Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed Attorney

And a Question for Anyone Who Signed a Deed Years Ago

Two documents that look almost identical.
One of them means you cannot sell your own house.

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Yanitza Schoonover, Florida probate and estate planning attorney
Written and reviewed by Yanitza Schoonover, Florida probate and estate planning attorney The Schoonover Law Firm, P.A. · Updated August 2026

Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed Attorney

A Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed, known formally as a Florida enhanced life estate deed, lets your home, villa or condominium pass directly to the beneficiaries you name at your death, with no Palm Beach County probate case on that property. Nothing changes while you are alive: you stay on title, you keep your homestead exemption, and you can live in the property, rent it, refinance it, sell it, or revoke the deed entirely.

Boynton Beach is a settled, older market. 22.5% of residents are 65 or older, 64.7% of housing is owner-occupied, the median owner-occupied home is worth $351,100, and median household income is $70,074. A large share of the housing stock is villa, condominium and active-adult communities built decades ago.

Which is why this page starts somewhere unusual. Before asking whether you should sign a deed, it is worth asking a different question: did you already sign one, and if so, which kind was it? Because there are two instruments that look nearly identical on paper, and the difference between them is whether you can sell your own home without your children's signatures.

Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed: the short version

  • What it does: names beneficiaries who receive the property automatically at death, outside of probate.
  • What you keep: full control for life, with the freedom to sell, rent, refinance, or revoke without anyone's permission.
  • The test: does your deed expressly reserve the power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without the remaindermen joining?
  • If it does not, you may hold only a traditional life estate, and every named person has to sign before you can sell.
  • You cannot fix it alone. The remainder was given away when it was recorded. Undoing it takes everyone back at the table.
  • Ten minutes now is worth a great deal more than the same ten minutes after a health event.

What Is a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed?

A Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed is the common name for a Florida enhanced life estate deed recorded on property in Palm Beach County. It names the beneficiaries, called remaindermen, who receive the property automatically at your death, while reserving to you an enhanced life estate that leaves you in complete control while you are alive.

The word doing all the work in that sentence is enhanced. A life estate deed of any sort splits ownership in two: a life estate for you now, and a remainder for someone else later. What the enhancement adds is a reservation of powers, so that during your lifetime you can still deal with the property exactly as you could before you signed anything.

The recording formalities come from Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01 and 695.03. The enhanced reservation itself is not written into a statute of its own. It exists by Florida practice and title custom, which is precisely why the words on your particular deed matter so much, and why two deeds can be worlds apart while looking like the same document.

For a broader comparison, see our guide to Lady Bird Deeds versus wills, trusts and quitclaim deeds.

Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed attorney helping Palm Beach County owners avoid probate

Two Deeds, One Paragraph Apart

Put a traditional life estate deed and an enhanced life estate deed side by side. Same parties. Same legal description. Same witnesses and notary block. Both say you keep a life estate and that named people receive the property when you die.

The difference is one clause. The enhanced version expressly reserves to you the power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke during your lifetime, without the joinder or consent of the remaindermen. The traditional version does not.

That single paragraph is the difference between owning your home and being a life tenant in it.

The same property, two instruments, entirely different consequences.
 Enhanced life estate deedTraditional life estate deed
Can you sell without asking anyone?YesNo. Every remainderman must sign.
Can you mortgage or refinance?YesNo, not without them.
Can you change your mind about who receives it?Yes, revoke and re-recordNo. The remainder is already theirs.
Does it avoid probate on the property?YesYes
Was a gift made when it was recorded?No, the transfer is incompleteGenerally yes, of the remainder interest
Are the remaindermen's creditors a risk now?No, they hold nothing yetYes. They own a present interest.
Medicaid look-back implicationsRecording is not a transferA real transfer occurred, and the timing matters
Stepped-up basis at deathGenerally yes on the whole propertyDifferent, and worse, for the interest given away

Read the bottom half of that table carefully, because it is the part nobody thinks about. A traditional life estate deed does not merely inconvenience you. It made a gift the day it was recorded. Those named people own something now. Their divorce is now a fact about your house. Their bankruptcy is now a fact about your house. And the transfer that happened back then can raise Medicaid questions that an enhanced deed never would.

