You can donate money, property, stocks, mutual fund shares and bonds, even life estates. (winnfelinefoundation.org)
Modern estate planners have the property held in trust by a trustee with an equitable life estate beneficiary and a trust instrument that is more clear about who is responsible for what. (law.stackexchange.com)
Also, «legal life estates» are actually old school and unpopular in estate planning (and a peculiar to common law countries). (law.stackexchange.com)