Want to pass your home to your children when you die — avoiding probate — but keep the right to live there for the rest of your life? A life estate deed does exactly that: it splits ownership across time. One person (the life tenant) keeps the right to live in and use the property for life; another (the remainderman) automatically owns it when the life tenant dies, without probate. This makes that recordable deed. It’s the traditional, ordinary sibling of the enhanced life estate / lady bird deed — but with a crucial difference: an ordinary life estate is a COMPLETED, PRESENTLY VESTED, IRREVOCABLE gift of the remainder. Your remainderman gets a real property interest the day you record it; you can’t sell, mortgage or take the property back without their written joinder; and because it’s a present gift it can have gift-tax, capital-gains basis and Medicaid consequences a lady bird deed avoids. Pick who holds the life estate and PaperKit reframes the whole deed: RESERVE a life estate for yourself (you convey the property now, keep the right to use it for life, and your remainderman takes on your death), or GRANT a life estate to someone else (e.g. give a parent or spouse the right to live there for their life, with the remainder to your remainderman). Then pick how the remaindermen take — a single remainderman, several in equal shares as tenants in common, or a primary with a named alternate if the primary predeceases the life tenant. Name the grantor, the life tenant (if you’re granting one), and the remainderman, give the property address, legal description and parcel number, and toggle the recitals — that the remainder is presently vested (a completed present gift), that the deed is irrevocable and cannot be defeated without the remainderman’s joinder, and that the life tenant must pay taxes and upkeep and not commit waste. PaperKit assembles the full recordable deed and the grantor e-signs it. Hosted online for the grantor to review & e-execute. Clean recordable PDF. (Life estate deeds, homestead and spousal-joinder rules, the doctrine of waste and the gift-tax / Medicaid consequences all vary by state — confirm your state’s law and consult an attorney or tax advisor; a lady bird deed or transfer-on-death deed may fit better.)
The big lever — reserve an ordinary life estate for yourself, or grant one to someone else. Either way the remainder is a presently vested, irrevocable gift.
Reserve a life estate for yourself: you convey the property now but keep the right to live in and use it for the rest of your life; the remainder passes to your remainderman on your death, without probate. Unlike a lady bird deed, this is an ordinary life estate — a completed, irrevocable gift of the remainder, and you cannot sell or mortgage the property without the remainderman's joinder.
One remainderman takes the property when the life estate ends.
The record owner of the property. Like any deed, this is a recordable certificate the grantor executes — the remainderman (and, if you grant a life estate to someone else, the life tenant) takes without signing. You keep an ordinary life estate — the right to use the property for your life — but cannot sell or mortgage it without the remainderman's joinder.
These are the features that make an ordinary life estate different from an enhanced (lady bird) deed: a completed present gift of a vested remainder, irrevocable, with the life tenant bound by the doctrine of waste. A completed gift of a remainder can have gift-tax, capital-gains basis and Medicaid consequences — confirm with a qualified advisor and check your state's rules.
A real, section-by-section recordable deed. The estate choice drives whether you reserve a life estate or grant one to another; the structure choice reframes how the remaindermen take. Publish to get a hosted link the grantor can e-execute online.
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An ordinary (traditional) life estate deed is a template for convenience, not legal advice. It divides ownership between a life tenant and a remainderman, makes a completed and presently vested gift of the remainder, is generally irrevocable, and binds the life tenant by the doctrine of waste; the required form, wording, witnessing / notarization, homestead and spousal-joinder rules and the gift-tax, capital-gains carry-over-basis and Medicaid consequences vary by state and circumstances. The deed must generally be signed by the grantor, notarized, and RECORDED to be effective. Whether an ordinary life estate deed is the right tool (versus an enhanced life estate / lady bird deed, a transfer-on-death deed, a living trust, or joint tenancy) depends on your state and circumstances. PaperKit is not a law firm. Review the instrument and consult a qualified attorney.