Transfer on Death Deed in Mississippi: Recording and Revocation

A transfer-on-death deed in Mississippi lets you name a beneficiary who will inherit your real estate the moment you die, with no probate involved. The deed has to be signed, notarized, and recorded with the chancery clerk in the county where the property sits before you die, or it does nothing.¹ Mississippi has recognized these deeds since July 1, 2020, when the Mississippi Real Property Transfer-on-Death Act took effect.²

What Changes (and What Doesn’t) While You’re Alive

Signing a TOD deed hands over nothing during your lifetime. The beneficiary gets no legal or equitable interest until you die, and you don’t have to tell them the deed exists.³ You can sell the property, refinance it, take a home equity loan against it, or rent it out without the beneficiary’s permission.⁴

The statute also protects a handful of things people worry about. A TOD deed will not trigger a due-on-sale clause in your mortgage. It won’t change your homestead, senior, disability, or veteran property tax exemptions. It won’t affect your eligibility for public assistance programs such as Medicaid, subject to applicable federal law. And it doesn’t expose the property to claims from the beneficiary’s creditors while you’re alive.⁴

How to Create a Valid TOD Deed

The deed must be in writing and signed by the property owner, whom the statute calls the transferor. If you cannot sign, someone else may sign at your direction and in your presence.¹ The beneficiary does not have to sign, consent, or even be aware of the deed.³

Inside the deed itself, you need to clearly identify yourself, the beneficiary, and the property. The property description should match land records: lot number, subdivision, and county. A vague description can make the deed unenforceable. The deed must also say the transfer takes effect at your death. That language is what separates a TOD deed from an ordinary deed that hands over ownership right away.

Because the deed will be recorded, it has to meet Mississippi’s general format rules for recorded documents. Under Mississippi Code 89-5-24, use at least 10-point font on white paper of at least 20-pound weight. Leave a top margin of at least three inches on the first page for the recorder, and at least three-quarters of an inch on every other margin. The first page must also show the name, address, and phone number of the person who prepared the document.⁵

Your signature must be acknowledged before a notary public or another official authorized to take acknowledgments.¹ Without acknowledgment, the deed cannot be recorded and has no legal effect.

Recording With the Chancery Clerk

Recording is not optional. The deed must be filed with the chancery clerk in the county where the property is located before you die. A TOD deed that is signed and notarized but never recorded is simply ineffective, and the property will pass under your will or Mississippi’s intestacy rules instead.¹ This is the biggest pitfall people fall into: they sign the deed, put it in a drawer, and never file it.

Choosing Beneficiaries

Mississippi’s definition of “person” for TOD purposes is broad. You can name an individual, a trust, a corporation, an LLC, a charity, a government entity, or nearly any other legal entity.¹ Use full legal names. Descriptions like “my children” or “my heirs” invite arguments after your death.

Name more than one beneficiary and the statute gives you a default: they take equal, undivided shares with no right of survivorship. If one of them dies before you, that person’s share doesn’t fall into probate; it passes proportionally to the surviving beneficiaries.⁶ You can override this default in the deed itself, for example by naming a specific contingent beneficiary.

Name only one beneficiary and that person dies before you, and the interest lapses. The property falls back into your estate and goes through probate.⁶ Naming at least one alternate avoids that. If you want to name a minor, remember that young children face legal limits on managing and conveying real estate, so pair the designation with a trust or custodial arrangement.

How Joint Ownership Interacts With a TOD Deed

If you hold property as a joint tenant with right of survivorship and you die first, the surviving joint owner takes the property through survivorship. Your TOD deed has no effect. The deed only becomes operative if you are the last surviving joint owner, and at that point the property passes to your named beneficiary instead of through probate.⁶

A married couple holding property as tenants by the entirety can execute a TOD deed together, but it sits dormant until one spouse survives the other. The surviving spouse can then keep it in place or revoke it and make new plans.

