P
Parent. Partnership.
P/C
Property / Casualty insurance.
PACE
Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly.
PAHC
Power of Attorney for Health Care.
Parentelic
A system of determining which of several collateral heirs is entitled to inherit in intestacy. Rather than the degree of consanguinity being determinative, it is based on the relation of the nearest lineal ancestor in common with the decendant.
Particular Estates
Life estates, life estates per autre vie, and terms of years.
Partition
The right of a co-tenant and in some cases a life-tenant to have the commonly held property divided by court order. Where real estate is concerned, this usually means a court-ordered sale of the property and division of the net proceeds.
PAS
Pre-Admission Screening. (Re Medicaid).
PASD
Probate Attorneys of San Diego.
Passive Trust
A passive trust is a trust with no unfulfilled duties and therefore that will terminate.
Patent Ambiguity
An ambiguity in a will apparent on the face of the document.
Payable-On-Death Accounts
POD. A bank account that holds money for the future benefit of whomever you’ve designated as the account beneficiary. The beneficiary will receive those funds when you die. Also called a Totten Trust or Informal Trust.
PBGC
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
PCIP
Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan.
PCOR
Preliminary Change of Ownership Report.
PCP
Primary Care Physician.
PCSP
Personal Care Service Program.
PDNP
Proved Developed Not Producing.
PDP
Prescription Drug Plans; Proved Developed Producing reserves..
Pecuniary Funding Clause
Clause in trust which sets out the formula or rules to be used by the trustee in distributing assets of the trust into other trusts.
Pennsylvania Rule
Is one of the resolutions to the issue addressed by the Rule in Wild’s Case.
Per Capita
A plan of distribution under trust or will in which gift lapses if the beneficiary of the gift is dead at the time of the gift.
Per Stirpes
Beneficiary inherits through a deceased ancestor by right of representation.
Peril
Is a specific future possible event which would result in a financial loss. It is the possibility of a peril which creates risk.
Permissible Appointees
Those persons or institutions who are within the class of recipients of property under a proper exercise of a power of appointment. See Objects.
Plain Meaning
The presumption that terms should be given their everyday meaning.
Persistency
The staying quality of insurance policies; i.e., the renewal quality. “High” persistency means that a high number of policies written by the agent stay in force.
Personal Effects
Belongings of a personal nature, such as clothes and jewelry.
Personal Guardian
An adult you designate in your will as the person who will raise your children should you die while they are minors and should their other parent also be deceased or unable/unwilling to raise them.
Personal Property
All property excluding real property.
Personal Representative
Generic title applied to a person authorized to act on behalf of the decedent’s estate. An administrator or executor.
Personal Residence Trust (PRT)
An irrevocable trust to which a grantor may transfer a personal residence (one per trust, maximum two trusts) and retain the right to live there for a specified term of years, after which, if the grantor survives the term, the residence escapes tax in the grantor’s estate.
Personal Revival Trust
Any type of trust set up to hold assets for a cryogenically frozen person until he is revived. Also known as dynasty trust, cryonic trust, or asset preservation trust.
Petter v. Commissioner, Estate of, 2011-2 U.S.T.C. ¶60,623 (9TH Cir. 2011)
Anne Y. Petter (taxpayer) made gifts of interests in an LLC to trusts opened in the names of two of her children and to two donor-advised funds opened with charitable foundations. In order to avoid transfer taxes, the gifts were expressed as formulas matched to a specific dollar value rather than a specific number of shares in the LLC. If an audit led to the revaluation of the LLC and the determination that gift tax was due on any portion of the gifts to the trusts, the transfer documents required that only a portion be reallocated to the charitable foundation recipients. This type of estate planning technique (Formula allocation clause) is distinguished from earlier valuation-based methods.
Pet Trust
A trust set up to provide the funds to maintain health of a pet. California Probate Code §15212 was amended in 2009 to allow Pet Trusts.
Petition
A document filed with a court seeking a court order. The initial filing in probate court is a petition seeking court orders to probate the estate and for appointment of the personal representative.
Petition for Instruction
In decedents’ estates, guardianships, and conservatorships, a petition for instructions is available only when no other procedure is provided by statute.
PF
Private Foundation.
