to my wife I give a life estate in all my real property and at my demise it is to go to my children thusly named…
A life estate given to a wife generally allows the wife the right to use the property, to receive income from the property, and to live on the property as long as she lives. She will have to maintain the property and pay the property taxes, but as long as she does that it is hers to do with as she sees fit (as long as she obeys the law). There may be some slight variations from one state to another, but that’s the essence of a life estate.
In certain times and places, a life estate in the real property protected the wife and her interest in the property. It could not be taken from her. If she married again, that husband could not obtain title to the property and perhaps sell it or encumber the title. In some cases a husband might have given his wife title to his real property as long as she lived or remained a widow. This was usually a way to prevent a subsequent husband from acquiring the property and potentially leaving the wife out in the cold.
It also protected the subsequent heirs.
They would have the property after their mother died. If the wife was given fee simple title to the property in a time and place where women could write wills and bequeath real property, she could will the property to whomever she chose–potentially disinheriting a child or all of them save one. Giving her a life estate prevented her from doing that. Giving her a life estate or “widowhood estate” when men held more property rights than women partially protected her as well. No system is perfect.
It is worth remembering that bequeathing a life estate to someone is not just done in a legal context. No act is done in solely a legal context. Acts are done in a family context as well and sometimes “family drama” is dictating what sorts of legal acts are done.
My ancestor bequeathed his wife a life estate in his real property in his will in Illinois in the 1870s. At her death it was to go to his children and to one grandchild (a daughter of a daughter who pre-deceased her father). These subsequent heirs are named specifically in his will. Within a few years of his death, one son had two of the legatees sign him quit claim deeds to the property in question. The same year those quit claim deeds were executed the mother signed a will giving all “her real estate” to this son.
It looks like he was preparing for her demise and his inheritance.
The will was thrown out by the probate judge after her death because she didn’t have a fee simple title to the property. She didn’t have the ability to bequeath it. I’ll never know what the father’s real reason was for giving his wife a life estate in his property instead of giving her a fee simple title (which he could have done in Illinois in 1877). Other men during that time period who pre-deceased their wives gave them outright title. But it’s possible he had an inkling of what would happen and wanted a way to prevent it.
There’s always a reason.
