A TOD form, short for transfer on death form, is a document you file with a bank, brokerage, county recorder, or motor vehicle agency naming the person who should automatically receive a specific asset when you die. While you are alive it changes nothing. You keep full ownership, you can spend the money, sell the property, or swap the beneficiary. At your death, the asset passes directly to the person you named, outside your will and outside probate.
The form only controls the one asset it is attached to. A TOD on your brokerage account does not touch your house, and a TOD deed on your house does not touch your car. Each asset needs its own designation, and anything without one still goes through the usual probate process.
What a TOD Form Actually Does
The mechanics are the same across asset types. You file paperwork with the institution that holds the asset, and that paperwork lists a beneficiary. The beneficiary has no legal claim to anything while you are alive. The moment you die, ownership shifts to them by operation of the designation itself. To collect, they typically bring a certified death certificate and their identification to the institution, which then retitles the asset in their name.
That is the appeal. Probate can take months or years, generates attorney fees and court costs, and creates a public record. A TOD transfer skips all of it. The tradeoff is that the form has to be done correctly and kept current, because the version on file at your death is the only one that counts.
What You Can Use a TOD Form For
Securities and Investment Accounts
TOD designations were built for securities and that is still their most common use. Brokerage accounts, individual stocks, bonds, and mutual fund shares can all be registered in beneficiary form. Every major brokerage firm offers a TOD form for individual accounts and for joint accounts with right of survivorship. Retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs use their own beneficiary designation forms, which operate on the same principle but follow separate tax rules.
Bank Accounts
For checking and savings accounts, the same tool exists under a different name: payable on death, or POD. The paperwork works identically. You name a beneficiary, the bank pays them directly at your death, no probate. If your bank hands you a POD form rather than a TOD form, it is the same idea.
Real Estate
Roughly 20 jurisdictions, including 19 states and the District of Columbia, have adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, which lets you record a TOD deed for a home or other real property. The deed must be signed, notarized, and recorded with the county recorder’s office before you die. A signed TOD deed sitting in a drawer does nothing. Where TOD deeds are not available, people usually turn to a revocable living trust or to joint ownership with right of survivorship to keep real estate out of probate.
Vehicles
Some states let you add a TOD beneficiary directly to a vehicle title. The scope varies: a few states extend it to motorcycles, boats, and mobile homes, while others cover only motor vehicles. You complete the form at your state’s motor vehicle agency and pay a title fee. The beneficiary later retitles the vehicle by bringing the death certificate and their ID to the DMV.
Information to Gather Before You Fill Out the Form
Different institutions use different forms, but almost all of them ask for the same core details, so it helps to have everything in hand before you start.
- Each beneficiary’s full legal name, date of birth, and relationship to you.
- The beneficiary’s Social Security number, which some institutions require for tax reporting and others do not.
- The account number for a financial account, the legal description from your current deed for real property, or the vehicle identification number for a car or truck.
- The percentage share you want each beneficiary to receive if you are naming more than one.
- At least one contingent beneficiary, in case your primary beneficiary dies before you.
Filling Out the Form
Enter the beneficiary information exactly as it appears on legal identification. Nicknames and informal spellings cause problems later when the institution tries to verify identity against a death certificate and a driver’s license.
If you name more than one primary beneficiary, assign each a percentage, and make sure the percentages add up to 100. Many forms also let you choose a per stirpes designation. That means if a beneficiary dies before you, their share drops down to their own children rather than being redistributed among your surviving beneficiaries. It is worth considering when you are naming adult children and want your grandchildren protected if one of those children predeceases you.
Name a contingent beneficiary. A contingent inherits only if every primary beneficiary dies before you do. Skip this and the asset can fall back into your probate estate, which defeats the point of filing the form in the first place.
Signing, Notarizing, and Filing
Signing the form is not the last step. What you do with it afterward is what makes it legally effective.
