Also known as: ownership interests · equity interest
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A legal right in property that confers authority to use, transfer, or designate recipients of the property. The interest may be full ownership or a fractional stake and is distinguished from lesser rights such as liens or encumbrances.
Olivia Owens tells her niece Opal Okoro that she wants to give Opal her beach cottage. Olivia executes a deed transferring the cottage to Opal and delivers it without receiving any payment. The transfer conveys an ownership interest because it is made without consideration and with donative intent.
Odin Obeng and his wife hold a brokerage account in co-ownership registration with right of survivorship. When Odin dies, the account balance passes directly to his wife. Her ownership interest in the account is included in the augmented estate calculation under the probate code.
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Orion Technologies grants a mortgage on its warehouse to secure a loan. The lender receives an encumbrance rather than an ownership interest because the mortgage creates only a lien and does not transfer title to the real property.
Onyx O'Reilly holds a power of appointment over a trust remainder. She exercises the power to name her children as recipients of beneficial ownership interests in the trust assets. The exercise designates who will receive those ownership interests after her death.
Omar Olson's wife owns a life-insurance policy naming their children as beneficiaries. Upon Omar's death the policy proceeds are excluded from the augmented estate because they are nonprobate transfers other than the wife's fractional or ownership interests in jointly held property.
Oakley Osei and her husband own their home as joint tenants. When the husband dies first, the value of Oakley's ownership interest for augmented-estate purposes is determined immediately before his death rather than at the moment of death.
An ownership interest confers title and the full bundle of property rights. An encumbrance is a lesser right such as a mortgage or lien that secures an obligation without transferring ownership of the real property.
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The surviving spouse's ownership interest in property held in co-ownership registration with right of survivorship is included in the augmented estate. Its value is fixed immediately before the decedent's death when the decedent was a joint tenant.
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No. A power of appointment enables the donee to designate recipients of beneficial ownership interests in the appointive property but does not itself give the donee an ownership interest in that property.
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The donor must transfer the ownership interest to the donee without consideration and with donative intent. Delivery or a compliant writing is required to perfect the transfer of personal property or land.
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…is whether § 207 represents a lawful exercise of the sovereign's prerogative to condition the retention of fee simple or other ownership interests upon the performance of a modest statutory duty within a reasonable period of time. I The Court's opinion persuasively demonstrates that the Government has a strong interest in…