PFFS
Private Fee-For-Service.
PFIC
Passive Foreign Investment Company.
PFL
Paid Family Leave.
PFS
Personal Financial Specialist. Personal Financial Statement.
PHA
Public Housing Agency.
Physical Hazard
Arise from material, structural, or operational features of a risk. Slippery floors or unsanitary conditions would be examples.
PHO
Physician-Hospital Organization.
Physician-Hospital Organization
Combines doctors, hospitals, and other health care services into a single legal entity that contracts with MCOs, insurance carriers, and employers to provide a wide range of services. They function like an HMO, but are not regulated by HMO laws.
PIA
Primary Insurance Amount. Base of Social Security at retirement.
PKI
Public Key Infrastructure.
PLC
Price Loss Coverage.
PLR
Private Letter Ruling (IRS); Prime Lending Rate.
PMK
Person Most Knowledgeable.
PMV
Presumed Maximum Value.
PN8
…
POA
Power Of Attorney; Power Of Appointment.
POD
Pay On Death accounts. A Pay on Death, or POD, account is a bank account. This kind of account has a named payee who will be entitled to collect whatever is in the account when the person who established the account dies, but has no rights in the account during that person’s life. If a conservatee created the account, the named payee does not own the account or any of the money or other assets in it during the conservatee’s lifetime. However, the conservator should not remove the named payee’s name or withdraw any money or property from a POD account without the named payee’s permission or a court order, because to do so might interfere with the conservatee’s intended estate plan.
POF
Private Operating Foundation.
Point of Service
An open-ended HMO is a hybrid arrangement whereby participants may use non-HMO providers at any time and receive indemnity benefits that are subject to higher deductible and coinsurance amounts.
Policyowner
Insured under an insurance contract.
POLST
Physician Order(s) for Life Sustaining Treatment. See Prob. C §§ 4621 et seq.
POMS
Program Operations Manual System (Social Security Administration).
Pooled Trust
A “safe harbor” trust under the Medicaid rules allowing a trust established by a charitable organization to receive and pool funding from individuals eligible to receive Medicaid. Assets contributed to such a trust are ignored for Medicaid eligibility purposes if on the individual’s death any trust distributions from the individual’s account are used first to reimburse the state for benefits paid to or for the individual.
Portability
Ability of surviving spouse to use the unused portion of deceased spouse’s tax exemptions.
POS
Point of Service.
Possibility of Reverter
A future interest retained by a grantor who conveys away a fee simple determinable.
Post Mortem Estate Tax Planning
Shortly after death of decedent, often various elections can be made to minimize taxes based upon changed circumstances not anticipated by the original estate plan. These elections have short statutes of limitation and need to be reviewed shortly after death.
Posthumous Heirs
Heirs conceived by decedent before decedent’s death buit treated as alive at the time of conception if subsequently born alive.
Postnuptial Agreement
A marital property contract entered by spouses that usually settles and waives elective share rights.
Pot Trust
See Family Pot Trust.
Pour-Back Trust
A funded inter vivos trust that distributes at the settlor’s death back to the settlor’s probate estate.
Pour-Over Will
A will which provides that probate-able assets should be distributed to a trust, also created by the decedent.
Pour-Over Provision
A provision in a will that usually gives the bulk of the estate to a living trust created by the testator before or at the time the will is signed.
Power In Trust
A power of appointment that the powerholder is regarded as obliged to exercise. See Imperative Power.
Power of Appointment
A legal power held by a person under which that person may direct the trustee of a trust to distribute money or property from the trust to persons selected by the person with the power of appointment..
Power of Attorney
Power granted by a person to another granting the other the authority to act as his/her agent.
Power of Attorney for Health Care
A power of attorney over the health and medical care of an individual rather than the financial affairs.
Power Of Termination
The future interest retained by a transferor following a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent. Also known as Right of entry for condition broken.
Powerholder
The modern term for the holder of the power of appointment – historically called he done of the power.
PPA
Pension Protection Act of 2006.
PPACA
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; aka Public Law 111-148.
See too ACA.
PPF
Private Professional Fiduciary.
PPLI
Private Placement Life Insurance.
PPO
Preferred Provider Organization.
