Which of the following best describes a legal life estate?

A legal life estate is specifically defined as an estate that is granted for the duration of a specific individual's life. Once that individual passes away, the estate automatically terminates. This type of arrangement is often seen in estate planning, where a property owner may grant a life estate to a beneficiary, allowing them to use and benefit from the property until their death.

In this case, the answer reflects the essential nature of a life estate, emphasizing its connection to the life of the designated person. This aspect of the life estate directly influences how the property is managed and who has rights to it after the individual's death, usually passing to a remainderman or reverting back to the original owner.

The other options do not capture the defining characteristic of a legal life estate. For instance, owning property outright with no restrictions implies complete ownership without the temporal limitations inherent in a life estate. A life estate established by a will, while related, does not solely define it, since life estates can be created in various ways and are not limited to wills. Finally, describing it as a type of ownership with limited duration is somewhat accurate but lacks the specific focus on the connection to an individual's life, which is crucial to understanding what a legal life estate entails.