What is a transfer on death deed? A recorded, revocable deed naming who takes the property when the owner dies. It moves nothing during the owner's life and it keeps that parcel out of probate.
A transfer on death deed is signed and recorded like any other deed, but it conveys nothing until the owner dies. Until then the owner still owns the property outright and can sell it, refinance it, borrow against it, or revoke the deed, none of which needs the beneficiary's agreement or even their knowledge. The beneficiary holds no present interest, so it is not reachable by their creditors, not counted in their divorce, and not theirs to mortgage. When the owner dies the beneficiary records a death certificate and an affidavit, and title moves. The parcel never enters probate, which is the whole point of the instrument.
The model is the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, published by the Uniform Law Commission in 2009. Roughly half the states allow one, some by adopting that act and some through statutes of their own that predate it, and the names vary: beneficiary deed, transfer on death deed, deed upon death. Nevada is in the uniform group and calls it a deed upon death, at NRS 111.655 to 111.699. In a state with no such statute the document is a nullity no matter how carefully it is drafted, so this is a state-by-state question rather than a national one, and the form has to be the one that state's statute recognizes.
The beneficiary takes subject to the mortgage. Death does not pay off a loan and does not remove a deed of trust, so whoever inherits either keeps paying it, refinances it, or sells and pays it at closing. A federal statute, 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3(d), bars a lender from calling the loan on a transfer to a relative resulting from the borrower's death, which is what keeps the due-on-sale clause out of the way. What the deed does not do is anything a will does. It has no answer for a beneficiary who dies first, for a minor beneficiary, or for three beneficiaries who cannot agree on selling. It does not shield the property from the deceased owner's creditors either: Nevada, for one, lets the estate reach property that passed by such a deed when the probate estate is short of allowed claims (NRS 111.689).
A worked example
An owner records a transfer on death deed in 2019 naming 2 children as equal beneficiaries. In 2022 she refinances, and the deed neither blocks the new loan nor needs re-signing, because during life it affects nothing: the new lender's lien attaches to a property she still owns outright. In 2024 she records a second deed naming 3 children, and that one governs, because the last deed recorded before death is the effective one. She dies in 2026 with roughly 40 percent of the home's value still owed. The 3 children take title by recording the death paperwork, with no probate case opened, and they take it with the loan still on it: one deed of trust, 3 co-owners, and one monthly payment somebody has to make while they decide whether to sell.
What is a transfer on death deed?
Questions people ask
Does a transfer on death deed avoid probate?
For that parcel, yes. Title passes to the named beneficiary on the owner's death and the property never becomes part of the probate estate. Everything else the person owned in their own name still goes through whatever process that state requires, and some states let the estate reach the property anyway when it cannot pay allowed claims.
Can a transfer on death deed be revoked?
Yes, at any time while the owner is alive, and without asking the beneficiary. Revocation is done by recording an instrument before death, either a formal revocation or a later deed naming somebody else. Writing on the copy of the recorded deed does not do it, and neither does a will that says otherwise.