New York estate-planning lawyers seem to have a thing for life estates with remainders, that you won't find elsewhere in the country.  I think it's "let's keep our archaic probate laws that cost so much to administer so that we can sell people ways to get around them."  California has the same attitude, except there they like to sell inter vivos trusts.  (It's easier when you don't use Latin.)  Then, since much of the national media are located in New York and California, the writers in backwards states try to inform the rest of the country on what works.