PPSTM
Partnering Possibility System (NNEPA).
PPT
Private Party Transaction with respect to firearms transfers.
PPVA
Private Placement Variable Annuities.
PR
Personal Representative.
Pre-Existing Conditions
An illness or medical condition that existed prior to the policy’s effective date; usually excluded from coverage for a period of time.
Pre-Nuptial
Before marriage. Usually refers to an agreement entered into by two individual prior to their marriage.
Precatory
Of or relating to a wish or desire. Directions in an instrument that are construed not to impose any legal obligation, as opposed to mandatory language.
Precocious Toddler
One of the fantastic presumptions under the Rule Against Perpetuities.
Predeceased Domestic Partner
A domestic partner who has died before an estate’s decedent.
Predeceased Spouse
A spouse who dies before an estate’s decedent.
Preferred Provider
A provider who has agreed to accept the health plan’s reimbursement and agreed to other contractual requirements from an insurer (such as assurance or utilization review protocols) for health care services provided to covered persons.
Preferred Provider Organization
PPO: a form of managed care, as well as considered most like an indemnity plan. They are managed care because there are controls in place for both the provider of the care and the members covered by the plan. Indemnity plans use fee schedules. In a PPO, the provider has agreed to discount their fees and they are paid fee-for-service provided.
As a rule PPOs offer more choices among physicians and hospitals. The insured is allowed to receive care from any provider, but if the insured selects a PPO provider, the insured will realize lower out-of-pocket expenses.
PPOs differ from HMOs in two ways. First, they do NOT provide care on a prepaid basis, but physicians are paid a fee-for-service for each service they provide. This means PPOs are not a service plan, but are an indemnity plan. Secondly, subscribers are not required to use physicians or facilities that have contracts with the PPO. Also, HMOs typically have a co-pay while PPOs have deductibles and coinsurance features.
Premium
Sums paid by a policyowner as consideration for a policy of insurance.
Prenuptial Agreement
A marital property contract entered by persons before they marry that usually settles and waives elective share rights.
Presence
A requirement of both execution and revocation, if a witness or proxy act is involved. Compliance may entail a line of sight test or a conscious presence standard.
Presumption Of Revocation
Exists if a will cannot be found, if the testator had exclusive control and access to it.
Pretermitted Heir
A child, spouse or domestic partner not mentioned in a will whom the court believes was inadvertently overlooked by testator. Mention of the relative in a will but not providing a bequest is viewed, in California, as evidence of intent to disinherit.
Principal
The corpus or res of a trust – the underlying property owned. Also the person giving a power of attorney.
Principle Sum
The amount that is payable as a death benefit if death is due to an accident in a disability policy. The death must occur within a specified number of days (usually 90), and as a result of the accident, for the benefit to be payable. The benefit settles lump sum.
Private Trust
Trust of which the trustee is an actual human being.
PRL
Property Resource Limit. (re Medi-Cal).
Prob C
Probate Code.
Probate
The process which authenticates a will, appoints a personal representative, settles estates debts and taxes, identifies heirs, and distributes remaining estate corpus.
Probate Administration
The estate administration functions of marshaling assets, paying debts and expenses, and making distributions of the decedent’s probate property.
Probate Avoidance
The notion that delay, cost, and other disadvantages of probate administration should be avoided by use of will substitutes and nonprobate property devices.
Probate Estate
All the assets of an estate at the time of death which must undergo probate. Does not include decedent’s assets which pass outside of probate.
Probate Property
Property that may be transferred only through the probate procedure and would therefore include property or proceeds payable to he estate of the deceased, as well as property titled in the deceased’s name alone or as a tenant in common.
Probate Referee
A professional appointed by the California State Controller and
assigned by a judge in the probate court to appraise the value of
a conservatee’s noncash assets listed on the Inventory and
Appraisal.
Probationary Period
Is basically a one-time wait that begins after the effective date of coverage. It can be applied to those who enroll in a group plan after the initial enrollment period. It can be applied to a disability income policy in which accidents are covered on the effective date, however there is a 30 days probationary period before illness is also covered. Sometimes it is referred to as a waiting period before a pre-existing condition is covered.
