38 Special features Life Estates. In a sense they are like children, easily conceived, but in some cases, troublesome forever after. In another sense they are like a fire from which there are some benefits and some dangers.
Troubles seem to arise from life estates with a similar inevitability.
It is worth having a fresh look at whether life estates are indeed sensible things to create, or whether they do cause more troubles than they are worth. First a summary of the law about life estates will be attempted and then the advantages and disadvantages considered. A life estate may be created in real property or in personal property. Sometimes you get a mixture of both. A will may, for example, dispose of the residue of an estate to X for life, or to X for the term of X's natural life, or while X lives, or during X's life, and the assets in the residue may be a rural property or part of it and plant and machinery, shares or other investments, or money in the bank.