None of which means anyone acted badly. Traditional life estate deeds were the standard tool for generations, and plenty were prepared carefully for people whose circumstances genuinely suited them. But circumstances change over twenty years, and the instrument does not.

Sources: Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01, 695.03 (execution and recording of deeds). The enhanced life estate deed is recognized in Florida practice and title custom rather than by a statute of its own, which is why the reservation language in the individual instrument controls. Gift tax and income tax treatment vary with the facts; confirm with a qualified tax advisor.

Boynton Beach Estate Planning Snapshot

An older, high-ownership, moderately priced market with a large stock of long-established communities.

  • 22.5% of Boynton Beach residents are age 65+
  • 64.7% of housing units are owner-occupied
  • $351,100 median value of owner-occupied housing
  • $70,074 median household income
  • 29.6% of residents are foreign-born
  • 38.0% speak a language other than English at home

At 22.5% aged 65 or older, Boynton Beach is among the oldest markets on this site, and at 64.7% owner-occupancy it is a city where most people own where they live. That combination produces a large population of owners who have held the same property for a very long time.

Long tenure is exactly what creates the problem this page is about. A deed signed in 1998 has had nearly thirty years for the family it describes to change: children have married, divorced, moved abroad, had children of their own, and in some cases died before the parent who signed it.

At a median value of $351,100 against a median income of $70,074, the home is the substantial majority of most estates here. Getting the instrument right is not a refinement. It is the plan.

Demographic figures: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Boynton Beach city, Florida (most recent American Community Survey five-year estimates available at publication).

Chart of the Boynton Beach median home price trend over the past decade, used for Palm Beach County estate planning and Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed research
Boynton Beach median home price trend (past decade)
An owner who signed a deed decades ago is sitting on appreciation the deed never contemplated.
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How to Check the Deed You Already Have

This takes about ten minutes and costs nothing. You do not need a lawyer to do the first four steps, and doing them before a consultation makes that conversation far more useful.

  1. Find the recorded deed

    The Palm Beach County Official Records, maintained by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, are searchable by name. The last recorded deed for your property is the operative one. What you have in a drawer at home may not be the last one recorded.

  2. Read who it conveys to

    A deed that names other people to receive the property at your death, while saying you keep a life estate, is a life estate deed of some kind. That much is usually obvious.

  3. Hunt for the reservation of powers

    This is the decisive step. You are looking for express words reserving to you the right to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke during your lifetime, without the joinder or consent of the remaindermen. Wording varies. What matters is that the powers are there and that they do not require anyone else to agree. If you cannot find anything of the sort, do not assume it is implied. It is not.

  4. List every named person, and what happened to them

    Write down each remainderman. Beside each, note: alive or died, and when. Married or divorced. Living where. Adult or minor. Competent or not. This single list is what determines whether a problem is a half-hour fix or a genuine project.

  5. Check how it was signed

    Two subscribing witnesses who were present and signed, and a notary acknowledgment. Deeds prepared from forms and signed around a kitchen table fail on this more often than people expect, and the failure surfaces at death, when it cannot be corrected.

  6. Stop before recording anything new

    If the deed turns out to be a traditional life estate deed, recording something else over the top of it does not undo it, and can leave the record more tangled than it already is. This is the point to take advice.

Signs worth taking seriously

  • You cannot find any reservation language at all. The most common finding, and the most consequential.
  • The deed says “life estate” and nothing more. Short is not the same as enhanced.
  • A remainderman has died and the deed says nothing about what happens to their share.
  • A named person is now a minor's parent, or a minor themselves. That brings guardianship into any sale.
  • You were told it was a Lady Bird Deed but the document does not use the reservation. What you were told is not what was recorded.
  • You have been quoted trouble by a title company on a refinance. That is usually the first time anyone notices.

