A Life Estate

Life Estate

A Life Estate is an estate that is measured by the life of a natural person.  The duration of the estate may be measured by the life of the person holding it, or by the life of another person who was specified at the time the Life Estate was created.  A Life Estate may be created by will or conveyed or reserved in a deed.
The owner of the Life Estate is entitled to any rents or profits derived from the property during the Life Estate.  Upon the death of the owner of the Life Estate, any rights of that person automatically terminate.

There are several ways to establish a Life Estate:

– May be created by conveying a Life Estate to one person and the remainder is conveyed to another person.

– May be created by conveying the Life Estate only, leaving the residue of the Fee Estate (called a reversion) to the grantor.

– May be created by conveying the Fee Estate and reserving a Life Estate to the grantor.

A Life Estate can also be terminated:

 -By the owner in a conveyance of the property.

– By a deed from its owner to the owner of the remainder.

– By the death of the owner of the Life Estate.
The title company will require the recording of a copy of the death certificate in order to remove the Life Estate from the preliminary title report.