Allocated, Beneficiary, and Bequests cells for now: they related to distributions you will later define).
  3. Your changes will be saved when you press the estate "Save All" button.

Heirs Table Notes

Here are a few helpful things to know about the Heirs table (and see Making Distributions for a discussion on estate allocation, named beneficiaries, and bequests):

  • Allocated: The amount you have allocated to this heir via discretionary distributions (excludes distributions listing Bequest, Beneficiary, or Other as the reason).
  • Beneficiary: The amount you have allocated to this heir via distributions with Beneficiary listed as the reason.
  • Bequest: The amount you have allocated to this heir via distributions with Bequest listed as the the reason.
  • Estate %: Enter the percentage of the general estate that this heir is supposed to inherit (if any). Percentages are applicable to the net estate after all debts have been resolved, and generally exclude specific bequests as well as assets inherited via the "named beneficiary" mechanism.
  • Relation: The relationship between the decedent and an heir is important in certain jurisdictions, where it can impact taxes that may be associated with the inheritance (and which the estate may have to pay).
  • SSN: You will likely need heir social security numbers for various government filings, but it is not required that you enter them here if you would prefer not to.

See also Using Tables for an illustration of many things you can do with EstateExec tables in general.

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