Wisconsin Quitclaim Deed (Reserving Life Estate)

Two interests come out of this deed at delivery, and one of them stays with the grantor. The grantor keeps a life estate, the right to occupy the property for the rest of the grantor's life; the grantee takes the remainder, an interest that exists at once and whose possession waits. This Wisconsin quitclaim deed prepares that split for one individual grantor, under Wis. Stat. § 706.10(4) and § 706.10(3), without warranty of title.

The sentence that keeps the whole fee from passing

Wisconsin's default runs the other way. Under Wis. Stat. § 706.10(3), a conveyance passes all the grantor's estate or interest unless a different intent appears expressly or by necessary implication in its terms. The reserving sentence in Section 7 is that expressed different intent, and it is what stands between this instrument and a conveyance of everything the grantor owns. Chapter 700 sorts the pieces: an interest for life is a recognized Wisconsin interest as to duration under Wis. Stat. § 700.02(3), and an interest created in someone other than the transferor, taking effect when the preceding interest ends, is a remainder under Wis. Stat. § 700.04(2).

Why one signature cannot take it back

Because the remainder is real property at delivery, the grantor alone cannot cancel it. A deed or mortgage the life tenant signs later reaches the life estate alone, so a sale of the full fee gathers the grantor and every remainder holder. Wis. Stat. § 700.07 runs the other direction, making future interests transferable, so a remainder holder may pass that interest by deed or by will while the life estate continues. Wisconsin recognizes no enhanced life estate, sometimes called a lady bird deed, as a named statutory estate.

What this configuration carries

Eleven numbered sections open with first page return information and the drafting statement of Wis. Stat. § 59.43(5)(a). Between them sit one individual grantor; a grantee section closing with a co-ownership designation line, which the example fills with a joint tenancy between two children; the conveyance and reservation section; an optional provisions section, part of the deed, where the parties allocate taxes, insurance, and upkeep during the life estate; a marital status and homestead line; one grantor signature block with a conditional joinder block for a spouse signing under Wis. Stat. § 706.02(1)(f); and a Wis. Stat. § 140.16(1) short form certificate under each signature. A parent conveying a residence to adult children while keeping the right to live there for life, and an owner passing a lake cabin to the next generation, both present the pattern this deed carries. Searched as a life estate deed or a quit claim deed with life estate, it is not drawn for two record owners, an agent under a power of attorney, a trustee, an entity, or a life estate measured by anyone but the grantor.

The value line on the transfer return

Wis. Stat. § 706.10(4) supplies the no warranty character: the deed says nothing about whether the interests exist, how large they are, or how sound, so liens and easements of record ride into the remainder. The money is ordinary Wisconsin arithmetic, a flat $30 document fee under Wis. Stat. § 59.43(2)(ag)1 and a grantor fee of 30 cents per $100 of value under Wis. Stat. § 77.22(1). Valuation is where this deed parts company with a plain conveyance: the Department of Revenue return instructions call for the portion of the value conveyed where a partial interest passes, and fair market value for a gift. An exempt conveyance names its Wis. Stat. § 77.25 subsection on the deed's face.

When the life estate ends

Nothing further needs signing, though the record needs clearing. Wis. Stat. § 867.045 lets a person interested in the property obtain evidence of the termination of a life tenant's interest from the register of deeds, on a certified death certificate and the statutory application information, with the force of a court certificate under Wis. Stat. § 867.04. That filing is recorded separately. One limit belongs in the same breath: Wis. Stat. § 49.849 counts a life estate held immediately before death among the property reachable for public assistance recovery.

Three files arrive: the fillable deed, a completed example set in Sauk County, where a Baraboo homeowner reserves a life estate and hands the remainder to two children, and a plain language guide walking the numbered sections, the signing rules, and what reaches the register of deeds. It is general information about Wisconsin law, not legal advice.