Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 4
Article 5
Article 6

Need help with a review of a will?
Have it reviewed by a lawyer, get answers to your questions and move forward with confidence.
Connect with a lawyer now

Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 555 > Act 159 of 2004 - Uniform Principal and Income Act

  • Accounting period: means a calendar year unless another 12-month period is selected by a fiduciary. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • 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
  • Beneficiary: means , in the case of a decedent's estate, an heir, legatee, or devisee and, in the case of a trust, an income beneficiary or remainder beneficiary. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Benefit: means the receipt of money, goods, or anything of pecuniary value. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • Caseworker: means an individual employed by the department or a child placing agency for the purpose of placing children in homes for foster care or investigating and certifying individuals or homes for foster care. See Michigan Laws 400.683
  • Child placing agency: means that term as defined in section 1 of 1973 PA 116, MCL 722. See Michigan Laws 400.683
  • Claim: means any attempt to cause the department of community health to pay out sums of money under the social welfare act. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Consumer reporting agency: means any person who, for monetary fees or dues or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit-related information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing credit reports to third parties. See Michigan Laws 400.683
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Court: means the family division of the circuit court. See Michigan Laws 400.643
  • Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. Source: OCC
  • Credit report: means any written, oral, or other communication of information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, or credit capacity. See Michigan Laws 400.683
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Department: means the department of human services. See Michigan Laws 400.643
  • Department: means the department of health and human services. See Michigan Laws 400.683
  • Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • Donor: The person who makes a gift.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • False: means wholly or partially untrue or deceptive. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Fiduciary: means a personal representative or trustee. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • 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.
  • in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q
  • Income: means money or property that a fiduciary receives as current return from a principal asset. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Income beneficiary: means a person to whom net income of a trust is or may be payable. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Income interest: means the right of an income beneficiary to receive all or part of net income, whether the terms of the trust require it to be distributed or authorize it to be distributed in the trustee's discretion. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. Source: OCC
  • Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
  • 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.
  • knowingly: means that a person is in possession of facts under which he or she is aware or should be aware of the nature of his or her conduct and that his or her conduct is substantially certain to cause the payment of a medicaid benefit. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  • Mandatory income interest: means the right of an income beneficiary to receive net income that the terms of the trust require the fiduciary to distribute. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Marital deduction: The deduction(s) that can be taken in the determination of gift and estate tax liabilities because of the existence of a marriage or marital relationship.
  • Medicaid benefit: means a benefit paid or payable under a program for medical assistance for the medically indigent in accordance with the social welfare act. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • month: means a calendar month; the word "year" a calendar year; and the word "year" alone shall be equivalent to the words "year of our Lord". See Michigan Laws 8.3j
  • Net income: means the total receipts allocated to income during an accounting period minus the disbursements made from income during the period, plus or minus transfers under this act to or from income during the period. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, association, partnership, or other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, or joint venture; governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; public corporation; or another legal or commercial entity. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
  • Principal: means property held in trust for distribution to a remainder beneficiary when the trust terminates. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
  • Remainder beneficiary: means a person entitled to receive principal when an income interest ends. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • seal: shall be construed to include any of the following:
  (a) The impression of the seal on the paper alone. See Michigan Laws 8.3n
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • shall not apply: means that the pertinent provision is not operative as to certain persons or things or in conjunction with a particular date or dates. See Michigan Laws 8.4c
  • Social welfare act: means the social welfare act, 1939 PA 280, MCL 400. See Michigan Laws 400.602
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Terms of a trust: means the manifestation of the intent of a settlor or decedent with respect to the trust, expressed in a manner that admits of its proof in a judicial proceeding, whether by written or spoken words or by conduct. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by a court. See Michigan Laws 555.502
  • Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
  • Youth: means an individual who is at least 18 years of age but less than 21 years of age. See Michigan Laws 400.643