A recorded deed that leaves a house to someone at death while changing nothing during life - available in many states, and not all.
A transfer-on-death deed - also called a beneficiary deed, or in some states a revocable transfer on death deed - names who is to receive real property when the owner dies. It is signed and recorded in the land records during the owner's lifetime, but it transfers nothing until death: the owner keeps full ownership and may sell, mortgage, rent or give away the property, and may revoke the deed at any time. It is the real-property counterpart of a payable-on-death bank account, and where it is available it is the simplest way to keep a house out of probate.
Two formalities decide whether it works, and both are commonly missed. It must be recorded before the owner's death - a signed but unrecorded deed found in a drawer afterwards is generally ineffective. And revocation must be done the way the statute says, usually by recording a revocation or a later inconsistent deed; a will cannot revoke it in most states, and neither can tearing up a copy. The beneficiary takes subject to whatever is on the property at death - the mortgage, liens and unpaid taxes all pass with it - and normally must survive the owner. Naming a contingent beneficiary is worth doing for the same reason it is on any other designation.
It is not available everywhere, which is the first thing to establish. A substantial number of states authorise it by statute, many through the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, and others do not recognise it at all - in which case a deed on that form does nothing and an alternative such as a trust or a properly structured joint tenancy is needed. Because it is a state-by-state creature, the requirements for form, recording, revocation and the effect on the beneficiary differ; the statute of the state where the land sits is the only reliable source.
Its limitations are real, and it is often chosen for reasons that do not survive examination. It handles one property, so an owner with land in several states needs one in each state that permits it. It provides no mechanism during incapacity, unlike a trust: if the owner can no longer manage the property, the deed does nothing and a power of attorney or conservatorship is still required. Multiple beneficiaries take as co-owners and may promptly disagree about selling. It does not shield the property from the owner's creditors, and in many states it does not protect it from Medicaid estate recovery - which is frequently the exact purpose it was chosen for, and the point on which advice is most valuable.
The first question is simply whether your state authorises this at all, and the second is what the property is carrying - a mortgage, a home equity line, liens or unpaid taxes all pass to the beneficiary. Advice is worth taking where the owner has received or may need Medicaid, since estate recovery reaches this deed in some states and not others and the answer usually determines whether it is the right tool; where more than one beneficiary is to be named, since they will hold the property together; where the property is jointly owned already, because the interaction with survivorship rights is easy to get wrong; and where there is a mortgage with a due-on-sale clause, though federal law protects many transfers on death from acceleration. Recording is a step to complete rather than to intend, and the deed should be reviewed after any sale, refinance, marriage, divorce or death of a named beneficiary. Where incapacity, several properties, or a beneficiary who should not receive property outright is in the picture, a trust is usually the better instrument and this deed is not a substitute for it.
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