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Trusts & Estates Glossary: M
MARITAL DEDUCTION:
The portion of a decedent’s estate that may be given to the surviving wife or husband without its becoming subject to the federal estate tax levied against the decedent’s estate; a term that came into general use under the Internal Revenue Act of 1954.
MARITAL PROPERTY:
A term generally referring to property acquired by either spouse during the course of the marriage, in which each spouse possesses an interest in the event of death or marital dissolution.
MARITAL RIGHTS:
The rights that a husband and wife have in each other’s property.
MARKETABLE TITLE:
A title which a reasonably prudent man, knowing all the facts, regards and accepts as good.
MASSACHUSETTS RULE:
A term frequently applied to a rule for the investment of trust funds enunciated by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1830; now commonly referred to as the prudent-man rule. See Prudent-Man Rule for Trust Investment.
MASSACHUSETTS TRUST:
An unincorporated organization created for profit under a written instrument or declaration of trust, by the terms of which the property held in trust is managed by compensated trustees for the benefit of persons whose legal interests are represented by transferable certificates of participation or shares; also called business trust.
MASTER TRUST:
An arrangement designating the custodianship and accounting for all employee benefit assets of a corporation or a controlled group of corporations to a single trustee, facilitating uniform administration of the assets of multiple plans and multiple investment managers.
MONTHLY VALUATION TABLES:
Tables published by the Treasury Department in Publication 1457, "Actuarial Values Alpha Volume," and used in most instances to value life estates, term and remainder interests for gift and estate tax purposes. These tables became effective - May 1,1989, and replace the former ten percent tables. For any given transfer, the relevant table is selected by reference to the applicable interest rate for the month, which equals 120 percent of the applicable federal midterm rate in effect for the month, compounded annually and rounded to the nearest 2/lOths of one percent.
MORTALITY RATE:
Number of persons out of a large group (usually 100,000) who, experience shows, will live to reach each age up to the death of the last survivor; inferentially establishing the expectancy of life of the average person of each age.
MORTGAGE:
An instrument by which the borrower (mortgagor) gives the lender (mortgagee) a lien on property (commonly real property) as security for the payment of an obligation. The borrower continues to use the property, and when the obligation is fully extinguished, the lien is removed. If the subject matter of the lien is personal property other than securities (such as machinery, tools, or equipment), the mortgage is known as a chattel mortgage.
MUTUAL WILLS:
Wills made by two or more persons (usually but not necessarily husband and wife) containing similar or identical provisions in favor of each other or of the same beneficiary.
