Estate Law

An estate, in common law, is the net worth of a person at any point in time alive or dead. It is the sum of a person's assets – legal rights, interests and entitlements to a property of any kind – less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of insolvency and death of the person.

 

A term used by the law to describe that part of the law which regulates wills, probate and other subjects related to the distribution of a deceased person’s estate.

 

Although the term estate is not restricted to the law of property it relates to the deceased, the term estate law has evolved to refer, primarily, to the law as it relates to the law as it relates to the winding up of a deceased estate.