Lady Bird Deed

An enhanced life estate deed is a deed in which the holder of the life estate also retains the right to transfer the property, by sale or gift, without obtaining the consent of the owner of the remainder interest.  If the life estate holder transfers the property, the remainder interest is destroyed unlike with a traditional life estate where the life estate owner cannot transfer more than his or her life interest without the consent of the holder of the remainder interest.  Enhanced life estate deeds are sometimes called Lady Bird deeds because President Johnson allegedly used this type of deed to convey property to his wife.

Travis Robbins on the Online Lawyer Blog has recently made an interesting post on this subject entitled Estate Planning and the Enhanced Life Estate Deed which discusses the possible benefits of this technique in detail.