WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF AN ESTATE?

The general meaning of an estate was explained previously in my post titled FINANCIAL PLANNING SEMINAR (THIRD DAY). (January 21, 2009).

Generally, a person's estate refers to all of his property like

• real property / immovable property
• personal property / movable property
• tangible personal property
• intangible personal property
• property right

Before his estate can be distributed according to his will or the related law, he has to settle all of his debts or liabilities like taxes, loans and others. So, he still has to settle his debts even with a will. Without a will, the distribution of his estate will take a longer time than the time he takes when he has a will.

Real property refers to anything that is permanently attached to a land such as buildings, houses, shoplots and so on (including lands). These items can't be moved.

Anything that is not real property is called personal property. Personal property can be either tangible or intangible. Tangible personal property refers to physical personal property such as cars, watches, jewellery and so on. Whereas intangible personal property refers to anything that we can't touch or hold like shares, bonds, business secrets, copyright, trademarks and others.

Generally, a property right is the legal right to use resources or refers to the ownership of resources like lands, capital and other goods.

The theories of property are very complicated. For details, please click the following links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_property
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immovable_property
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_rights