Terms Used In Texas Estates Code Chapter 255 > Subchapter G - Exoneration of Debts Secured by Specific Devises

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Devisee: includes a legatee. See Texas Estates Code 22.009
• Estate: means a decedent's property, as that property:
  (1) exists originally and as the property changes in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise;
  (2) is augmented by any accretions and other additions to the property, including any property to be distributed to the decedent's representative by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the decedent's death, and substitutions for the property; and
  (3) is diminished by any decreases in or distributions from the property. See Texas Estates Code 22.012
• Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.