What It Takes to Fix One

Here is the uncomfortable part, and it is better said plainly. A traditional life estate deed cannot be revoked by the person who signed it. When it was recorded, the remainder interest left your hands. Those people own something now, not at your death, and you cannot take it back on your own.

Correcting it generally means one of two routes, and both require the same thing: everybody back at the table.

The two ordinary routes, and what each requires.
RouteWhat happensWhat it needs
Conveyance backEvery remainderman deeds their interest back to you, restoring full ownership. A properly drafted enhanced life estate deed is then recorded.All of them located, alive, competent, willing, and each signing with two witnesses and a notary.
Joinder in a new deedEvery remainderman joins in a single new instrument that supersedes the old arrangement.The same list of people, in one document, at one time.
If one has diedTheir interest generally passed into their own estate rather than lapsing, so their heirs may now hold it.Finding those heirs, and possibly a probate case in their estate first.
If one is a minorA minor cannot convey real property.A court-appointed guardian of the property and court approval.
If one will not cooperateThere is no unilateral remedy. They own the interest.Negotiation, or living with the arrangement.
If the deed was defectively executedDifferent problem, sometimes a better one. A deed that never satisfied the formalities may not have conveyed anything.Legal analysis of the original instrument, and often a court proceeding.

Notice what runs through every row: time makes it worse. Every year that passes is another year in which someone can die, lose capacity, move somewhere unreachable, or fall out with the family. A deed that could be corrected with three signatures today may need a probate case and a guardianship in five years.

That is the practical argument for spending ten minutes on it now rather than after something has happened. If the deed turns out to be an enhanced one, you have lost ten minutes and gained peace of mind. If it turns out not to be, you have found out at the best possible moment.

Sources: Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01, 695.03 (execution and recording of deeds); Fla. Stat. ch. 744 (guardianship, including court approval for the sale of a minor's interest in real property). Whether a particular instrument conveyed a vested remainder, and what happened to it, is a question of construing that document.

Homestead Exemption, Save Our Homes and Spousal Rights

A properly drafted Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed should not disturb your homestead exemption or your Save Our Homes assessment cap during your lifetime. You retain the enhanced life estate, you remain in possession, and the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser continues to treat you as the owner of record.

The cap does not pass to your beneficiaries. It resets on the change of ownership at death, the same as it would through probate or a trust. For an owner who has held the same villa or condominium since the 1990s, that reset is a real number the next generation should see coming.

On the constitutional side, Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution provides that a married owner cannot convey homestead without the spouse joining in the deed, whether or not the spouse appears on title, and that homestead cannot be devised away from a surviving spouse or a minor child. These restrictions are tested at death rather than at signing.

This is worth checking on an old deed too. A deed signed by one spouse alone, on homestead property, may have had a problem from the day it was recorded. That is a different defect from the missing reservation, and it is found the same way: by reading the recorded instrument.

Medicaid and Estate Recovery

Florida's Medicaid program is required by federal law to seek reimbursement from the estates of recipients aged 55 and over who received long-term care benefits, and the word doing all the work is estate. Florida defines it narrowly: recovery reaches assets passing through the probate estate. Florida has not adopted the expanded definition some states use.

Because a Lady Bird Deed moves the home outside probate, it is one of the standard tools for reducing estate recovery exposure on a Florida homestead. Recording an enhanced life estate deed is not a transfer for the five-year look-back, because nothing leaves your control during your lifetime.

A traditional life estate deed is different on precisely this point. A real transfer of the remainder occurred when it was recorded, so the timing of that transfer can matter for look-back purposes in a way an enhanced deed never would. With more than one in five Boynton Beach residents aged 65 or older, that distinction is not theoretical here.