Changing or Revoking the Deed

You can cancel or change a TOD deed at any time while you’re alive. Mississippi’s statute treats “cancel” and “revoke” as synonymous.¹ Three ways to do it:

Execute and record a new TOD deed covering the same property. The later deed supersedes the earlier one, and it has to meet every requirement of the original.
Record a separate written revocation with the chancery clerk. It should identify the original deed, state clearly that you are revoking it, and be signed, notarized, and recorded.
Sell or convey the property during your lifetime. The TOD deed automatically becomes void as to any interest you conveyed.⁷

Tearing up the document, or telling someone you changed your mind, doesn’t count. The revocation has to be in writing and recorded, just like the original.

What Happens When You Die

Ownership passes automatically to the beneficiary outside of probate. The beneficiary does not inherit through your will; the TOD deed operates independently.² To update the public records, the beneficiary needs to record an affidavit of death along with a certified copy of your death certificate at the chancery clerk’s office in the county where the property sits.

Until that paperwork is filed, the land records will still show your name. The beneficiary may not be able to sell the property, refinance it, or obtain title insurance until the records are updated, so filing promptly matters.

If a Will and a TOD Deed Conflict

If your will leaves the property to one person and your TOD deed names another, the TOD deed wins. Because the deed operates outside probate, the will has no authority over property covered by a valid, recorded TOD deed. Updating your will does not undo a TOD deed. If you change your estate plan, you need to separately revoke or replace the deed. The statute recognizes a few overrides, including Mississippi’s rules on a spouse’s right to renounce a will and the prohibition on inheriting from someone you killed.⁶

Divorce After Executing the Deed

Mississippi’s Transfer-on-Death Act references a separate provision on revocation by divorce. If you name your spouse as beneficiary and later divorce, the statute may automatically revoke that designation. The safer course is to file a formal revocation or new TOD deed after any divorce rather than rely on the automatic rule.

Tax Consequences

A TOD deed creates no taxable event during your lifetime. Because no transfer actually happens until death, you don’t owe gift tax when you sign, and the beneficiary gains no taxable interest while you’re alive.⁴

When the beneficiary receives the property at death, they get a stepped-up basis under federal law. The property’s cost basis resets to its fair market value on the date of your death.⁸ If you bought a house for $80,000 and it’s worth $250,000 when you die, your beneficiary’s basis is $250,000. Sell it shortly after for that amount and they owe no capital gains tax. That is a real advantage over gifting property while you’re alive, which passes along your original basis and can leave the recipient with a large tax bill when they sell.

Mississippi does not impose a state estate or inheritance tax.

Creditor Claims and Medicaid Estate Recovery

A TOD deed does not shield property from your debts. The statute explicitly says the deed does not affect the rights of any secured or unsecured creditor during your lifetime.⁴ After your death, the property is still subject to mortgages, tax liens, and court judgments. Passing outside probate does not erase those claims, and creditors have up to four years after an executor or administrator qualifies to bring an action against the estate.⁹

Federal law requires state Medicaid programs to seek recovery of certain benefits paid for nursing facility and home-and-community-based services on behalf of enrollees age 55 or older.¹⁰ Mississippi’s Medicaid program defines “estate” to include everything in the probate estate and, at the state’s option, property in which the individual held any legal title or interest at death, including assets that passed through joint tenancy, life estates, living trusts, or “other arrangement.”¹¹ A TOD deed could fall within that “other arrangement” language. If you receive Medicaid long-term care benefits, don’t assume a TOD deed will keep the home out of estate recovery. States may not recover when the deceased is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age, but once those protections no longer apply, the property may be reachable regardless of how it was titled.

1
Mississippi Legislature. SB2851 Committee Substitute – Mississippi Real Property Transfer-on-Death Act
2
Land Title Association of Mississippi. Transfer on Death Deeds
3
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 91-27-19 – Notice, Delivery, Acceptance, Consideration Not Required
4
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 91-27-23 – Effect of Transfer-on-Death Deed During Transferors Life
5
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 89-5-24 – Form of Certain Documents or Instruments Presented for Recording
6
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 91-27-27 – Effect of Transfer-on-Death Deed at Transferors Death
7
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 91-27-25 – Effect of Subsequent Conveyance
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
9
Justia Law. Mississippi Code 15-1-25 – Limitations Applicable to Action or Scire Facias Against Executor or Administrator
10
Medicaid.gov. Estate Recovery
11
Mississippi Division of Medicaid. Estate Recovery