Also known as: future interest · future interests · future estates
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A nonpossessory interest in land or personal property that may become possessory upon the termination of a prior estate or the occurrence of a specified event. The interest arises when a grantor or testator divides ownership temporally by conveying or devising a present possessory estate while retaining or creating a right to future possession in another person or entity.
Francesca Fiore conveyed Blackacre to her son for life with the remainder to her daughter. The deed created a present life estate in the son and a future interest in the daughter that will become possessory upon the son's death. The future interest is valid because it was created under the rules governing estates in land.
Forrest Falconer transferred property to a trustee for the benefit of his niece during her lifetime while retaining a reversion in himself. The reversion is a future interest that will become possessory if the niece dies without surviving descendants. The arrangement is enforceable because the grantor validly created both the present equitable interest and the future interest.
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Faith Fitzgerald devised her farm to her husband for life with remainder to their children if they survived him. The children hold a future interest that will vest only if they outlive the life tenant. The court may order sale of the land when economic conditions render continued farming wasteful and the proceeds can be invested to protect both the life tenant and the future interest holders.
Fumiko Fujimoto's will attempted to create successive future interests that would vest more than twenty-one years after lives in being. The future interests violate the rule against perpetuities and are therefore void. The invalidity prevents the intended takers from ever acquiring possessory rights under the will.
A future interest does not entitle its holder to immediate possession. Instead it becomes possessory only upon the natural termination of a prior estate or the happening of a condition. The distinction preserves the grantor's ability to control the timing of possession while still creating valid property rights.
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Yes. The same rules that govern creation of future interests in land also apply to limitations of future or contingent interests in personal property. A grantor may therefore divide ownership of either type of asset into present and future components.
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A court may order sale when continued use would cause economic waste and the proceeds can be invested to protect the income interests of both the life tenant and the holders of future interests. The sale converts the future interests into rights in the trust proceeds rather than in the land itself.
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A future interest holder possesses only an expectancy until the interest vests in possession. Mere expectancies do not confer standing as real parties in interest when the present possessor is the party directly harmed.
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…would control the courts to-day. Executory limitations are no longer distinguished from remainders, but are grouped with them as future estates (Real Prop. Law, secs. 36, 37; Tilden v. Green , 130 N.Y. 29, 47), and deeds, like wills, must be so construed as to effectuate the purpose of the grantor (Real Prop. Law, sec. 240, subd.…