hello in this lesson we're going to be talking about transfer of ownership and you might remember from another lesson we talked about the Louisiana Purchase that painting back there is a painting of the Louisiana Purchase and that's probably the greatest transfer of ownership that ever occurred here in the United States so let's get right to it there's three different methods of transfer that we want to talk about and the first one is inheritance the second one is what's called involuntary alienation meaning a forced transfer and the third one is voluntary alienation now in this short lesson we're really going to be talking mainly about inheritance with a little bit about the other two so let's first talk about inheritance so when someone passes away it's likely that some one of their relatives or friends or maybe their dog or their cat is going to inherit their property here's an example of inheritance and to you my grandchildren I leave all my Medicare prescription bills well hopefully that's not all that your grandparents have left you or we'll leave you now when someone passes away there's a court proceeding known as probate which is designed to make sure that they're that the will is valid if there is a will or even if there isn't a will that the property is distributed according to law so probate is the court proceeding designed to distribute a deceased person's property and if a person dies with a will they have said to have died testate with a last will and testament so they've died testate and if they pass away without a will they are said to have died intestate meaning without a will now if there is a will and the and the will states that there's a specific person or persons that are going to make sure that the property is distributed according to the provisions in the will that person is called the executor so an executor is a person named in a will to carry out the provisions of that last will and testament now sometimes a will may not mention a person to carry out its provision or if someone dies intestate the court has to appoint somebody so in either case when there's nobody named in the will or when there's no will at all the courts will step in in the probate process and name an administrator so an executor or someone named in the will an administrator is someone that the court appoints to carry out the provisions of the probate now in today's world both of these persons are often called a personal representative but you should know that term as well as executor and administrator now there are a number of different types of wills that we want to talk about here and the first one is simply a standard will so a standard will would typically be the will prepared by an attorney for an individual the second one is called a holographic will these are relatively rare but a holographic holo meaning completely graphic meaning written is a handwritten will so there are occasions where someone will actually take the time to write out a will in their own handwriting and that will is referred to as a holographic will the third one is called a nun coupe ative will and a nun coupe ative will is basically an oral will typically a deathbed wish so the large majority of wills would be standard there are some holographic wills and we have rare rare occasions where we have a nun coupe ative will or an oral will now let's talk about the different types of inheritances you've probably heard some of these before but this one you probably have not heard about and that's a device a device de VI se is a gift of real property through a will so let's say your grandmother passes away and she wills a piece of real estate to you that is called a devise and your grandma would be the devise or and you would be the dvz so it devises of gift of real property through a will then there's what's referred to as title by descent so let's say your grandma passed away and she had no will but you were the sole heir to her estate in that circumstance since you are the defendant that's a defendant the descendant you're not a defendant you're a descendant since you were a descendant of your grandmother's then that would be that property would be transferred what's called title by descent the third one and fourth one here is a bequest or a legacy well by the way let's go back to descent both devise and descent mean a a transfer of real property either through a will and devised or because of the specific state statutes that name someone as a descendant but devised and descent deal with real estate bequest or legacy is a gift of personal property through a will so a bequest and legacy imply personal property whereas devise and descent deal with real property so that's our little discussion on inheritance the next type of transfer is what's known as an involuntary alienation a forced transfer in other words pardon my little dark humor there so involuntary alienation typically falls under three categories the first being eminent domain the right of the government to take private property for public use with compensation the process being condemnation eminent domain would be a forced transfer or an involuntary the term alienation remember means transfer the next one is adverse possession adverse possession is the process of giving rise to ownership by someone squatting on a property using a property for a long period of time and the third one is foreclosure now we haven't discussed or are not going discuss foreclosure in this lesson but we will discuss that in detail in another session so the three methods in which property is involuntarily transferred are eminent domain adverse possession and through various foreclosures now the last one here we want to talk about is voluntary alienation most transactions are voluntary so a voluntary alienation is a voluntary transfer so a typical sale the large majority of property transfers occur between a buyer and a seller that would be a voluntary alienation it's an uncoerced unforced transfer of ownership and of course the document that transfers ownership is a deed and on all of these circumstances by the way whether it's an inheritance we're eventually through probate a deed would be executed or whether it's an involuntary alienation a deed would typically be used in those circumstances and certainly in a voluntary transaction a deed would transfer ownership so that's it on our brief discussion here of transfer of ownership