Liquidating a remainder interest: simplifying personal finance

There are many ways in which decedents leave property in trust for their heirs. One technique is to grant a life estate to surviving children. The purpose of this paper is to describe verbally, and through example, an approach to liquidating a life estate. This simplification in personal finance involves a “buyout” of the interests of the remaindermen. The result is dissolution of the trust, leaving the income beneficiaries to manage, as owner in fee, the remaining assets as they wish, without the expense and complexity associated with maintaining a trust.