Definitions; E to H.

Sec. 1104.

As used in this act:

(a) "Environmental law" means a federal, state, or local law, rule, regulation, or ordinance that relates to the protection of the environment or human health.

(b) "Estate" includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this act as the property is originally constituted and as it exists throughout administration. Estate also includes the rights described in sections 3805, 3922, and 7606 to collect from others amounts necessary to pay claims, allowances, and taxes.

(c) "Exempt property" means property of a decedent's estate that is described in section 2404.

(d) "Family allowance" means the allowance prescribed in section 2403.

(e) "Fiduciary" includes, but is not limited to, a personal representative, funeral representative, guardian, conservator, trustee, plenary guardian, partial guardian, and successor fiduciary.

(f) "Financial institution" means an organization authorized to do business under state or federal laws relating to a financial institution and includes, but is not limited to, a bank, trust company, savings bank, building and loan association, savings and loan company or association, credit union, insurance company, and entity that offers mutual fund, securities brokerage, money market, or retail investment accounts.

(g) "Foreign personal representative" means a personal representative appointed by another jurisdiction.

(h) "Formal proceedings" means proceedings conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons.

(i) "Funeral establishment" means that term as defined in section 1801 of the occupational code, 1980 PA 299, MCL 339.1801, and the owners, employees, and agents of the funeral establishment.

(j) "Funeral representative" means an individual designated to have the right and power to make decisions about funeral arrangements and the handling, disposition, or disinterment of a decedent's body, including, but not limited to, decisions about cremation, and the right to possess cremated remains of the decedent as provided in section 3206.

(k) "Funeral representative designation" means a written document executed and with the effect as described in sections 3206 to 3206b.

( l ) "General personal representative" means a personal representative other than a special personal representative.

(m) "Governing instrument" means a deed; will; trust; funeral representative designation; insurance or annuity policy; account with POD designation; security registered in beneficiary form (TOD); pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney; or dispositive, appointive, or nominative instrument of any similar type.

(n) "Guardian" means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor or a legally incapacitated individual under a parental or spousal nomination or a court appointment and includes a limited guardian as described in sections 5205, 5206, and 5306. Guardian does not include a guardian ad litem.

(o) "Hazardous substance" means a substance defined as hazardous or toxic or otherwise regulated by an environmental law.

(p) "Heir" means, except as controlled by section 2720, a person, including the surviving spouse or the state, that is entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to a decedent's property.

(q) "Homestead allowance" means the allowance prescribed in section 2402.

History: 1998, Act 386, Eff. Apr. 1, 2000; Am. 2000, Act 54, Eff. Apr. 1, 2000; Am. 2005, Act 204, Imd. Eff. Nov. 10, 2005; Am. 2006, Act 299, Imd. Eff. July 20, 2006; Am. 2009, Act 46, Eff. Apr. 1, 2010; Am. 2016, Act 57, Eff. June 27, 2016