The limits

  • The deed does not qualify anyone for Medicaid. Eligibility is a separate analysis.
  • The five-year look-back applies to transfers of non-homestead assets, and to real transfers of interests in property.
  • Protection depends on the home keeping homestead status and passing to heirs; a will directing a sale undoes it.

Our full write-up is on the Florida Lady Bird Deed and Medicaid page.

Sources: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p; Fla. Stat. §§ 409.910 and 409.9101; Art. X, § 4, Fla. Const. Medicaid eligibility rules are detailed and fact-specific. Nothing here is an eligibility determination.

Recording a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed

Deeds in Palm Beach County are recorded by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, Palm Beach County. This differs from Broward, where the Clerk does not record deeds and that function belongs to the county's Records, Taxes & Treasury Division.

The main recording counter is at 205 North Dixie Highway, Room 4.2500, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401, generally open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For Boynton Beach owners the nearest branch counter is usually the South County Courthouse, 200 West Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach. Other counters operate at the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens, the West County Courthouse in Belle Glade and the Royal Palm Beach branch.

Documents may also be mailed to the Clerk at P.O. Box 4177, West Palm Beach, Florida 33402-4177, or submitted through e-recording. A deed executed with an electronic signature can still be recorded on paper: under Fla. Stat. § 28.222(3)(h), where a county recorder is not prepared to accept electronic documents for electronic recording, the clerk may record a paper printout certified as a true and correct copy by a notary public.

The same office holds the Official Records, which is where you go to read the deed you already have. Searching is free.

Execution requirements

Florida requires a deed conveying an interest in real property to be signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses and acknowledged before a notary public (Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01 and 695.03). Both witnesses must be present and must sign.

Recording fees and documentary stamp tax

Recording charges are $10.00 for the first page, $8.50 for each additional page, and $1.00 per name indexed beyond four names. Palm Beach County applies the standard statewide documentary stamp rate of $0.70 per $100 of consideration on taxable deeds.

Whether the tax applies to this deed at all was addressed in Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (October 16, 2020), in which the Florida Department of Revenue concluded that an enhanced life estate deed is not subject to documentary stamp tax, because no present beneficial interest transfers when the deed is signed. A Technical Assistance Advisement binds the Department only as to the taxpayer and facts presented. Where the property carries a mortgage, the analysis turns on whether there is consideration.

Sources: Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, Palm Beach County, Recording and Official Records (205 N. Dixie Highway, Room 4.2500, West Palm Beach; South County Courthouse, 200 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach; hours; e-recording); Fla. Stat. § 28.222(3)(h) (recording certified paper printouts of instruments executed with electronic signatures); Fla. Stat. § 695.27 (electronic signatures); Florida Department of Revenue Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (Oct. 16, 2020); Fla. Stat. ch. 201; Fla. Stat. § 28.24(13) (statutory service charges); Fla. Stat. §§ 689.01, 695.03.

After a Death: What Your Family Actually Does

  1. Order certified death certificates

    From the Florida Department of Health. Order several: the Property Appraiser, the insurer, the association and any lender will each want one.

  2. Record one against the property

    Recorded in the Palm Beach County Official Records, this publicly establishes that the life estate has ended and the named beneficiaries hold title.

  3. Provide an affidavit if a title company asks

    On a sale or refinance, a title underwriter commonly wants an affidavit confirming identity, continuous marital status, and that the deed was never revoked. On an older deed they may also want confirmation of who the surviving beneficiaries are.

  4. Notify the insurer and the association

    Both need to know who owns and occupies the property.

  5. Apply for their own homestead exemption

    Your exemption does not transfer. A beneficiary who moves in applies in their own name with the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser.

  6. Decide together what happens next

    Multiple beneficiaries take undivided shares as tenants in common. Agreement is easier while everyone is still talking.

Routine, and far less work than a probate case. That is what a correctly drafted deed buys.

