R&D
Receipts and Distributions.
RAA
Residential Accredited Appraiser of the National Association of Realtors.
RAF
Risk Adjustment Factors.
RAP
Rule Against Perpetuities.
RBA
Risk-Based Approach.
RBD
Required Beginning Date.
RCPP
Regional Conservation Partnership Program (USDA).
RDP
Registered Domestic Partner.
REA
Retirement Equity Act of 1984 (P. L. 98-397).
Real Property
Land and the things affixed thereto and the rights of ownership to same.
Realty Trust
See Nominee Trust.
Recipient
A person who receives a gift.
Reciprocity
Statutes relate to the right of a nonresident not a citizen heir to inherit property if the law of her domicile would permit a citizen of our country to inherit from her decedent.
Recurrent Hospitalization
If the insured returns to the hospital within a specified time period (usually 6 months) for the same condition, it is considered part of the first hospitalization and only one deductible will apply.
Reformation
Correcting a writing to make it conform to what the signer intended.
Reg.
Treasury Regulation.
Reimbursement Payment
Payment of health policy benefits to the insured based on actual medical expenses incurred.
REIT
Real Estate Investment Trust.
Relation Back Doctrine
Treats certain events, such as a disclaimer, as occurring at a previous time, such as when the transfer of an interest was made, when appointive property was placed in trust, or when a posthumous child was conceived.
Release
The document that the executor, administrator, or trustee will ask the beneficiary to sign before receiving their bequest, releasing the estate or trust from further liability. Allows a potential heir to receive early distribution of a share of a property owner’s estate, in exchange for a release of the potential heir’s expectancy.
Remainder
The future interest created in the same document as present interest and following any particular estate.
Remainder Beneficiary
A beneficiary under a will or trust who will receive whatever is left over after all other instructions have been carried out.
Remainderman
See Remainder Beneficiary.
Remarriage
May restore or revive provisions or documents revoked by divorce.
Remedies
Usually are relevant in will contract cases involving breach. Specific performance is not an option.
REMIC
Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit.
Removal
A judge’s withdrawal of a conservator’s appointment. The court then appoints another person as successor conservator.
The removed conservator is replaced involuntarily because the court has determined that he or she isn’t doing or isn’t capable of doing the job right.
Renunciation
Another term for a disclaimer.
REO
Real Estate Owned. Bank ownership of foreclosed property.
Representation
The concept whereby more remote relatives take a share of a decedent’s property in place of a parent or other ancestor who would have taken the property had the parent or more remote ancestor survived the decedent.
Also refers to the concept that a judgment binds someone who was a minor or unborn when it was rendered on the grounds that his/her interests were represented by others.
Representation By Codicil
A means of (re)validating a will by subsequent execution of a codicil to that will.
Res
A name for the corpus or principal of a trust – the underlying property owned.
Residence
Location that a person considers and treats as his/her home. The laws of the residence state which governs the disposition of the non-realty portion of an estate and the real estate portion for realty found in the state of residence.
Residuary Beneficiary
Whoever gets the assets in your estate that you have not left to specific beneficiaries after all creditors claims, taxes, and probate-related administrative expenses have been paid.
Residuary Bequest
One of the residue of an estate. Compare Specific, General, and Demonstrative bequests.
Residuary Clauses
Clauses which in a will dispose of property not specifically transferred under pre-residuary provisions of the will – the residue. Absence or failure of a residuary clause causes that undisposed property to pass by intestacy.
Residuary Estate
All property contained in an estate except for all property specifically and effectively left to designated beneficiaries.
Residue
What remains in a probate estate after all debts, expenses, taxes, and prior pre-residuary distributions have been satisfied.
Respite Care
Temporary care provided to the conservatee to relieve his or her caregiver for brief periods.
Restraint On Alienation
A restriction applied to an interest in property designed to prevent the property from being alienated. Typically, restraints on legal interests are invalid; restraints on equitable interests are permissible.
Resulting Trust
When a trust fails there is a “resulting trust” for the settlor who presumably did not intend to let the trustee keep the property in this event. It is the equitable counterpart to a reversion.
Restoration of Benefits
Allows an insured to restore a certain amount each year for coverage limits lost due to claim payment in a major medical plan. In long-term care, if the insured can go 180 days without needing services, the amount of benefits that had been paid out will be restored to the policy as though there had been no claim.
