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Terms Used In Alabama Code 40-15B-11

  • 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
  • circuit: means judicial circuit. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Probate: Proving a will

A fiduciary, transferee, or beneficiary of the gross estate may maintain an action for declaratory judgment to have a court determine and enforce this chapter. In the case of an estate that is being administered in a probate court that has equity powers, the fiduciary, transferee, or beneficiary may maintain such action in such probate court which shall have jurisdiction over such actions concurrent with the circuit court. In all other cases, the circuit court shall have exclusive jurisdiction.