What a Lady Bird Deed Does Not Do

Common misconceptions, including several about deeds already recorded.
People assume it…Reality
Overrides an earlier life estate deedNo. A traditional life estate deed already gave away the remainder. A new deed on its own does not undo that.
Can be revoked whatever kind it isNo. Only the enhanced version is revocable by you alone.
Is what you have, because you were told soWhat was recorded governs, not what you were told. Read the instrument.
Covers the whole estateOnly the real property described in it. Accounts, vehicles and belongings are untouched.
Replaces a willNo. You still want a will for everything the deed does not cover.
Clears association liensNo. Recorded assessments and liens follow the property.
Passes your Save Our Homes cap to the kidsNo. It resets on the change of ownership at death.
Qualifies you for MedicaidNo. It may reduce estate recovery exposure on a homestead, but it does not create eligibility.
Handles a beneficiary who dies before youOnly if it was drafted to. A silent deed has to be construed by a court.

How a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed Compares to the Alternatives

General comparison for a Florida homestead. Note where the traditional life estate deed sits.
OptionAvoids probate?Do you keep control?Preserves stepped-up basis?Typical drawback
Enhanced life estate deedYes, for that propertyYes, completelyYesCovers only the property described in it.
Traditional life estate deedYesNo. Remaindermen must consent to sell.Not for the interest given awayGives up control without buying anything the alternatives lack.
Will onlyNoYesYesA Palm Beach County probate case on the house.
Revocable living trustYes, if fundedYesYesHigher cost, but it does things no deed can.
Deed the home to the kids nowYesNo. It is theirs.NoForfeits the step-up and exposes the home to their creditors and divorces.
Adding a child as joint ownerPartiallyPartiallyPartially lostCreates a present co-owner with veto power and creditor exposure.

Read the second row against the first. That is the entire argument of this page in one comparison. Our fuller breakdown is on the Florida Lady Bird Deed comparison page, and for what happens when a named beneficiary dies before you, see our Plantation page.

How to Get a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed

  1. Check whether you already have a deed

    And what kind. This comes first, because it changes everything that follows.

  2. Confirm the deed fits your goals

    How the property is titled, who you want to receive it, whether you are married, and whether there is a minor child.

  3. Pull the legal description and parcel control number

    Exactly as recorded in the Palm Beach County Official Records, plus the parcel control number from the Property Appraiser.

  4. Read the association documents

    Transfer approval, rights of first refusal, leasing restrictions and recorded assessments, all of which follow the property.

  5. Draft the enhanced life estate reservation

    Expressly reserving your power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without the beneficiaries' joinder or consent, and naming contingent takers.

  6. Sign with two witnesses and a notary

    Both witnesses present and signing. A married owner's spouse joins the deed on homestead property.

  7. Record with the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller

    In West Palm Beach, at the Delray Beach counter, by mail, or by e-recording.

  8. Keep it, and tell your beneficiaries

    Store the recorded deed with the rest of your papers and make sure the people named in it know it exists.

START WITH A CONSULTATION

Plain-English Glossary

Life estateThe right to use and occupy property for the rest of your life.
Traditional life estate deedA deed reserving a life estate with no reserved powers. You cannot sell or mortgage without every remainderman signing.
Enhanced life estate deedThe Lady Bird Deed. A life estate plus reserved powers to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without anyone's consent.
Reservation of powersThe clause that makes a life estate deed enhanced. Its presence or absence is the whole question.
JoinderSigning along with you. What a traditional life estate deed requires of every remainderman before you can sell.
RemaindermanA person named to receive the property. Under a traditional deed they own an interest now. Under an enhanced deed they own nothing until you die.
Vested remainderAn interest already owned now, taking possession later. It generally passes into that person's own estate if they die before you.
Completed giftA transfer the tax law treats as final. Recording a traditional life estate deed generally makes one of the remainder interest.
Curative or corrective deedAn instrument recorded to fix a problem in an earlier one. It only works with the cooperation of everyone who holds an interest.
Official RecordsThe county's recorded document index, held here by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. Free to search.
Stepped-up basisThe reset of cost basis to date-of-death value, which can eliminate accumulated capital gain on a later sale.
Save Our HomesThe constitutional cap limiting annual increases in assessed value of homestead property to 3% or CPI, whichever is lower.

