***** 700.1103 THIS SECTION IS AMENDED EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2010: See 700.1103.amended *****

Sec. 1103.

As used in this act:

(a) “Agent” includes, but is not limited to, an attorney-in-fact under a durable or nondurable power of attorney and an individual authorized to make decisions as a patient advocate concerning another's health care.

(b) “Application” means a written request to the probate register for an order of informal probate or informal appointment under part 3 of article III.

(c) “Attorney” means, if appointed to represent a child under the provisions referenced in section 5213, an attorney serving as the child's legal advocate in the manner defined and described in section 13a of chapter XIIA of the probate code of 1939, 1939 PA 288, MCL 712A.13a.

(d) “Beneficiary” includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(i) In relation to a trust beneficiary, a person that is an interested trust beneficiary.

(ii) In relation to a charitable trust, a person that is entitled to enforce the trust.

(iii) In relation to a beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, a person that is a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with POD designation, of a security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), of a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, or of another nonprobate transfer at death.

(iv) In relation to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument, a person that is a grantee of a deed, devisee, trust beneficiary, beneficiary of a beneficiary designation, donee, appointee, taker in default of a power of appointment, or person in whose favor a power of attorney or power held in an individual, fiduciary, or representative capacity is exercised.

(e) “Beneficiary designation” means the naming in a governing instrument of a beneficiary of an insurance or annuity policy, of an account with POD designation, of a security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), of a pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan, or of another nonprobate transfer at death.

(f) “Child” includes, but is not limited to, an individual entitled to take as a child under this act by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved. Child does not include an individual who is only a stepchild, a foster child, or a grandchild or more remote descendant.

(g) “Claim” includes, but is not limited to, in respect to a decedent's or protected individual's estate, a liability of the decedent or protected individual, whether arising in contract, tort, or otherwise, and a liability of the estate that arises at or after the decedent's death or after a conservator's appointment, including funeral and burial expenses and costs and expenses of administration. Claim does not include an estate or inheritance tax, or a demand or dispute regarding a decedent's or protected individual's title to specific property alleged to be included in the estate.

(h) “Conservator” means a person appointed by a court to manage a protected individual's estate.

(i) “Cost-of-living adjustment factor” means a fraction, the numerator of which is the United States consumer price index for the prior calendar year and the denominator of which is the United States consumer price index for 1997. As used in this subdivision, “United States consumer price index” means the annual average of the United States consumer price index for all urban consumers as defined and reported by the United States department of labor, bureau of labor statistics, or its successor agency, and as certified by the state treasurer.

(j) “Court” means the probate court or, when applicable, the family division of circuit court.

(k) “Current trust beneficiary” means a beneficiary about which either of the following is true:

(i) The beneficiary has a current right to receive all or a portion of the income, if any, of the trust property.

(ii) The beneficiary is currently eligible to receive all or a portion of a mandatory or discretionary distribution of income or principal.

(l) “Descendant” means, in relation to an individual, all of his or her descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definitions of child and parent contained in this act.

(m) “Devise” means, when used as a noun, a testamentary disposition of real or personal property and, when used as a verb, to dispose of real or personal property by will.

(n) “Devisee” means a person designated in a will to receive a devise. For the purposes of article II, for a devise to a trustee of an existing trust or to a trustee under a will, the trustee is a devisee and a beneficiary is not.

(o) “Disability” means cause for a protective order as described in section 5401.

(p) “Distributee” means a person that receives a decedent's property from the decedent's personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. A testamentary trustee is a distributee only to the extent that distributed property or an increment of the distributed property remains in the trustee's hands. A testamentary trust beneficiary to whom the trustee distributes property received from a personal representative is a distributee of the personal representative. For the purposes of this subdivision, “testamentary trustee” includes a trustee to whom property is transferred by will to the extent of the devised property.