In group health policy it is the time period that passes for those who join the group after the policy effective date and for which coverage begins. For these individuals, there will be a probationary period in which no coverage exists. This period may also be used for certain health conditions (pre-existing). In group insurance, new employees are not eligible to become members of the group until after a waiting period has elapsed. A waiting period (sometimes called probationary period) can be 7, 30, 60 days or even up to one year. This provision eliminates the expenses of insuring new employees who leave the job a short time after being hired.
Procter, Commissioner v., 142 F.2d 824 (4th Cir. 1944)
“Defined value” or “savings” clause used found to be valid.
Proof of Loss
A formal statement made by the insured to the insurer regarding a loss. The purpose of the proof of loss is to give the insurer sufficient information concerning the loss to enable the insurer to determine its liability under the policy.
Prop 58 Exclusion from Reassessment
Proposition 58, effective November 6, 1986, is a constitutional amendment approved by the voters of California which excludes from reassessment transfers of real property between parents and children. Proposition 58 is codified by section 63.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
Prop. Reg.
Proposed Treasury Regulation.
Property Guardian
The adult or entity you name in your will to manage the assets that you leave to your minor children in your will.
Proration Clause
Clause in trust or will which spells out how taxes are to be paid from the estate.
Protector
A person or entity other than a trustee who is given certain powers over the trust, such as the power to veto trust distributions, change trustees, etc.
Proxy
Signature is the testator authorizing someone to act on the testator’s behalf to sign a will. Proxy revocation is the testator requesting that someone destroy the testator’s will. Other forms of proxy refer to durable powers of attorney, such as a health care proxy.
PRT
Personal Residence Trust. Personal Revival Trust.
PRUCOL
Permanently Residing in U.S. Under Color of Law.
Prudent Investor Act
The California Uniform Prudent Investor Act is patterned on the Uniform Prudent Investor Act now codified in ten states. The UPIA made five basic changes in the criteria for prudent investing (some of which were already accepted in California):
1. Portfolio: The standard of prudence is applied to any investment as part of the total portfolio, rather than to individual investments. (For some years California has recognized a total portfolio approach to investments.)
2. Risk: The trustee’s central consideration is the tradeoff in all investing
between risk and return. The UPIA sets forth criteria for investment and
management of trust assets and codifies modern trust investment principles.
3. Investments: Restrictions on types of investments are eliminated. The
trustee can invest in anything that plays an appropriate role in achieving the risk/return objectives of the trust and that meets the other requirements of prudent investment.
4. Diversification: The trustee’s traditional duty to diversify trust investments is codified in the UPIA. (In California, the duty to diversify was previously recognized only in case law.)
5. Delegation: The UPIA rejected the traditional trust rule that generally prohibited delegation of duties by the trustee, especially the duty of investment of trust assets. Delegation is now permitted, subject to safeguards. Agents are now made specifically liable for not following the new law.
Prudent Person Rule
Rule that sets the standard by which fiduciaries were judged in making investments for a trust.
PSDA
Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990.
PT
Partner’s Trust. Prohibited Transaction.
PTE
Practicum Transformation Experience. Prohibited Transaction Exemption.
PTP
Practicum Transformation/Transition Program. Previously Taxed Property. Publicly Traded Partnership.
PTR
Preliminary Title Report. An offer by title insurance company to issue a policy covering a particular estate or interest in realty subject to stated exceptions.
Public Administrator
Publicly appointed person who handles the administration of an estate when no other person has been appointed as administrator or executor. This usually happens when there are no known heirs who could serve as the personal representative.
Public Guardian
A county agency authorized to accept appointment and to
serve as conservator of a person living in the county. The public
guardian is sometimes also called the public conservator.
Publication
An oral statement by the testator that a document is the testator’s will, so that the witnesses understand that the testator knows what the testator is signing.
PUD
Planned Unit Development; Proved Undeveloped Reserves.
Purpose Trust
A trust that is established for a purpose (e.g., furtherance of a business, maintenance of a building, care of a pet) rather than for specified beneficiaries.
Putative Spouse
A person not legally married, but who is treated as a spouse. For example, in the case an unmarried person thought in good faith they were married, but where for technical reasons the marriage was not valid.
PWD
.-.