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Valor Tax Relief Team
Estate planning articles
Published: October 2, 2026
Last Updated: October 2, 2026
The Short Answer
A transfer on death deed, often called a TOD deed, names who takes a house when you die. You keep full title while you are alive. At death, that parcel typically passes without probate. It does not name a person who can sell the house if you are in the hospital. It does not retitle your brokerage account.
Valor does not sell TOD deeds. A living trust plus funding is the product that covers incapacity and more than one asset. This page is so TOD search does not get a trust brochure with the wrong name.
How the Statute Works
Many states adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, or a close cousin. Texas Estates Code Chapter 114 is the Texas version: you record a deed that names a beneficiary, you can revoke it, and title does not move until death. Other states use their own chapter numbers. Some states still have no TOD deed at all.
Witness and notarization rules are in the statute. A kitchen signature can fail. A TOD deed is not a lady bird deed. What is a lady bird deed is the enhanced life estate used in Florida practice and in Michigan statute. Do not mix the forms.
TOD Deed vs Living Trust
TOD deed
- One parcel
- Works at death
- You keep title now
- No successor manager
- Not a Valor SKU
Funded living trust
- House plus accounts you retitle
- Works during incapacity and at death
- Trustee holds title now
- Successor can act
- Valor prepares this
The CFPB says a living trust is ineffective until you transfer property in. A TOD deed never transfers until death. That is the incapacity gap. How to avoid probate puts both tools on one list.
Limits on the Form
Mortgage due-on-sale clauses and HOA rules still apply. Recording a TOD deed is not permission to ignore the loan.
A later will does not usually override a valid TOD deed on that parcel. Beneficiary designations beat the will on accounts too.
You can typically revoke a TOD deed while you are alive by recording a new instrument the statute allows.
Joint tenancy is a different shortcut. Adding a child to a deed now can be a gift. A TOD deed waits until death. Neither one is a funded trust.
Ramon’s Cabin
Ramon records a TOD deed on a Texas cabin. He names his sister. He has a stroke. The cabin is still his. His sister cannot list it for sale on the TOD paper. She also cannot touch his checking account. A successor trustee on a funded trust could have paid the tax bill and the caregiver. The TOD deed only helps after he dies, and only for that cabin.
If the cabin is one asset in a larger set, start with trust formation. If you only wanted the death transfer on that parcel, that is a local TOD form, not our SKU.
If two beneficiaries are named and one dies first, the statute says who takes the share. Do not assume it pours to the survivor unless the deed says so. Read the beneficiary line the same way you would read an IRA form. A funded trust can name contingent shares in one place instead of a new deed for every change.
How Valor Helps
We prepare the revocable living trust and the funding deeds. We do not prepare TOD deeds. We do not host a Texas PDF. Living trust on a house is the recorder path we do use: deed to you as trustee.
Fees are quoted before you hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Incapacity Coverage Too?
A TOD deed is death-only. A funded living trust names a successor who can act if you cannot. Request a consult.
Request a consult