How to Fill Out and Record a Montana Transfer on Death Deed

A Montana transfer on death deed lets you name someone to inherit your real estate automatically when you die, bypassing probate entirely. You keep full ownership during your lifetime, can sell or mortgage the property, and can revoke the deed whenever you want. To work, the deed must be signed before a notary and recorded with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the property sits, and it must be recorded before you die. The recording fee is $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page.

What to Gather Before You Start

The deed has to meet the requirements of MCA § 72-6-408, so collect everything you need up front.¹

The property’s legal description — township, range, section, and lot — not the mailing address. Pull it from your current deed, or call the county clerk and recorder’s office where the property is located.
Your full legal name and mailing address as the transferor.
The full legal name and mailing address of each beneficiary. Spell every name exactly as it appears on that person’s ID. Mismatches cause title problems later.
Your current deed, so you can confirm how you hold title. This matters especially if you co-own the property.

Do not put Social Security numbers on the deed. Once recorded, it becomes a permanent public record, and SSNs on it create an identity-theft risk for your beneficiaries.

If You Co-Own the Property

How you hold title with a co-owner changes how the deed behaves. If you and another person are joint tenants with right of survivorship, the surviving owner automatically takes the deceased owner’s share, and that survivorship right overrides the TOD deed. The deed only takes effect when the last surviving joint owner dies.² If all joint owners want the TOD deed to apply, every joint owner has to sign it. Later revocation works the same way: a joint deed is revoked only when every living joint owner signs the revocation.³

If you’re tenants in common — each owner holds a separate, divisible share with no survivorship — you can execute a TOD deed for your share alone, without involving the other owner.

Filling Out the Form

Montana publishes an optional statutory form at MCA § 72-6-415.⁴ Using it is the safest route because it already contains the notice language the statute requires. You can use a different form, but it still has to satisfy § 72-6-408.

Fill in the fields the form walks you through:

Owner information. Your printed name and mailing address. If more than one owner is signing, each owner’s information goes here.
Legal description. Copy it exactly from your current deed. A wrong lot number or a transposed section can cloud the title.
Beneficiaries. Printed name and mailing address of each person you want to receive the property. If you name more than one beneficiary, they take equal undivided shares unless the deed says otherwise.²
Transfer on death statement. The form supplies the operative language: “At my death, I transfer my interest in the described property to the beneficiaries as designated above.” This is what makes the deed function.

One rule catches people off guard. A beneficiary has to survive you to inherit. If your beneficiary dies before you do, that share doesn’t pass to their heirs — it lapses. When you’ve named multiple beneficiaries and one predeceases you, the deceased beneficiary’s share goes to the surviving beneficiaries rather than into your probate estate.² If you’ve named only one beneficiary and that person dies first, the deed does nothing and the property goes through probate. For that reason, naming a backup is worth considering.

Signing in Front of a Notary

A Montana TOD deed is not valid unless you sign it in the physical presence of a notary public. There are no exceptions to the personal-appearance requirement.⁵ Bring a government-issued photo ID. Your beneficiaries do not need to be present, do not sign, and do not even need to know the deed exists. A Montana notary can charge up to $10 per notarial act.⁶

Recording the Deed

This is the step people miss. A deed that isn’t recorded before you die is worthless. The statute requires it to be “recorded before the transferor’s death in the public records in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county where the property is located.”¹ If a notarized deed is sitting in your filing cabinet when you pass away, the property goes through probate as though the deed never existed.

Take or mail the notarized deed to the clerk and recorder in the county where the property sits. Recording costs $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page if the document meets standard formatting requirements. A document that doesn’t meet them costs an extra $10.⁷

You also have to submit a realty transfer certificate (Form 488) with the deed. Montana requires this certificate for any instrument transferring real estate, and the clerk and recorder cannot accept the deed without it.⁸ The form asks for the consideration paid. Since a TOD deed involves no sale, you’ll typically enter zero. Blank forms are available at any county clerk and recorder’s office or on the Montana Department of Revenue website.

Once the clerk records the deed, the office assigns a document number and returns the original to you. Keep it with your important papers. The recorded deed puts your beneficiary into the chain of title and gives public notice of the intended transfer.

Changing Your Mind Later

You can revoke a TOD deed any time while you’re alive, no matter what the deed says, and you don’t need your beneficiary’s permission or knowledge.⁹ You have three options:

Record a revocation. Montana supplies an optional revocation form at MCA § 72-6-416. You fill in your name, the legal description, and the statutory statement revoking all prior TOD deeds on that property, sign it before a notary, and record it with the same county clerk and recorder.¹⁰
Record a new TOD deed. A later deed naming a different beneficiary or expressly revoking the earlier one replaces it.
Convey the property during your lifetime. If you transfer ownership through a regular deed, there’s nothing left for the TOD deed to transfer at your death.

The revocation itself must be recorded before you die, just like the original deed.³ An unrecorded revocation has no effect. You also cannot revoke the deed by tearing it up, writing “void” across it, or any other act on the paper itself. Once a deed is recorded, only a recorded instrument can undo it.

What a TOD Deed Does Not Protect Against

A TOD deed avoids probate. It does not shield the property from creditors. Under MCA § 72-6-414, a beneficiary who takes property by TOD deed is liable for allowed claims against the deceased owner’s estate, including statutory allowances for a surviving spouse and children.¹¹ The beneficiary also takes the property subject to any mortgages, liens, or other encumbrances that existed when the owner died, and the transfer carries no warranty of title.²

Medicaid estate recovery is the biggest exposure for many Montanans. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services can recover Medicaid costs from property transferred by beneficiary deed, even though it technically passes outside probate.¹² If the owner received Medicaid-funded long-term care, the state may place a claim against the property in the beneficiary’s hands. A TOD deed is a probate-avoidance tool, not an asset-protection strategy. If Medicaid is a possibility, talk to an elder-law attorney before relying on one.

What Your Beneficiary Will Need to Do

The property transfers to your beneficiary automatically at your death, but the public record still needs to be updated. Your beneficiary will record an affidavit of death with the clerk and recorder in the county where the property is located, file a realty transfer certificate (Form 488), and, if the property includes water rights, file a water rights ownership update (DNRC Form 608) with the local Water Resources Regional Office of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.¹³ Leaving a note with your recorded deed explaining these three steps makes life much easier for the person you’ve chosen.

1
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 72-6-408 – Requirements
2
Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 72-6-412 – Effect of Transfer on Death Deed at Transferor’s Death
3
Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 72-6-410 – Revocation by Instrument Authorized
4
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 72-6-415 – Optional Form of Transfer on Death Deed
5
Montana Secretary of State. Montana Notary Public Handbook
6
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 1-5-626 – Fees for Notarial Acts – Collection of Fees
7
Montana Legislature. Montana Code 7-4-2637 – Fees for Recording Documents – Rulemaking
8
Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 15-7-305 – Realty Transfer Certificate Required
9
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 72-6-405 – Transfer on Death Deed Revocable
10
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 72-6-416 – Optional Form of Revocation
11
Montana Code Annotated. Montana Code 72-6-414 – Liability for Creditor Claims and Statutory Allowances
12
Montana DPHHS. Montana Medicaid Lien and Estate Recovery Programs
13
Montana State University Extension. Transfer on Death Deeds in Montana