Remainder interest refers to someone who has a future interest in an asset from an estate or trust. Remainder interest can occur in several ways. One such way is that property, such as real property like a home, are placed in a trust. The trust allows the donors to live in the property and the remainder interest allows for the charity to be given the remainder interest. in order to do this, the property must be spattered into two separate entities, a life estate and a remainder interest. The life estate allows the donor ownership of the property until death. The remainder interest allows the named charity or remainder interest holder to take ownership upon the life estate owner's death.