How to Add a Name to a Deed in Missouri: Deed Types and Taxes

To add a name to a deed in Missouri, you prepare and record a new deed that conveys the property from yourself to yourself and the person you’re adding. You cannot edit or amend the existing deed. Missouri law expressly allows an owner to name themselves and another person as grantees on a new deed, and the transfer takes effect as if a third party had conveyed the property to both of you.¹ Before you draft that deed, you need to make a few decisions that will follow the property for years: what kind of deed to use, how you and the new co-owner will hold title, and whether the transfer will trigger problems with your lender or the IRS.

Pick the Type of Deed

Most people adding a family member or spouse use a quitclaim deed. It transfers whatever interest you currently hold without any promise that the title is clean. If a lien or defect surfaces later, the new co-owner has no claim back against you. That’s fine between people who trust each other.

A warranty deed goes further. The signer guarantees clear title and agrees to defend the new owner against future claims. It’s standard in arm’s-length sales but usually more legal exposure than you need when adding a spouse or child.

There is a third option worth considering before you add anyone at all. A Missouri beneficiary deed names someone to receive the property automatically at your death and bypasses probate. It must be recorded with the county Recorder of Deeds before you die, but it gives the beneficiary no rights while you’re alive, and you can revoke it at any time by recording a new one.² If your real goal is estate planning rather than shared ownership now, a beneficiary deed sidesteps the mortgage and tax issues described below.

Choose How You Will Hold Title Together

If you’re adding someone as a current co-owner, the new deed has to say how the two of you own the property. That single choice controls what happens when one of you dies, whether either owner can sell independently, and how creditors can reach the property. Missouri recognizes three forms.

Tenants in Common

This is the default. If the deed is silent, Missouri treats co-owners as tenants in common.³ Each owner has a separate share they can sell, mortgage, or leave by will. When one owner dies, their share passes through their estate, not to the surviving co-owner.

Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship

Joint tenancy has to be stated on the face of the deed, typically with language like “as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common.” When one owner dies, their share passes directly to the survivor by operation of law, without probate.³ Any co-owner can sever the arrangement during life by transferring their interest, which converts it back to a tenancy in common.

Tenancy by the Entirety

This form is available only to married couples, and Missouri courts have long presumed that a deed to a married couple creates a tenancy by the entirety unless the deed clearly says otherwise.⁴ It includes the survivorship feature and adds creditor protection: creditors of only one spouse generally cannot force a sale to collect on that spouse’s individual debts. Neither spouse can transfer or mortgage the property without the other’s consent. If you’re married and adding your spouse, this is almost always what you want.

Check Your Mortgage Before You File

If you still owe money on the property, adding someone to the deed does not add them to the loan. You remain fully responsible for the debt. The bigger issue is the due-on-sale clause in most mortgages, which lets the lender demand the entire balance if you transfer any ownership interest without permission.

Federal law blocks lenders from enforcing that clause in the most common family situations: a transfer to a spouse or child, a transfer to a spouse under a divorce decree, and moving the property into a living trust where you remain a beneficiary.⁵ Transfers to other relatives, friends, or business partners are not protected. Call your lender before recording if you’re adding anyone outside that protected group. Also check your title insurance: most policies cover only the named insured, and changing ownership can void coverage, so ask the title company whether your policy will survive the transfer.

Understand the Tax Cost

Missouri has no state gift tax and no real estate transfer tax, so the federal rules control. Adding someone other than a spouse to your deed is a gift for federal tax purposes. Give a half interest in a $400,000 home, and the IRS treats that as a $200,000 gift.

Gift Tax Filing

The first $19,000 of gifts to any one person in 2026 is excluded automatically, and married couples who elect to split gifts can exclude $38,000 per recipient.⁶ Anything above that counts against your lifetime gift and estate tax exemption, which is $15,000,000 for 2026.⁷ Very few people actually owe gift tax, but you still have to file IRS Form 709 for any year the gift exceeds the annual exclusion. Transfers between spouses who are both U.S. citizens are generally unlimited and tax-free under the marital deduction.

