Minnesota Transfer on Death Deed: Rules, Recording, and Revocation

A Minnesota transfer on death deed lets you name who inherits a piece of Minnesota real estate when you die, without sending the property through probate. You keep full ownership and control while you’re alive. The deed only takes effect at your death, and only if it was properly signed, notarized, and recorded with the county before that day. Minnesota Statutes Section 507.071 sets the rules.¹

What the Deed Does, and What It Doesn’t

A TODD is a recorded document that says, in effect, when I die, this property goes to the person I’ve named. Until that moment, it has no effect on your ownership. You can sell the property, refinance it, or change your mind. The beneficiary has no legal interest while you’re alive, doesn’t have to agree to the arrangement, and doesn’t even have to know about it.

Because the transfer happens automatically at death and outside probate, the property skips the traditional estate process. That can save your family real time and legal cost. It does not, however, wipe out debts tied to the property. The beneficiary takes it subject to every mortgage, lien, judgment, and tax lien attached at the time of your death, and the statute expressly says the beneficiary has no right to demand the estate pay those off.¹ The state can also pursue Medical Assistance recovery against the property under Section 256B.15 if your other estate assets aren’t enough to cover the claim.²

What the Deed Must Contain to Be Valid

Section 507.071 requires several things:

An owner of an interest in Minnesota real estate as grantor. You can hold that interest individually, as a joint tenant, or as a tenant in common.
A named beneficiary. This can be a person, a trust, a corporation, or another entity. You can also name successor beneficiaries who take the property if the primary beneficiary dies before you do.
Language stating clearly that the transfer takes effect only on your death. Without it, the document risks being read as an immediate conveyance.
The full legal description of the property, meaning the lot, block, and addition information from the current deed or the county tax statement. A street address alone is not enough.
Your signature, taken in front of a notary.
Recording with the County Recorder or Registrar of Titles in the county where the property sits, while you are still alive. An unrecorded TODD is worthless. If you die before recording it, the property falls into your probate estate as if the deed never existed.¹

If You’re Married, Your Spouse Has to Sign

Marital status matters here. If you’re married, your spouse must join in the deed, even if your spouse is not on the title. The joinder is treated as conclusive proof that the spouse has released any marital interest in the transferred property.¹ Skip the spousal signature and your surviving spouse can later challenge the transfer.

Minnesota publishes a separate official form for this situation: Form 10.8.2, for married grantors when only one spouse is on title.³

If You Own the Property With Someone Else

Joint tenancy behaves in a way that surprises people. If you and another person hold the property as joint tenants and only you sign a TODD, the surviving joint tenant’s right of survivorship overrides your beneficiary. The co-owner keeps the property. Your beneficiary gets nothing.

For a TODD to work on jointly held property, all joint tenants must sign it, and the transfer only kicks in after the last surviving owner dies. There’s one exception: if the deed explicitly states that it severs the joint tenancy, the TODD can take effect on your death alone.¹

Preparing and Recording the Deed

The Minnesota Department of Commerce publishes the official TODD forms through its Uniform Conveyancing Blanks system. Use Form 10.8.1 if you’re unmarried,⁴ and Form 10.8.2 if you’re married and the sole spouse on title. Fill in every field. Before you sit down with the form, gather the full legal names of every current owner and every intended beneficiary, exactly as they appear on official records, and pull the property’s legal description from your current deed or tax statement.

Sign the deed in front of a notary, then file it with the County Recorder or Registrar of Titles in the county where the property is located. The standard recording fee in Minnesota is $46 per document, though some counties add small surcharges.⁵ Recording the deed doesn’t transfer ownership yet and doesn’t trigger any immediate tax.

One easily missed step: Minnesota Statutes Section 507.072 conditions the temporary extended coverage on your fire and casualty insurance policy on notifying your insurer of the TODD and giving them the names and contact information of your beneficiaries. Skip the notice and your beneficiary may face a coverage gap right after your death.

Changing or Revoking the Deed

You can revoke a TODD at any time before your death. You don’t owe anyone an explanation, and the beneficiary has no say. Three methods work:

Record a revocation using Form 10.8.10 from the Department of Commerce. Sign it, have it notarized, and file it with the same county office that recorded the original.⁶
Record a new TODD on the same property naming different beneficiaries. The new one replaces the old one.
Convey the property outright during your lifetime. Once you no longer own the interest, there’s nothing left for the TODD to transfer.

