DEFINITION

SUCCESSION - The taking over of a previous official's office, rank, or duties by a new person;
the process by which a decedent's property or rights passes to the inheritors thereof, under the
laws of descent and distribution.

DECEDENT - commonly used in law to denote one who has died, particularly someone who has
recently passed away.

TESTATOR - One who makes a will, especially one who dies and leaves a will

INTESTATE - One who, having lawful power to make a will, has made none, or one which is
defective in form.

ESTATE - The degree, quantity, nature, and extent of interest that a person has in real and
Personal Property.

SUCCESSOR / HEIRS

S - A successor is a person or entity who takes over and continues the role or position of
another.

H - An individual who receives an interest in, or ownership of, land, tenements, or

hereditaments from an ancestor who has died intestate, through the laws of Descent and
Distribution.

At Common Law, an heir was the individual appointed by law to succeed to the estate of an
ancestor who died without a will.

PRIMARY COMPULSORY HEIRS - A class of compulsory heirs who have precedence over and
exclude other compulsory heirs, such as legitimate children and legitimate descendants with
respect to their legitimate parents and ascendants.

SECONDARY COMPULSORY HEIRS - A class of compulsory heirs who succeed only in the
absence of the primary compulsory heirs, such as (a) legitimate parents and legitimate
ascendants with respect to their legitimate children and descendants, and (b) illegitimate
parents with respect to their illegitimate children.

VOLUNTARY HEIRS - A kind of heir who is instituted by the testator in his will, to succeed to
the portion of the inheritance of which the testator can freely dispose. They succeed by reason
of a will

EXECUTOR - a person named by a testator to execute or carry out the instructions in a will

ADMINISTRATOR - a person appointed by a probate court to manage the distribution of the

assets in the estate of a person who has died without leaving a valid will or leaving a will that
does not name an executor able or willing to perform
WILL - It is an act whereby a person is permitted with the formalities prescribed by law to
control to a certain degree the disposition of his estate to take effect after his death.

CODICIL - It is a supplement or addition to a will made after the execution of a will and annexed
to be taken as a part of the will by which any disposition made in the original will is explained,
added to, or altered. It is executed as in the case of a will. (ARTS. 825-826)

HOLOGRAPHIC WILL - A handwritten will.

NOTARIAL WILL - An ordinary or attested will

LEGITIME - It is that part of the testator's property which he cannot dispose of because the law
has reserved it for his compulsory heirs. (ART. 886)

FREE PORTION portion that can be freely distributed