The Basis Trap

This is the piece people miss. When you give someone a share of your property, they take your original cost basis in that share.⁸ If you bought the home for $150,000 and give away half, the recipient’s basis in that half is $75,000. When they eventually sell, they owe capital gains on the difference between $75,000 and their share of the sale price.

If the same person inherited the property at your death instead, they would get a stepped-up basis equal to the fair market value on that date.⁹ A home worth $400,000 at your death would give the heir a $400,000 basis and let them sell with little or no capital gains tax. Adding someone to the deed now eliminates that step-up for the gifted share. For appreciated property, that can cost thousands in taxes a beneficiary deed or a simple will would have avoided.

Draft the Deed

The deed itself is usually one or two pages. Blank forms are available from office supply stores or a real estate attorney. Missouri requires several specific items on any deed being recorded.

Full legal names and marital status of every grantor and grantee. The grantor’s name must match the current deed exactly; if a name has changed, include both, as in “Jane Smith, formerly Jane Doe.”¹⁰
The grantee’s mailing address and any other addresses Missouri recording standards require.¹¹
The legal property description. This is not the street address. It’s the surveyor’s description from official land records, something like “Lot 12, Block 3 of Oak Park Subdivision, as recorded in Plat Book 14, Page 22.” Copy it word for word from your current deed. Even a small error can cloud the title. Your current deed is on file with the county Recorder of Deeds.
The co-ownership language after the grantees’ names. For joint tenancy, use “as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common.” Leave it out and Missouri defaults to tenancy in common.³

If the property is your homestead and you’re married, your spouse must sign the deed even if they aren’t on the current title. Missouri’s homestead protections prevent either spouse from transferring a homestead without the other’s involvement, and a deed signed without the required spouse can be voided. This surprises people when one spouse is the sole owner on paper.

Formatting Rules

Missouri sets specific formatting standards for recordable documents. The first page must have a top margin of at least three inches reserved for the recorder. Other margins must be at least three-quarters of an inch. Text must be in at least eight-point type on white or light-colored paper, and signatures must be in black or dark ink with the signer’s name typed or printed beneath.¹¹ Documents that don’t meet these standards can still be recorded, but the recorder adds a $25 non-standard penalty.

Sign, Notarize, and Record

The grantor signs in front of a notary public, who verifies identity, witnesses the signature, and applies the official seal. Only the grantor signs. The person being added does not. If the property is a homestead and you’re married, both spouses sign as grantors regardless of whose name is on the current title.

After notarization, file the deed with the Recorder of Deeds in the county where the property sits. Recording puts the transfer in the public record and protects the new co-owner against later claims. An unrecorded deed is valid between the parties but won’t hold up against a later creditor or buyer who had no notice of it.

Missouri recording fees are set by statute and consistent across counties: $24 for the first page and $3 for each additional page.¹¹ Add the $25 non-standard penalty if the document doesn’t meet formatting rules. A one-page quitclaim deed that meets standards costs $24 to record. The Recorder returns the original to the mailing address on the document.

Because a name change on a deed touches your mortgage, your taxes, your title insurance, and often your estate plan, a real estate attorney is worth the fee for most people. A mistake in the legal description or the co-ownership language can take months and more legal fees to correct.

1
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 442.025 – Conveyance to Self and Others to Create Joint Estate
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 461.025 – Deeds Effective on Death of Owner
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 442.450 – Conveyance to More Than One, Effect
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 442.450 – Conveyance to More Than One, Effect
5
GovInfo. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
6
Internal Revenue Service. Frequently Asked Questions on Gift Taxes
7
Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
8
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.1015-1 – Basis of Property Acquired by Gift
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
10
FindLaw. Missouri Code 442.130 – Execution of Deeds and Other Conveyances
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Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 59.310 – Documents for Recording