re: Inheritance question

quote:

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used to be called usufruct

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I see the term usufruct comes up a lot now that I'm getting to the age where people are starting to pass. Is that a Louisiana/Civil Law term or is it common to the rest of the country?

I have been told that if you live in Louisiana, the simplest will you can do is to just leave your estate to your children, subject to an unrestricted usufruct to your spouse. My question is why wouldn't you just pass the full ownership of your estate to your spouse? Is doing the usufruct simply a means to ensure your children get your property too in the event that your spouse remarries?