Terms Used In Maryland Code, COURTS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS 3-408

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • including: means includes or including by way of illustration and not by way of limitation. See
  • Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
  • minor: means an individual under the age of 18 years. See
  • Person: includes an individual, receiver, trustee, guardian, personal representative, fiduciary, representative of any kind, corporation, partnership, business trust, statutory trust, limited liability company, firm, association, or other nongovernmental entity. See
  • Personal representative: includes an administrator and an executor. See
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
Any person interested as or through a personal representative, trustee, guardian or other fiduciary, creditor, devisee, legatee, heir, next of kin, or beneficiary of a trust, in the administration of a trust, or of the estate of a decedent, a minor, a disabled person, or an insolvent, may have a declaration of rights or legal relations in respect to the trust or the estate of the decedent, minor, disabled person, or insolvent in order to:

(1) Ascertain any class of creditors, devisees, legatees, heirs, next of kin, or others;

(2) Direct the personal representative, guardian, or other fiduciary or trustees to do or abstain from doing any particular act in their fiduciary capacity; or

(3) Determine any question arising in the administration of the estate or trust, including questions of construction of wills and other writings.