Taxation & Estate Planning

What are Distributees? Why are they important?

By Christopher L. Miller

If you interact with an estate attorney, you may hear the term distributee. In New York, the term distributee has a legal meaning set out in Estates Powers and Trusts Law Section (EPTL) 1-2.5. The statutory definition is “A distributee is a person entitled to take or share in the property of a decedent under the statutes governing descent and distribution.” The statute refers to EPTL 4-1.1, which sets forth the persons entitled to inherit from a Decedent when there is no Last Will and Testament.

EPTL 4-1.1 sets forth the distributees as follows: (more…)

Full post as published by Res Publicae - The New York Estates Blog on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).