What effect does a deed with a retained life estate interest have on my real property and estate plan?
A deed with a retained life estate means that when you pass away that that asset is going to be transferred to the remainder men, the people that are designated as the people to receive that asset when you die. Your estate plan, then, will not control that real property. They will not control the title to that deed. A life estate means that you have retained the right to live there and possess the property during your lifetime, but at your death, it’s going to be transferred to the remainder men that are named in that deed. Your estate plan will have typically no effect then on that deed because when you die because the person that’s receiving it at your death, it’s their asset then, no longer yours.