Boynton Beach Communities We Serve

We prepare and review Lady Bird Deeds for property throughout Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County, including:

  • Leisureville
  • Sterling Village
  • Village Royale on the Green
  • Hunters Run
  • Indian Spring
  • Quail Ridge
  • Aberdeen
  • Valencia communities
  • Canyon Isles
  • Canyon Lakes
  • Boynton Lakes
  • Meadows 300
  • Golfview Harbour
  • Chapel Hill
  • Bent Tree
  • Lawrence Oaks
  • Renaissance Commons
  • Downtown Boynton Beach
  • Ocean Ridge border
  • Delray Beach border

Work With a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed Attorney

Yanitza Schoonover focuses her practice on probate administration and estate planning for Florida families. She helps Boynton Beach owners with:

  • Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed drafting, execution and recording
  • Reviewing life estate deeds recorded in earlier years
  • Corrective conveyances where an old deed no longer fits
  • Formal and summary probate administration


If you signed something years ago and are not certain what it was, bring it. Ten minutes with the recorded instrument will tell you whether you still control your own house, and if the answer is no, the sooner you know it the more can be done about it.

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Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed attorney Yanitza Schoonover

Yanitza Schoonover

Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed Frequently Asked Questions

How do I tell whether my life estate deed is the good kind?

Read the reservation. An enhanced life estate deed, the Lady Bird Deed, expressly reserves to the owner the power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke during life without the joinder or consent of the remaindermen. A traditional life estate deed reserves a life estate and stops there. On the page the two documents can look almost identical, often a single paragraph apart, but the difference decides whether you can sell your own house without asking your children. If you cannot find that reservation language, assume nothing and have the deed read.

What actually goes wrong with a traditional life estate deed?

You become a life tenant rather than an owner in the ordinary sense. You can live there for life, but you generally cannot sell, mortgage or grant an easement without every named remainderman signing. That is tolerable while everyone is alive, well and on good terms. It stops being tolerable when one has died and their own heirs must be found, when one is a minor and a court-appointed guardian is needed, when one lives abroad, when one is incapacitated, or when one simply says no. The moment you most need to sell, to fund care or to move closer to family, is exactly the moment the door is locked.

Can I just revoke it and start again?

No, and this is the hard part. A traditional life estate deed gave away the remainder interest when it was recorded. Those people own something now, not at your death, and you cannot take it back by yourself. Fixing it generally requires a conveyance back from every remainderman, or their joinder in a new deed, which means every one of them must be located, alive, competent and willing. Recording a new deed on your own over the top of the old one does not undo it, and can leave the record more tangled than before.

Are there tax and creditor problems too?

Often, yes, and they are the quieter half of the problem. Transferring a remainder interest is generally treated as a completed gift when the deed is recorded, which can carry a gift tax reporting obligation. Because the remaindermen own a present interest, that interest can be exposed to their creditors, their divorces and their bankruptcies while you are still living in the house. And because a real transfer occurred, the transaction can raise Medicaid look-back questions that an enhanced life estate deed would not. Confirm the tax treatment of your situation with a tax advisor.

Who was signing these deeds in Boynton Beach?

A great many people, over a long period. Boynton Beach has a large stock of older villa, condominium and active-adult housing, and a population where 22.5% are 65 or older. Deeds prepared decades ago from stationery-store forms, from software, or by well-meaning non-lawyers are common here, and so are deeds prepared correctly for a situation that has since changed entirely. The point of this page is not that old deeds are bad. It is that a deed you signed twenty years ago deserves ten minutes of reading now, while every option is still open.

What if a remainderman on my old deed has already died?

