Information about Estate (law)

Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
Allodial title  · Fee simple  · Fee tail
Life estate  · Defeasible estate
Future interest  · Concurrent estate
Leasehold estate  · Condominiums
Conveyancing of interests in land
Bona fide purchaser  · Torrens title
Estoppel by deed  · Quitclaim deed
Mortgage  · Equitable conversion
Action to quiet title
Limiting control over future use
Restraint on alienation
Rule against perpetuities
Rule in Shelley's Case
Doctrine of worthier title
Nonpossessory interest in land
Easement  · Profit
Covenant running with the land
Equitable servitude
Related topics
Fixtures  · Waste  · Partition
Riparian water rights
Lateral and subjacent support
Assignment  · Nemo dat
Other areas of the common law
Contract law  · Tort law
Wills and trusts
Criminal Law  · Evidence

At common law, an estate is the totality of the legal rights, interests, entitlements and obligations attaching to property. In the context of wills and probate, it refers to the totality of the property which the deceased owned or in which some interest was held. It may also refer to an estate in land.

Equitable estate and legal estate

Legal Interests run with the property while equitable interests are good against those persons who are in good conscience bound to respect them. Legal interests being right in rem are good against all the world. Thus a Trustee is a Legal owner of Property which vests in him, while the beneficiary under the trust has only an equitable estate in the property.

Estate in land

An estate in land may be any carved out portion of the allodial or fee simple, which is the most complete ownership that one can have of property in the common law system. An estate can be an estate for years, an estate at will, a life estate (extinguishing at the death of the holder), an estate pur auter vie (a life interest for the life of another person) or a fee tail estate (to the heirs of one's body) or some more limited kind of heir (e.g. to heirs male of one's body).

Fee simple estates may be either fee simple absolute or defeasible (i.e. subject to future conditions) like fee simple determinable and fee simple subject to condition subsequent; this is the complex system of future interests (q.v.) which allows concepts of trusts and estates to elide into actuarial science through the use of life contingencies.

Estate in land can also be divided into estates of inheritance and other estates that are not of inheritance. The fee simple estate and the fee tail estate are estates of inheritance; they pass to the owner's heirs by operation of law, either without restrictions (in the case of fee simple), or with restrictions (in the case of fee tail). The estate for years and the life estate are estates not of inheritance; the owner owns nothing after the term of years has passed, and cannot pass on anything to his or her heirs.

Estate as all property

The term 'estate' is also used to refer to the whole of a person's property or of a particular kind of property (such as 'real estate' (meaning land and buildings) or 'personal estate' (meaning goods and chattels).

In the context of probate, it is all the property that passes under a will or the law of intestacy, which has to be administered by the executors or administrators.

Under the law of bankruptcy in the United States, the "estate" is defined by the Bankruptcy Code as all assets or property of any kind belonging to the debtor which is available for distribution to creditors. The bankruptcy estate is defined at . In some cases, the person with legal responsibility for the estate is the trustee. The law of England, though governed by British Acts of Parliament, is similar in this respect.

See also

• Estate tax
• Estate tax (United States)
• Inheritance