W

To voluntarily agree to return to another jurisdiction to face criminal charges.

See digital asset account.

The legal document allowing an eviction to occur.

In feudal times, when certain tenants (such as those who held by tenure by knight service) died with minor children, the lord became the guardian of both the person and lands of the heir. • “Long after the feudal system lapsed, burdensome feudal landholding rules endured. Particularly resented were . . . the bizarre fiscal exactions, called wardship and marriage, that functioned as penal transfer taxes on minors.” John H. Langbein, The Contractarian Basis of the Law of Trusts, 105 Yale L.J. 625 (1995).

Selling or trading securities (such as stocks) at a loss, and then buying substantially identical securities within 30 days before or after the date of the sale. • “To prevent investors from gaming the system, the tax code postpones the use of losses if an investor purchases a ‘substantially identical’ security within 30 days before or after selling the loser. . . . The delayed use of losses applies to wash sales of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs, among others. It also applies if the investor sells a loser in a taxable account and then buys it in a retirement plan such as an IRA within 30 days. Stock-option grants and exercises also count as purchases.” Laura Saunders, The ‘You-Make-a-Lot-of-Money Tax’ Hits More Americans, WSJ, June 23, 2023 (Apple News link).

A doctrine that limits a life tenant’s use of land.

An ambiguous title that describes someone who does comprehensive planning for a client’s wealth, typically a client who is very wealthy. See Alisa Wolfson, Fiduciary vs. financial adviser: What’s the difference?, MarketWatch, June 26, 2023.

The transmission of wealth to others during life (by an outright gift or transfer to a trust) or upon death (by a will trust, will substitute, or operation of law).

Estate tax, gift tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax.

WebSurrogate provides information on estate proceedings and other filings within New York State Surrogate’s Courts. WebSurrogate is a free service that allows you to search files, retrieve documents, and view historical records that are considered to be public information. It provides various search options, such as name, file number, old index, index book pages, and will search. However, WebSurrogate does not provide access to files and documents that are restricted and does not show impounded documents. WebSurrogate only provides links to document images that were filed on or after February 19, 2014. https://websurrogates03.azurewebsites.us/Home/Welcome/

A collaborative, web-based platform that allows users to create, edit, and link interrelated pages of content directly from a browser, typically without requiring specialized coding skills. Its defining features include open editing (often with version tracking to preserve history and allow reversions), interconnected articles through hyperlinks, and a focus on collective knowledge-building. Wikis can be public, like Wikipedia, or private, used within organizations for documentation, project management, or knowledge sharing.

A hyperlink used in wikis (collaborative web platforms like Wikipedia) that connects to another page within the same site. Wiki links facilitate the interconnection of content, allowing users to easily navigate between related articles. • The term can be found in two styles: “wiki link” (two words) and “wikilink” (one word), both of which describe links in a wiki.

“A will is a legal document that states what should happen to your assets when you die and names the person or people in charge of carrying out your wishes.” E. Napoletano, What is a will? The estate planning document you need ASAP (even if you think you don’t), Fortune, June 19, 2023 (Apple News link). • Historically, a will was an instrument capable of disposing only real property, while a testament related solely to personal property. For this reason, under modern law a will continues to operate as a devise and needs no executor, unless legislature or the testator’s will change the default. • New York’s EPTL 1-2.19 gives this definition for a will: “(a) A will is an oral declaration or written instrument, made as prescribed by 3-2.1 or 3-2.2 to take effect upon death, whereby a person disposes of property or directs how it shall not be disposed of, disposes of his body or any part thereof, exercises a power, appoints a fiduciary or makes any other provision for the administration of his estate, and which is revocable during his lifetime. (b) Unless the context otherwise requires, the term ‘will’ includes a ‘codicil’.” • See executor. C.f. testament.

Property that passes on death without a will or the necessity of probate or other court intervention, including joint accounts, lifetime trusts, life insurance, and other accounts with beneficiary designations. Also called “non-probate asset.”

(1) Someone who actively focuses on issues of justice (racial and social), the environment, or other societal issues. • “The idea that patriarchy, white supremacy, transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, and other ills inexorably saturate our lived realities and that the highest good is to uncover and oppose them is, I think, a central component of ‘wokeness’ as both its proponents and critics understand it.” Thomas Chatterton Williams, You Can’t Define Woke, Atlantic, March 17, 2023 (Apple News link).

(2) An adjective that some Republican politicians use to bash any policy that they oppose, specifically one they think is “liberal.” It’s an appeal to bias as a means to avoid substantive conversation about the particulars of an issue. See, e.g., Sahil Kapur, Josh Hawley labels Silicon Valley Bank ‘too woke to fail’, NBC News, March 2023 (Apple News link) (“Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky claimed that the bank was too focused on policies around diversity and its consideration of environmental and social factors in investments — known as ESG.”); Doyle McManus, Column: Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse may be a blessing in disguise, Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2023 (Apple News link) (“Republican politicians provided a dose of comedy, blaming SVB’s financial blunders on the imaginary menace of “woke banking.” There’s no evidence that the bankers’ political leanings, “woke” or otherwise, affected their balance sheet.”). • Hani’s opinion: Politicians who forestall conversation by using such adjectives get an A+ for rabble-rousing and an F for analysis. For example, to suggest that regulators took over SVB because it is too “woke” overlooks the underlying economics, which Jonathan Weil discusses in his prescient article, Rising Interest Rates Hit Banks’ Bond Holdings (WSJ, 11/11/2022, Apple News link), several months before the collapse of SVB: “SVB Financial Group, the parent of Silicon Valley Bank, said the market value of its held-to-maturity bonds was $15.9 billion less than their balance-sheet value, as of Sept. 30. That gap was slightly more than SVB’s $15.8 billion of total equity.” See Thomas Chatterton Williams, You Can’t Define Woke, Atlantic, March 17, 2023 (Apple News link) (“I have argued for years now that ‘woke’ is not a viable descriptor for anyone who is critical of the many serious excesses of the left yet remains invested in reaching beyond their own echo chamber. The word is more confusing than useful, and we should make good-faith efforts to avoid using it.”).

At common law, words in a conveyance that indicate the estate that has been created. • For example, in the grant “to A and his heirs,” the words “and his heirs” are words of limitation. C.f. words of purchase.

At common law, words in a conveyance that identify the grantee. • For example, in the grant “to A and his heirs,” “A” is the only word of purchase because it identifies the recipient of the property. C.f. words of limitation.

See separately managed account.