Estate
Everything you own at the moment you die, before anything is distributed.
Not a word reserved for the wealthy. Anyone who owns anything has an estate: the home, the accounts, the car, the possessions — and the debts, which are settled before anything is passed on.
The reason it matters while you are alive is that an estate is distributed according to instructions, and if you leave none, the state supplies its own. Those default rules rarely match what people would have chosen, and they are particularly unkind to unmarried partners, stepchildren, and anyone whose family does not fit the standard shape.
Two practical things do most of the work. A will, which says who gets what and who administers it. And beneficiary designations on accounts and policies, which in many countries override the will entirely — which means an out-of-date designation can send money to an ex-partner regardless of what the will says.
The second is the one people miss. Check them after every major life change.
The rules vary enormously by country. The principle that travels: leaving no instructions is itself a decision, made on your behalf by someone who never met you.
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Covered properly in Learn.
This term appears in the glossary of The Quiet Fortune, Volume III.