It depends what the deed says. If the remainder was vested, it generally passed into that person's own estate rather than lapsing, which can mean their heirs now hold the interest and their signatures are needed. If the deed named a class or used per stirpes language, the answer may be different. Either way it is a question of construing the document, and it is why the list of named remaindermen and what has happened to each of them is the first thing worth writing down. Our Plantation page covers what happens when a beneficiary dies first in more detail.

Is a Lady Bird Deed better in every case?

Not in every case, and it would be wrong to say so. An enhanced life estate deed keeps you in control and avoids probate on that property, which suits most owners passing a home to capable adults. But where a beneficiary is a minor or needs protecting, where you want to direct a sale and divide proceeds rather than hand several people a jointly owned house, or where property sits in more than one state, a trust does things no deed can do. What is nearly always true is that a traditional life estate deed is the worst of the available options, because it gives up control without buying anything the alternatives do not offer.

Where do I find my recorded deed?

In the Palm Beach County Official Records, maintained by the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. The records are searchable by name, and the last recorded deed for your property is the operative one. If you would rather not do it yourself, bring whatever paperwork you have to a consultation. Ten minutes with the recorded instrument answers the question, and the answer is either reassuring or worth knowing.

Where is a new Lady Bird Deed recorded in Palm Beach County?

With the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, Palm Beach County, which differs from Broward where deeds go to the county Records, Taxes & Treasury Division instead. The main recording counter is at 205 North Dixie Highway, Room 4.2500, West Palm Beach, generally open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, with branch counters at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach, the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens, the West County Courthouse in Belle Glade and the Royal Palm Beach branch. Documents may also be mailed or submitted through e-recording.

Do my beneficiaries get a stepped-up basis?

Under an enhanced life estate deed, generally yes. Because you keep the enhanced powers, the property remains in your gross estate at death, which normally produces a stepped-up cost basis. Under a traditional life estate deed the analysis is different for the remainder interest that was given away during your lifetime, which is one more reason the distinction between the two documents matters financially and not just practically. Confirm the treatment with a tax advisor.

Can a Boynton Beach Lady Bird Deed be changed or revoked later?

Yes, and that is the entire difference between the two instruments. Under a properly drafted enhanced life estate deed you can sell the property, refinance it, lease it, add or remove beneficiaries, or revoke the deed entirely without the consent of the people named to receive it. A new deed is prepared and recorded to make the change effective. Nothing you sign locks you out of your own home or requires you to ask permission later.

More general questions are answered on our Florida Lady Bird Deed FAQ page.

We also assist owners in nearby Palm Beach and Broward markets including West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Parkland, Coral Springs, and Fort Lauderdale. Browse every market on our areas we serve page.

Florida Lady Bird Deed Attorney Serves Homeowners Across Florida

We help homeowners throughout Florida with Lady Bird Deeds and probate avoidance planning. Below are many of the primary Florida markets we serve, but we're not limited to these locations. You can also browse the full Florida Lady Bird Deed city and county directory.

• Boca Raton • Boynton Beach • Cape Coral • Clearwater • Coral Springs • Davie • Daytona Beach • Deerfield Beach • Doral • Fort Lauderdale • Hallandale Beach • Hialeah • Hollywood • Homestead • Jacksonville • Kendall • Lauderdale Lakes • Miami • Miami Beach • Miramar • Orlando • Parkland • Pembroke Pines • Pine Hills • Plantation • Pompano Beach • Port Saint Lucie • Saint Petersburg • Sunrise • Tallahassee • Tampa • West Palm Beach • Weston

Legal disclaimer. This page is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Nothing here is an opinion on any particular recorded instrument. Whether a deed conveyed a vested remainder, and what may be done about it, depends on the wording of that document and the facts. Gift tax and income tax treatment vary; confirm with a qualified tax advisor. Recording locations, fees, tax rates and court procedures described were accurate as of August 2026 and should be confirmed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, Palm Beach County and the Florida Department of Revenue.

The Schoonover Law Firm, P.A. · Yanitza Schoonover, Attorney at Law · Licensed in Florida. Attorney advertising.