Retained Interest
Typically in a trust, whether revocable or irrevocable, where the settlor has retained some part or interest, such as an income stream, in the property transferred to the trust.
Retention
Statutes that relate to the right of a nonresident not a citizen heir to inherit property if the law of her domicile will allow her to retain the property.
Reversion
The future interest retained by a transferor following any particular estate.
Reverter
See Possibility of Reverter.
Revival
A fiction that a document previously revoked is restored in certain events, such as revocation of a second document that revoked the first document.
Revocable Trust
A trust that may at any time be altered, amended, or revoked by the creator.
Revocation (Partial)
By physical act performed on only a portion of a will; not universally valid.
Revocation By Operation Of Law
An automatic negation of a dispositive document or certain provisions in it under certain circumstances, such as divorce or murder.
Revocation By Subsequent Instrument
Usually involves a will or codicil that expressly or by inconsistency overrides a prior will.
Reverse QTIP Election
A reverse QTIP election is a somewhat sophisticated estate planning tool that, if properly planned and executed, could allow a surviving spouse to utilize both the surviving spouse’s and deceased spouse’s GST tax exemption, effectively doubling the amount that a married couple may pass to “skip” persons. In the context of GST’s, a QTIP trust is significant because if the election is made to claim the marital deduction, then the assets in a QTIP become part of the surviving spouse’s taxable estate and the deceased’s spouse’s GST tax exemption (or unused portion thereof) would be lost. However, under a reverse QTIP election scenario, QTIP assets will be part the surviving spouse’s taxable estate for gift and estate tax purposes but, for purposes of the GST tax exemption, the transfer of assets to skip persons will be deemed to have been made by the decedent spouse using his GST tax exemption. Note that a reverse QTIP election would only be useful where the GST tax exemption is greater than the applicable estate tax exemption.
Reversion
A future interest reserved to a grantor, expressly or by implication.
Revival
When a will that revoked a prior will is in turn revoked, this may “revive” the earlier revoked will.
Revocable
Anything subject to being cancelled or changed.
RFA
Request For Admissions. Release From Administration.
RIA
Registered Investment Advisor.
Right Of Entry For Condition Broken
See Power Of Termination.
Right of Representation
When the descendants of a deceased person take the same share collectively that the deceased person would have taken had the been alive at decedent’s death. See Per Stirpes.
Right of Severance
The right of a co-tenant to separate or divide commonly held property under a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common.
Right of Survivorship
The right of a joint tenant(but not a tenant in common) to take the whole of the jointly held property if he/she survives the other joint tenant(s).
Risk
The uncertainty of financial loss when more than one outcome is possible. “Pure risk” means there is only a possibility of loss. “Speculative risk” is risk that can also result in a gain.
RLT
Revocable Living Trust.
RM
Residential Member of the Appraisal Institute.
RMD
Required Minimum Distribution.
ROA
Return On Assets. Register Of Actions.
ROAK
Register Of Actions Kiosk.
ROI
Return On Investment.
ROP
Return Of Premium.
RPT
Retirement Plan Trust
RPTE
Real Property, Trusts and Estate Law Section of the ABA.
RRB
Railroad Retirement Board.
RRG
Risk-Retention Group.
RTC
Revenue and Taxation Code.
RTDD
Revocable Transfer on Death Deed.
RTL
Regional Trust Lead.
RUAA
Revised Uniform Arbitration Act.
Rule Against Perpetuities
A common law rule designed to prevent property from being tied up by the dead hand for too long. California has adopted the Uniform Statutory Rule Against Perpetuities (USRAP) codified at Probate Code §§21200-21231.
Rule In Clobberie’s Case
Addresses the question of required survivorship in a future interest.
Rule In Shelley’s Case
A rule dealing with a remainder to the heirs of a life tenant.
Rule In Wild’s Case
Addresses the meaning of a gift “to A and A’s children.”
Rule Of Convenience
Is a timing rule by which a class gift is determined by closing the class.
Rule Of Destructibility Of Contingent Remainders
A now defunct preference treating remainder interests not yet vested when the preceding interest terminated as being invalid.
RULPA
Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act.