Which estate is a fee simple that will terminate upon the occurrence of a specified condition and title will pass to a third party?

• A. Life Estate
• B. Fee Simple Determinable
• C. Fee Simple Subject to Condition Subsequent
• D. Fee Simple Subject to Executory Interest

Answer: (D)

The key idea is that the owner holds a fee simple, but a condition causes the property to pass to someone other than the grantor. When the transfer to a third party is triggered by a specified event, the future interest is an executory interest held by that third party. So the property remains a fee simple, yet it’s subject to an executory limitation.

In this setup, once the condition occurs, title automatically shifts to the third party, not back to the grantor. That automatic shifting to another person is what distinguishes an executory interest from the other forms.

If it were a fee simple determinable, the property would automatically revert to the grantor upon the condition’s occurrence, with a possibility of reverter retained by the grantor. If it were a fee simple subject to a condition subsequent, the grantor would have a right of entry to retake, rather than the property passing to a third party. And a life estate isn’t a fee simple at all; it’s measured by the life of a person.

So the described estate—the fee simple that ends on a condition and passes to a third party on that event—is best described as a fee simple subject to an executory interest.