- beneficiary
-
/ben'euh fish"ee er'ee, -fish"euh ree/, n., pl. beneficiaries.1. a person or group that receives benefits, profits, or advantages.2. a person designated as the recipient of funds or other property under a will, trust, insurance policy, etc.3. Eccles. the holder of a benefice.[1605-15; < L beneficiarius, equiv. to benefici(um) BENEFICE + -arius -ARY]
* * *
Person or entity (e.g., a charity or estate) that receives a benefit from something (e.g., a trust, life-insurance policy, or contract).A primary beneficiary receives proceeds from a trust or insurance policy before any other. A contingent beneficiary receives proceeds upon the occurrence of a specified event, such as the death of the primary beneficiary. A direct beneficiary is a third party whom contracting individuals intend to benefit from a contract; an incidental beneficiary benefits without that being the contracting individuals' intention.* * *
▪ lawin Anglo-American law, one for whose benefit a trust is created. Beneficiaries of private trusts must be identifiable legal entities (natural persons or corporations) or a class of persons (such as children of the creator of the trust). Whereas the beneficiaries must be described with certainty, provision may be made for the addition of new beneficiaries as persons are born and other events happen, and thus the group may shift in membership from time to time. Beneficiaries of charitable trusts are not identifiable persons, since society is the beneficiary. Thus, in the case of a trust to aid the poor, the individuals chosen yearly to receive trust income are not deemed to be the beneficiaries; rather, society, which is benefitted by the relief of poverty, is the beneficiary.* * *
Universalium. 2010.