Transferring a house without purchase

[Alex SImon]

My best friend is facing some serious assaults on his wallet from his wretched, bilious harridan of an ex-wife.  It's some straight-up villainous stuff, no two ways about it.  Anyway, he's got this place up in Arkansas that he bought with cash as a kind of retirement home for when he gets done contracting.  Everyone can see that the ex-wife will come gunning for all his assets at some point, the house included, so he asked me if I would be willing to take ownership of the place so that she can't touch it.

I'd love to help him out so that he doesn't lose the house, but the question is how do I go about this?  Are you able to just transfer the title over to a non-family member, or does there have to be a sale?