1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beneficiary

BENEFICIARY (from Lat. beneficium, a benefit), in law, one who holds a benefice; one who is beneficially entitled to, or interested in, property, i.e. entitled to it for his own benefit, and not merely holding it for others, as does an executor or trustee. In this latter sense it is nearly equivalent to cestui que trust, a term which it is gradually superseding in modern law.