TOD deeds for real estate almost always require notarization, and the deed has to be recorded with the county recorder’s office before your death. An unrecorded deed is not valid, no matter how carefully it was prepared. Brokerage TOD forms usually do not require notarization, but some firms require a Medallion Signature Guarantee, a specialized verification stamp available only through participating financial institutions. Your brokerage will tell you which applies to your account. Vehicle TOD forms are submitted to the state motor vehicle agency along with the title fee.
Confirm that the institution has received, processed, and acknowledged the form. A form that was mailed in but never logged might as well not exist.
Mistakes That Undermine the Transfer
Spousal Consent in Community Property States
If you live in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin, your spouse may have a legal interest in the asset you are trying to designate. Major brokerage firms require spousal consent on TOD forms when the account holder lives in a community property state and the spouse is not the sole beneficiary. Without that consent, the designation can be challenged after your death.
Divorce Does Not Always Revoke an Old Designation
About 30 states automatically revoke a former spouse’s beneficiary designation at divorce, treating the ex as if they had died first. The rest do not. If you divorce in a state without automatic revocation and never update your forms, your ex-spouse can still inherit. Federal law complicates things further: retirement accounts and employer-sponsored life insurance governed by ERISA are not touched by state revocation laws, so your ex may remain the named beneficiary on a 401(k) regardless of what state law would otherwise do. Update every beneficiary designation after a divorce. Do not rely on the default rules.
Naming a Minor Directly
A child under 18 cannot legally manage inherited property. Name a minor as a TOD beneficiary with no other planning and a court may have to appoint a guardian or conservator to hold the assets until the child reaches adulthood, which is exactly the court process the TOD form was meant to avoid. Alternatives include naming a custodian under your state’s Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, which lets an adult manage the funds until the child reaches 18, 21, or 25 depending on the state, or setting up a trust.
Assuming Your Will Can Fix the Form
Your will does not override a TOD designation. If your will leaves the brokerage account to your daughter but the TOD form on that account names your brother, your brother gets the account. The form wins. Crossing out a name on your copy of the paperwork or writing a note in your files also does nothing. Only a properly filed replacement counts.
Changing or Revoking It Later
A TOD designation is fully revocable while you are alive. To change beneficiaries, update percentages, or cancel the designation, submit a new form to the institution holding the asset. For a TOD deed on real estate, record a new deed or an instrument of revocation with the county recorder’s office. The most recent valid filing at the time of your death controls.
Taxes and Debts the Beneficiary Should Know About
Receiving an asset through a TOD designation is not a taxable event for the beneficiary. For securities and real estate, the beneficiary’s cost basis is generally the asset’s fair market value on the date of death rather than what the original owner paid, and the IRS treats inherited assets as long-term for capital gains purposes.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
A TOD form avoids probate but does not remove the asset from your taxable estate. The federal estate tax exemption for 2026 is $15,000,000 per individual, so most estates owe nothing, but estates above that threshold are not solved by TOD forms alone.2Internal Revenue Service. Whats New – Estate and Gift Tax
Creditors are not automatically shut out either. In many states, if the probate estate cannot cover the deceased’s debts, creditors can reach assets that passed outside probate, including TOD accounts and property. Beneficiaries take real estate subject to any existing mortgage or lien. State Medicaid programs can also seek recovery from TOD real estate for benefits paid on behalf of the deceased.
How Beneficiaries Claim the Asset
After the owner dies, the beneficiary contacts the institution holding the asset and submits a certified copy of the death certificate along with government-issued identification. Most financial institutions also require the beneficiary to complete their own paperwork to open a receiving account or transfer the holdings. Processing is usually completed within about ten business days of receiving all required documents.3Bank of America. Estate Services Client Resource Guide
Real estate claims depend on the state. Some require the beneficiary to record an affidavit of survivorship along with the death certificate in the county where the property sits. For vehicles, the beneficiary brings the death certificate, the existing title, and personal identification to the DMV to have the title reissued.
If you named multiple beneficiaries and they disagree about what to do with the asset, especially a house, the TOD form will not resolve that for them. It gets the property out of probate, but co-owners still have to work out whether to sell, hold, or buy each other out on their own.