Louisiana Usufruct and Naked Ownership

Louisiana's Civil Code takes a different path than most states when it comes to retaining rights in a home. Article 535 defines usufruct as a real right of limited duration in someone else's property, and Article 544 confirms that a usufruct can be set up by a juridical act — either during life or at death — with a usufruct created this way called "conventional."

Families here often talk about a home plan in terms of usufruct and naked ownership: the usufruct is the limited right to use the property, while naked ownership is what's left of the underlying title once that right has been carved out. This site uses the phrase "usufruct and naked ownership" deliberately, because that's the actual civil-law terminology in Louisiana — it isn't a stand-in for a statutory transfer-on-death deed, and an out-of-state Lady Bird deed form won't produce the same legal result here.

Article 544 permits a conventional usufruct on movable or immovable property, and on corporeal or incorporeal interests, which means a home can trigger questions across title, succession, mortgage, tax, and creditor law — plus the public-benefits questions this site focuses on. None of that gets resolved just by calling a document a "deed."