Does Florida Have a Transfer on Death Deed?

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

Florida Transfer on Death Deed: The Real Answer

If you have lived in another state, or read estate planning articles written for a national audience, you have probably seen the transfer on death deed: a simple recorded deed that names who receives your home when you die, with no probate. It is a natural thing to search for once you own a home in Florida.

The answer surprises people. Florida does not have a transfer on death deed for real estate. The Legislature has never enacted one, and Florida has not adopted the uniform act that many other states use. What Florida has instead is the Lady Bird Deed, known formally as an enhanced life estate deed, which accomplishes the same result through a different legal route.

This guide explains where Florida law stands as of October 2026, how a Lady Bird Deed compares with the TOD deeds used elsewhere, what to do if you moved here from a TOD state, and which Florida assets can carry a transfer on death or payable on death designation.

Where Florida Law Stands in 2026

Florida has never enacted a statute creating a transfer on death deed for real property, and it is not among the states that have adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act. Legal commentators have urged Florida to adopt one for years, and some practitioners have proposed legislation, but nothing has passed.

That remained true through the 2026 session. The Legislature made meaningful probate changes this year, most notably raising the summary administration ceiling to $150,000 under Fla. Stat. § 735.201 for decedents who die on or after July 1, 2026. It did not create a transfer on death deed for Florida land.

Part of the reason is practical. Florida already had a tool that works. The enhanced life estate deed has been used in Florida since the early 1980s, the nickname is generally traced to Florida attorney Jerome Ira Solkoff, and Florida courts recognized life estates coupled with a power to sell as early as Oglesby v. Lee (Fla. 1917). Title insurers, lenders and county recording offices across the state are familiar with it.

Sources: Fla. Stat. § 735.201 (as amended effective July 1, 2026); Oglesby v. Lee (Fla. 1917).

What a Transfer on Death Deed Is in Other States

In states that allow one, a transfer on death deed (sometimes called a beneficiary deed) is a deed the owner signs and records during life that names who will receive the property at death. The core features are similar from state to state:

• It is created by statute. The state legislature defines the form, the signing formalities and the effect.

• The beneficiary gets nothing during the owner’s life. No present interest, no signature needed to sell or mortgage.

• It is revocable. The owner can change or cancel it, usually by recording a new instrument.

• It must be recorded before death. An unrecorded TOD deed found in a drawer is generally ineffective.

• The statute governs what happens after death, including how the beneficiary proves the transfer and, in many versions, whether the beneficiary can be made to answer for the deceased owner’s unpaid debts.

Examples include Texas (Estates Code chapter 114), Arizona’s beneficiary deed, California’s revocable transfer on death deed, and Ohio’s transfer on death designation affidavit. New York joined the list in 2024 when it added Real Property Law § 424. Each state’s version has its own rules, and none of them reaches land located in Florida.

That last point matters. Who receives real property at death, and what instrument can transfer it, is governed by the law of the state where the land sits. A New York transfer on death deed can move a house in Westchester. It cannot move a condominium in Boca Raton.

The Lady Bird Deed: Florida’s Functional Equivalent

A Lady Bird Deed reaches the same destination as a TOD deed by a different road. Instead of a statute that says “this property passes at death,” the deed is a present conveyance in which you reserve to yourself an enhanced life estate and name remainder beneficiaries who take whatever is left when you die.

The enhancement is what makes it work. You reserve the power to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without the consent of the beneficiaries. Because those powers are reserved, the beneficiaries’ interest is only what remains if you still own the property at death. In practical terms, they have no say during your lifetime, which is exactly how a TOD deed behaves elsewhere.

At death, the property passes to the named beneficiaries automatically. There is no probate case for that property, no personal representative, and no court order needed to transfer it.

Why the drafting matters more without a statute

A TOD deed statute supplies the rules when a deed is silent. A Lady Bird Deed does not have that safety net, so the deed itself has to do the work. The reservation of powers must be clear. Contingent beneficiaries should be named in case a primary beneficiary dies first. The deed has to account for Florida homestead law, which requires a married owner’s spouse to join a conveyance of homestead and restricts how homestead passes when an owner is survived by a spouse or minor child (Art. X, § 4, Fla. Const.).

A deed that reserves only a plain life estate, without the enhanced powers, is a different instrument entirely. It gives the beneficiaries a present interest, and you would need their signatures to sell or refinance. That is the most common defect we see in forms downloaded from the internet. Our comparison of Lady Bird Deeds, wills, trusts and quitclaim deeds covers the broader choice.

Transfer on Death Deed vs. Florida Lady Bird Deed

Where the Lady Bird Deed has an edge in Florida

The biggest practical difference is Medicaid 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 Florida defines that estate 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.

Some states that use TOD deeds have expanded estate recovery to reach non-probate transfers, and some TOD statutes expressly allow the deceased owner’s creditors to reach the property if the probate estate is not enough. Those rules do not apply to your Florida home. Our Lady Bird Deed and Medicaid page covers the limits, including the five-year look-back for other transfers.

Documentary stamp tax

In Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (October 16, 2020), 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.

Sources: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p; Fla. Stat. §§ 409.910 and 409.9101; Florida Department of Revenue Technical Assistance Advisement 20B4-004 (Oct. 16, 2020).

If You Moved to Florida From a TOD State

Florida has a large population of people who spent most of their lives somewhere else, and many of them already used a transfer on death deed back home. Three situations come up again and again.

