Vested remainder requirements include:

Vested remainder requirements include:

• A. Identified person or class and no condition precedent
• B. Identified person or class and a condition precedent
• C. Unidentified holder and no condition precedent
• D. Identified person or class with open class

Answer: (A)

A vested remainder is a future interest that is certain to become possessory when the preceding estate ends, and it must be created in an identified person or an identified class, with no condition precedent to taking. If the grant says, for example, “to A for life, then to B,” B is an identifiable person and there’s no condition that must happen before B takes after A’s death, so the remainder is vested. That certainty regarding who will take and the absence of any condition that must be satisfied before taking are what make it vested. If there’s a condition precedent (for instance, “to B, but only if B becomes a lawyer”), the remainder is contingent, not vested. If the recipient is not identifiable at all (say, “to the oldest living descendant of C”), it isn’t vested because the beneficiary isn’t ascertained. If the remainder is to an identified person or class but the class is open, the essential requirement of no condition precedent still applies; the description “identified person or class” is what keeps it vested under the standard formulation.

A vested remainder is a future interest that is certain to become possessory when the preceding estate ends, and it must be created in an identified person or an identified class, with no condition precedent to taking.

If the grant says, for example, “to A for life, then to B,” B is an identifiable person and there’s no condition that must happen before B takes after A’s death, so the remainder is vested. That certainty regarding who will take and the absence of any condition that must be satisfied before taking are what make it vested.

If there’s a condition precedent (for instance, “to B, but only if B becomes a lawyer”), the remainder is contingent, not vested. If the recipient is not identifiable at all (say, “to the oldest living descendant of C”), it isn’t vested because the beneficiary isn’t ascertained. If the remainder is to an identified person or class but the class is open, the essential requirement of no condition precedent still applies; the description “identified person or class” is what keeps it vested under the standard formulation.