What does not work: tearing up the original, writing “void” across it, or trying to redirect the property in your will. The TODD is a recorded instrument, and only another recorded document can undo it. Whatever the county records show on the day you die is what controls.¹ A will that leaves the house to your daughter does not defeat a TODD naming your brother.

If Your Beneficiary Dies Before You

Minnesota handles this through two rules. If your named beneficiary was a grandparent or a descendant of a grandparent of yours, which covers most family members, and dies before you, the antilapse rule applies and that beneficiary’s own descendants step into their place. If the deceased beneficiary has no living descendants, or if the beneficiary was someone outside that family circle, no substitution happens.¹

If every named beneficiary and successor beneficiary has died before you, and no one qualifies under the antilapse rule, the TODD becomes void. The property then passes through your will, or through Minnesota’s intestacy laws if you don’t have one. This is why naming successor beneficiaries directly on the deed is worth the extra line.

What the Beneficiary Does After You Die

The TODD doesn’t automatically update the county’s title records. Once the owner dies, the beneficiary has to finalize the transfer.

Record the Death Certificate and Affidavit

Obtain a certified copy of the grantor’s death certificate. Prepare and sign an Affidavit of Survivorship and Indemnity, a sworn statement linking the death certificate to the recorded TODD. Record both with the County Recorder in the county where the property is located.

Get a Medical Assistance Clearance Certificate

Before the transfer can be completed, the beneficiary applies to the county agency for a Medical Assistance clearance certificate confirming whether the state has a claim for long-term care or other medical costs paid on behalf of the deceased owner.⁷ If the county finds no MA claim, it issues the certificate and you record it to finish the transfer. If there is a claim, the process shifts to negotiation before the title clears. Personal liability as a beneficiary is capped at the value of the property received, but a claim can still wipe out most of the equity.

Tax Treatment

Because a TODD is revocable and gives the beneficiary no rights until death, it is not a completed gift. You owe no gift tax when you sign or record it, and it uses none of your lifetime gift tax exemption.

The property is part of your gross estate for federal estate tax purposes because you kept full control until death. For most homeowners this changes nothing: the federal estate tax exemption for 2026 is $15 million per person.⁸ Minnesota has its own estate tax with a lower exemption, so larger estates can still face a state bill.

On the beneficiary side, the biggest tax advantage of a TODD is the stepped-up basis. Under federal law, the beneficiary’s tax basis in the property resets to its fair market value on the date of the owner’s death.⁹ If the owner bought the house for $150,000 and it was worth $350,000 at death, the beneficiary’s basis is $350,000. A quick sale at that price produces no taxable capital gain. Compare that to receiving the same property as a lifetime gift, which carries the original low basis and can generate a substantial tax bill on sale.

Mistakes That Break the Transfer

A few errors show up repeatedly:

Not recording the deed. A signed, notarized TODD in a desk drawer does nothing. It has to be on file with the county before the owner’s death.
Using a street address instead of the legal description. County recorders index by legal description, and a mismatched or missing one can get the deed rejected or recorded against the wrong parcel.
Skipping spousal consent when married. Your surviving spouse can then claim a marital interest and disrupt the transfer.
Assuming a will overrides the TODD. It doesn’t. The recorded deed controls.
Naming no successor beneficiary. If your only named beneficiary dies first and antilapse doesn’t apply, the whole deed fails.
Not notifying your property insurer. Minnesota law ties temporary extended coverage after your death to that notice.

A properly prepared and recorded TODD is one of the simplest estate planning tools Minnesota offers. The forms are free from the Department of Commerce, the recording fee is $46, and no lawyer is required. If your situation involves joint ownership, a mortgage, or a realistic risk of a Medical Assistance claim, paying an attorney to look it over before you record is money well spent.

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 507.071 – Transfer on Death Deeds
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes 256B.15 – Estates of Persons Receiving Medical Assistance
3
Minnesota Department of Commerce. Minnesota Uniform Conveyancing Blanks Form 10.8.2
4
Minnesota Department of Commerce. Minnesota Uniform Conveyancing Blanks Form 10.8.1
5
Association of Minnesota Counties. Statewide County Fees
6
Minnesota Department of Commerce. Minnesota Uniform Conveyancing Blanks Form 10.8.10 – Revocation of Transfer on Death Deed
7
Minnesota Department of Human Services. MA Estate Recovery Manual
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2010 – Unified Credit Against Estate Tax
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent