Transfer-on-Death Deed Requirements in Montana

At a glance

Montana's Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, Mont. Code Ann. §§ 72-6-401 to -418, including § 72-6-404, lets an individual transfer Montana real property at death while keeping full ownership and control during life.

Signing and recording

Under § 72-6-407, the owner needs will-making capacity. § 72-6-408 requires a deed containing the elements and formalities of a properly recordable lifetime deed. It must say that the transfer occurs at death. Under § 70-21-203, the ordinary route is for the owner to acknowledge execution before a notarial officer; Montana recording law also permits notarized proof by a subscribing witness. The TOD Act itself adds no separate witness count.

The deed must be recorded before death with the county clerk and recorder where the property is located. There is no separate deadline measured from signing. Montana's optional form instructs an owner whose property crosses county lines to record in each affected county.

Revoking it

The deed is always revocable under § 72-6-405. Under § 72-6-410, the owner may record a later inconsistent TOD deed, an express revocation instrument, or a lifetime deed that expressly revokes the TOD deed. The revoking instrument must be acknowledged after the original and recorded before death. Writing on, tearing up, or destroying the recorded deed does not revoke it, and a will cannot substitute for the recorded methods.

Each owner may revoke the transfer of that owner's own interest. A TOD deed made by joint owners is revoked as a joint-owner deed only when all living joint owners revoke it.

Beneficiaries and co-owners

Montana generally requires the beneficiary to survive the owner by 120 hours under § 72-2-712. A failed beneficiary share normally lapses, and a failed concurrent share passes proportionately to the surviving co-beneficiaries. But § 72-2-716(2) supplies an anti-lapse rule for a beneficiary who is the owner's grandparent, descendant of a grandparent, or stepchild and leaves surviving descendants, unless an effective alternate designation supersedes it.

Under § 72-6-412, multiple beneficiaries otherwise take equal undivided shares without survivorship. A surviving joint owner's right of survivorship comes first; the TOD deed becomes effective for the last surviving joint owner. The beneficiary takes subject to mortgages, liens, contracts, and other interests affecting the property at death, without title warranty.

Creditor and Medicaid reach

During life, §§ 72-6-411 to -412 preserve the owner's creditor exposure and public-assistance eligibility, while giving the beneficiary no present interest. After death, §§ 72-6-414 and 72-6-112 make a TOD beneficiary liable when the probate estate is insufficient to pay allowed claims or spouse and child allowances. Liability is capped at the value received, requires the statutory demand process, and ordinarily must be pursued within one year after death.

Montana Medicaid has a separate, broad recovery statute. § 53-6-167(2), (4)-(5), (9) reaches property a recipient owned immediately before death that passes to a beneficiary through a trust or other nonprobate arrangement. Recovery is capped at the lesser of medical assistance paid or the value received, and an action generally must begin within three years after the later of death or estate closing. Recovery is delayed while a protected spouse or qualifying child survives, and undue-hardship relief may apply.

What trips people up

• Cross-county land needs cross-county recording. Use each affected county's land records.
• A later will does not revoke the deed. Revocation must use a recorded instrument.
• Old beneficiary deeds are not automatically lost. § 72-6-417 preserves a deed executed and recorded before October 1, 2019, if it complied with the law then in effect.
• Probate avoidance is not debt avoidance. Estate creditors and Medicaid may still reach the value transferred.

Common questions

Can I name a trust or business as beneficiary? Yes. Under § 72-6-402(3)-(7), the transferor must be an individual, but the Act's definition of a beneficiary's eligible "person" includes trusts, estates, corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and other entities.

Does the beneficiary have to sign or accept during my lifetime? No. § 72-6-409 says the deed works without lifetime notice, delivery, acceptance, or consideration.

Statutes and sources

• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 72-6-401 to -418 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0720/chapter_0060/part_0040/sections_index.html (accessed 2026-07-12)
• Mont. Code Ann. § 70-21-203 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/2017/mca/title_0700/chapter_0210/part_0020/section_0030/0700-0210-0020-0030.html (accessed 2026-07-12)
• Mont. Code Ann. §§ 72-2-712, -716 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0720/chapter_0020/part_0070/sections_index.html (accessed 2026-07-12)
• Mont. Code Ann. § 72-6-112 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0720/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0120/0720-0060-0010-0120.html (accessed 2026-07-12)
• Mont. Code Ann. § 53-6-167 — https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0530/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0670/0530-0060-0010-0670.html (accessed 2026-07-12)