You sold the old house and bought in Florida

The TOD deed you recorded in your former state did its job only for that property. Once the house was sold, the deed had nothing left to transfer. Your Florida home needs its own Florida instrument. Without one, it passes under your will or Florida intestacy law, which means a Florida probate case.

You kept property in your former state

A valid TOD deed on property in another state generally keeps working for that property even after you become a Florida resident, because that state’s law governs its land. It is worth confirming with a lawyer in that state, but you usually do not need to undo it. The planning goal is coordination: a TOD deed there, a Lady Bird Deed here, and a will that agrees with both.

Without that coordination, a Florida resident who dies owning real estate elsewhere can face a second probate case in that state, usually called ancillary administration. The reverse is also true: a nonresident who dies owning Florida land without a Lady Bird Deed or trust typically needs ancillary administration in Florida (Fla. Stat. § 734.102).

You found a “Florida TOD deed” form online

Some national form websites sell documents labelled as transfer on death deeds for every state. For Florida, these forms are either mislabelled Lady Bird Deeds or instruments with no basis in Florida law. Do not record one. If you already have, have it reviewed. A defective deed usually surfaces only after death, when it can no longer be fixed by the person who signed it.

Florida Assets That Can Carry a TOD or POD Designation

Florida is not hostile to transfer on death planning. It simply handles real estate differently. Several other asset types can pass directly to a named beneficiary without probate.

Bank and brokerage accounts

A Florida bank account can be made payable on death to one or more beneficiaries under Fla. Stat. § 655.82. You keep full control during life and the beneficiary has no rights until your death. Brokerage accounts, stocks and bonds can be registered in transfer on death form under Florida’s Uniform Transfer-on-Death Security Registration Act, Fla. Stat. §§ 711.50 to 711.512. Both are handled with the institution’s own form.

Vehicles

This is where people are most often misinformed. A Florida certificate of title does not offer a transfer on death beneficiary designation. Florida instead provides other routes. A vehicle titled to two owners joined by “or” passes to the survivor, and Fla. Stat. § 319.28 provides procedures for a surviving spouse or heirs to retitle a vehicle through the county tax collector, in many cases without a full probate case. If someone tells you to “put a TOD on the car title” in Florida, ask them which form they mean.

Putting it together

For many Florida households, the combination of a Lady Bird Deed on the home, POD and TOD designations on accounts, current beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and insurance, and a simple will as a backstop keeps most or all of the estate out of probate. What is left, if anything, may qualify for summary administration, which for deaths on or after July 1, 2026 is available where non-exempt probate assets do not exceed $150,000.

The weak spot in that plan is usually the forgotten account or the beneficiary who died first. Review designations whenever your family changes.

Mistakes People Make Looking for a Florida TOD Deed

The last mistake deserves its own discussion. If you are weighing a deed to your children now against a Lady Bird Deed, see our guide to the Lady Bird Deed vs. a quitclaim deed.

How to Put Florida’s Version in Place

1. Confirm how the property is titled

   Individually, jointly with a spouse, in a trust, or in an entity. A Lady Bird Deed is signed by the current owners of record, so the titling decides who signs.

2. Choose beneficiaries and backups

   Primary beneficiaries, their shares, and contingent beneficiaries if a primary beneficiary dies first.

3. Check homestead status

   If the property is your homestead and you are married, your spouse joins the deed. If you have a minor child, the homestead rules need to be reviewed before drafting.

4. Pull the vesting deed

   The new deed must carry the exact legal description from the last recorded deed in the county Official Records, plus the parcel or folio number.

5. Draft the enhanced life estate reservation

   The reserved powers to sell, convey, mortgage, lease and revoke without the beneficiaries’ consent are what make the deed work like a TOD deed.

6. Sign with two witnesses and a notary

   Both witnesses present and signing, with the deed acknowledged before a notary public. Remote online notarization is available for many clients.

7. Record in the county where the property sits

   Recording fees are $10.00 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page. In most counties the Clerk of the Circuit Court records deeds; in Broward County it is the Records, Taxes and Treasury Division.

Our flat fee is $595 for deed preparation, plus $24.85 in recording costs on a typical deed, for $619.85 in total. Details are on our pricing page.

What Your Family Does After a Death

In a TOD state, the beneficiary typically records a death certificate or an affidavit to show the transfer has happened. The Florida process after a Lady Bird Deed is very similar.

1. Order certified death certificates

   Institutions want certified copies, not photocopies.

2. Record one in the county Official Records

   This publicly establishes that the life estate has ended and the named beneficiaries now hold title.

3. Provide an affidavit if a title company asks

   On a later sale or refinance, a title underwriter commonly wants an affidavit confirming identity, continuous marital status, and that the deed was never revoked.

4. Update the property appraiser, insurer and association

   The homestead exemption ends with the owner, and the property is reassessed as of January 1 following the change of ownership.

What is not on the list: a probate petition, a personal representative, or a creditor claim period for that property. Our guide to what happens after the owner dies walks through each step in more detail.

Related Guides

Each of these answers one question a Florida homeowner usually asks right after this one.

• Lady Bird Deed vs. quitclaim deed: why deeding the house to your children now usually costs more than it saves

• Selling or refinancing with a Lady Bird Deed: what lenders and title companies actually ask for

• Lady Bird Deeds and capital gains: how the stepped-up basis works, with a worked example

• After the owner dies: the recording and affidavit steps your beneficiaries follow

• Revoking or changing a Lady Bird Deed: how to update beneficiaries without their consent

• Lady Bird Deed vs. will, trust or quitclaim: the four main options compared side by side

Browse every topic on our Florida Lady Bird Deed guides page.