He swept away in doing so many of the advantages which the owner of real estate and the life tenant of settled property had previously enjoyed, and drove home a principle which Goschen had tentatively introduced a few years before by increasing the rate of the duty with the amount of the estate.
A widow is entitled to a dower in one-third of her husband's real estate, and a widower is life tenant by courtesy of all the real estate of which his wife died seized and not disposed of by her last will, unless she leaves issue by a former husband, to whom the estate might descend, in which case her estate passes immediately to such issue.
Sometimes the life tenant is the sole executor or trustee.
If the life tenant is the settlor 's spouse, then the PET will be an exempt transfer under IHTA 1984 s 18.
