What to Know About Transfer-on-Death Securities and Deeds

Certain types of assets in your estate may contain transfer-on-death designations. Some examples include securities and deeds to certain types of properties.

Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about these assets when they have a transfer-on-death (or “TOD”) designation.

Transfer-on-death securities

The Uniform TOD Securities Registration Act allows securities holders to name someone who can inherit their bonds, stocks, mutual funds, brokerage accounts and other securities upon their death without those assets having to pass through probate. This works in a way that very much resembles a payable on death bank account. Upon opening an account to establish ownership, you should consider naming a beneficiary to inherit the asset upon your death to avoid probate.

Note that your chosen beneficiary has no right to any of your securities while you are alive.

Transfer-on-death deeds

TOD deeds allow you to execute a deed now that will immediately transfer ownership of real property upon your death. The deed will explicitly state This allows you to pass real estate on to a beneficiary without it having to go through the probate process.

Interested in learning more about how you can use deeds as part of your estate planning? We encourage you to contact our trusted estate planning attorneys at BaumannKangas Estate Law.