Transfer-on-death deed

What it means

A transfer-on-death deed is signed and recorded during life but has no effect until death. The owner keeps full control and can sell, mortgage or revoke it.

It is the real property equivalent of a payable-on-death account, and it is why a house can pass without probate in the states that allow it.

Not every state permits them, and the name differs: beneficiary deed, transfer-on-death deed, revocable transfer on death deed.

Why it matters

It is the least expensive route to keeping a family home out of probate where it is available, and nothing in the deed a family already holds points to it.

It also has limits: it does not help with incapacity, it does not address what happens if the named person dies first, and it can complicate a later sale.

When you are likely to meet it

• When planning what happens to a house.
• When a deed turns up naming somebody who takes on death.
• When comparing a trust against simpler options.

How this varies by state

Whether a state permits a transfer-on-death deed, what it is called, and how it is revoked are all set by state law.

Related terms

• DeedThe recorded document that says who owns a piece of real property, and how they hold it.
• Governing instrumentWhichever document actually controls an asset — a will, a trust, a beneficiary form, a deed, a partnership agreement.
• Life estateAn arrangement where one person has the right to use property for their lifetime, and somebody else automatically owns it afterwards.
• Non-probate assetSomething that passes to a new owner automatically, without a court.
• Payable on death (POD)A bank-account instruction that pays the balance to a named person on the owner's death.
• ProbateThe court process that confirms who has authority to deal with what somebody owned when they died.
• Quitclaim deedA deed transferring whatever interest the signer has, with no promise that they have any.
• Real propertyLand and what is permanently attached to it — a house, a barn, a fixed structure. Everything else a person owns is personal property.
• RecordingFiling a document with the county so that it is on the public record.
• Revocable living trustA trust you create during your lifetime, keep control of, and can change or cancel at any time. Property held in it does not go through probate.
• Right of survivorshipA form of shared ownership where the survivor automatically takes the whole thing.
• Transfer on death (TOD)A designation that passes an asset directly to a named person when the owner dies, without probate.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Wills and trusts
• Do I need probate?