Palliative Care:
Health and/or personal care that relieves pain and the symptoms of disease, but does not attempt to cure it.

Per Stirpes:
A method of dividing assets of an estate. For example, if a member of the group among which the assets are being divided was dead at the time of the division. In this event, the children of that deceased member would divide among them the share that their parent would have received had she or he been alive.

Persistent Vegetative State:
A coma which results from the loss of brain functions relating to consciousness and feelings although the body may continue to function.

Personal Care:
Assistance with bathing, grooming, dressing, mobility, eating/drinking, and other activities of daily life.

Personal Property:
All property with the exception of real estate and buildings; also known as “personalty” (as opposed to “realty”).

Personal Representative:
The individual administering an estate, whether an executor or administrator.

Planned Giving:
A charitable gift designed to maximize your tax and estate planning goals and benefits.

Power of Attorney:
A written document by which you grant to someone the authority to act on your behalf on various matters. A power of attorney is different from a will, which provides for the orderly distribution of your estate after your death; a power of attorney terminates on your death. There are different types of powers of attorney dealing with specific or general financial or health issues.

Power of Attorney for Personal Care:
A document which gives your stated representative expansive authority to make personal care decisions on your behalf if you become mentally incapacitated. This document may include instructions normally covered in a “living will.”

Pre-existing Condition:
An ailment for which you sought medical advice in the six months (or one year, or two years, depending on the insurance contract) prior to applying for the disability policy, and which recurs within a specified period of time (for example, six months) from the policy date. Policies that have this clause exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions occurring within the prescribed time frame. Some group contracts have a pre-existing condition clause. It is also common in creditor’s disability insurance.

Precedent:
Guide or example which has been used before.

Present Gift:
A charitable donation in which you give the gift now, not in the future.

Probatable Assets:
Those assets which pass through the estate. They are therefore governed by the probate process and subject to probate fees.

Probate:
Formal proof before the appropriate officer or court that the will presented is the last will of the testator. In addition, the executor(s) named are formally confirmed.