A transfer on death deed form, sometimes called a TOD deed or beneficiary deed, lets you name someone to inherit your real estate automatically when you die, without the property passing through probate. It’s a short recorded document that sits on file at the county, does nothing while you’re alive, and transfers title the moment you die. Roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia authorize these deeds. Where they’re allowed, they’re one of the cheapest and simplest ways to move a house to the next generation. Where they aren’t, the form has no legal effect at all.
Does Your State Allow a TOD Deed
This is the first question, and it’s a hard yes or no. TOD deeds exist only because a state legislature passed a statute authorizing them. If your state hasn’t, filing one does nothing. States that have adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act or their own version of the concept include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, along with the District of Columbia.
If your state isn’t on that list, you need a different tool. A revocable living trust is the usual substitute for passing real property outside of probate, and a will remains the fallback for everything else.
Who Can Sign One
You need legal capacity to sign. Some states apply the higher standard of contractual capacity rather than the testamentary capacity used for wills. Testamentary capacity asks whether you understand what you own and who you’re giving it to. Contractual capacity asks for a fuller grasp of what the transaction means and what the alternatives are. If anyone might later question your mental state, a physician’s evaluation around the time of signing is cheap insurance.
How you hold title matters as much as who you are. If you own the property alone, you can name any beneficiary. If you own it with someone else as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the TOD deed typically doesn’t operate until the last surviving co-owner dies, because the survivorship right between the co-owners takes priority. If you own as tenants in common, the deed can only transfer your share. Some states layer on additional restrictions, so check the exact statute in your state before filling anything out.
What the Form Can and Cannot Transfer
A TOD deed moves real property only. Land, houses, condominiums, and permanent structures attached to the land are in. Vehicles, bank accounts, retirement accounts, furniture, jewelry, and anything else personal are out. If you write personal items into the form, those lines will be ignored. Other assets have their own death-transfer mechanisms: payable-on-death designations for bank accounts, transfer-on-death registrations for securities and vehicles in some states, and beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance.
Signing and recording the deed gives the beneficiary nothing while you’re alive. You keep full ownership. You can sell, mortgage, rent, or give the property away without the beneficiary’s permission or even their knowledge. The deed is an instruction that activates at your death and not a day earlier.
Filling Out the Form
Information You Need
Use your full legal name and address exactly as they appear on your current title documents. If the name on the TOD deed doesn’t match the name on the existing deed, you can create title problems that outlive you. Identify the beneficiary by full legal name and address as well. Nicknames and incomplete information cause delays and sometimes invalidate the transfer.
You also need the property’s legal description, which is not the street address. A legal description uses lot and block numbers, plat references, or metes and bounds language that fixes the property’s exact boundaries. You can pull it from your current deed or request it from the county recorder. A street address alone will usually get the form rejected.
Signing It Properly
Most states require the deed to be signed and notarized. The notary verifies your identity and confirms you’re signing voluntarily. A few states add witness requirements. New York, for example, requires two witnesses in addition to notarization. Many states publish a statutory form template in their probate or property code, and using that template is the safest route. County recorder websites and state court self-help pages often post free versions.
There is no partial credit on execution. A missing notarization, a missing witness, or language that doesn’t match what your state’s statute requires makes the deed worthless. If it fails, it fails completely, and the property moves through whatever other plan you have, or through probate if you don’t have one.
Record It Before You Die
This is where people lose the whole plan. The signed, notarized deed has to be recorded with the county recorder in the county where the property is located, and it has to be recorded before you die. If you sign the form, slide it into a drawer, and die before filing it, the deed is void. The property then passes through your will or through intestacy, which usually means probate.
To record, bring or mail the signed, notarized form to the county recorder along with the recording fee. Fees vary by county and typically run between $15 and $100 depending on jurisdiction, document length, and local surcharges. Many counties now accept e-recording. After recording, you’ll get a stamped copy with an instrument number and timestamp. Keep it with your important documents.
Changing or Revoking the Deed
You can revoke a TOD deed at any time, for any reason, without telling the beneficiary. Three methods work:
- Record a formal revocation document, usually titled “Revocation of Transfer on Death Deed,” with the same county recorder’s office that holds the original.
- Record a new TOD deed for the same property naming a different beneficiary. The new deed supersedes the old one.
- Transfer the property during your lifetime through a regular deed. Once you don’t own the property, there’s nothing for the TOD deed to transfer.
What doesn’t work: a clause in your will trying to revoke the deed, telling the beneficiary the gift is off, or crossing out the recorded copy. A will cannot override a TOD deed, because the transfer happens automatically at death by operation of the recorded deed, outside the probate process the will controls. Any revocation has to be recorded with the county before your death. An unrecorded revocation sitting in your files is no revocation at all.
Debts, Liens, and Medicaid
A TOD deed does not clean the property of debt. The beneficiary takes the property subject to every mortgage, lien, tax obligation, and encumbrance that existed at your death. A $150,000 mortgage on the house at the time of death becomes a $150,000 obligation attached to what the beneficiary receives.
Beyond existing liens, many states allow unsatisfied creditors of the deceased owner to reach property that passed through a TOD deed when the probate estate can’t cover the debts. The beneficiary’s exposure is generally capped at the value of the property received. The window for creditor claims varies by state and often runs one to two years after death.
Medicaid estate recovery deserves separate attention. If the deceased owner received Medicaid benefits, the state may have a claim against the property to recoup those costs. Some states require the beneficiary to complete a Medicaid disclosure form before the county will record the transfer. A TOD deed does not defeat Medicaid recovery, and the assumption that it will is one of the most expensive mistakes people make with these forms.
Taxes
Recording the form is not a taxable event. Because the deed is fully revocable and gives the beneficiary no present interest, it isn’t a completed gift for federal gift tax purposes. You keep reporting property income and claiming deductions as you always have.
At your death, the beneficiary gets a stepped-up basis in the property, meaning the cost basis resets to the fair market value on the date of death rather than what you originally paid.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent If you bought the house for $80,000 in 1990 and it’s worth $400,000 when you die, your beneficiary’s basis is $400,000. A sale shortly afterward at $400,000 produces no taxable gain. This is one of the biggest financial advantages of inheriting real estate at death.
For federal estate tax purposes, property covered by a revocable TOD deed is included in the owner’s gross estate, because the owner kept the power to revoke. The federal estate tax exemption for 2025 is $13.99 million per individual, so this matters only for very large estates. That exemption is scheduled to drop significantly after 2025 unless Congress acts, so owners near the threshold should keep watching.
What Happens After Your Death
Ownership transfers automatically at the moment of death, but the beneficiary still has to update the public record. The exact process varies by state and county. Generally the beneficiary files a certified copy of the death certificate with the county recorder where the property sits, often together with an affidavit or local transfer form. Until that paperwork is on file, the beneficiary can run into trouble selling, refinancing, or insuring the property, because the record still shows your name on title.
If the named beneficiary dies before you do, the TOD deed usually fails. Under the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act and most state statutes that follow it, a beneficiary has to survive the transferor for the transfer to take effect, and the interest of a beneficiary who dies first simply lapses. If you named more than one beneficiary and one of them predeceases you, the deceased beneficiary’s share generally shifts to the survivors. If you named only one beneficiary and that person is gone, the property drops back into your remaining estate plan or into probate. Name alternates when the form allows it, and review the deed every few years.
When a TOD Deed Isn’t the Right Tool
TOD deeds fit straightforward situations. You own a house. You want one or two adults to inherit it. You don’t have serious debt problems or Medicaid exposure. They struggle in harder scenarios. If your intended beneficiary is a minor, a TOD deed is a poor fit, because a young child can’t manage real property and the deed itself provides no mechanism for an adult to hold the property for the child until adulthood.
If you own real estate in several states and one of them doesn’t authorize TOD deeds, you need a different tool for that state’s property, typically a revocable living trust. A trust costs more to set up but handles multi-state property, minor beneficiaries, and incapacity planning in ways a TOD deed cannot.
A TOD deed only transfers the property named in it. It does not replace a will for the rest of what you own, and it does not provide for anyone to manage your finances if you become incapacitated before you die. Most estate planning attorneys pair a TOD deed with at least a basic will, a durable power of attorney, and a healthcare directive.