Smith County Transfer on Death Deed (Married Sole Owner) Form

One spouse on the title, one signature on the deed. This Kansas transfer on death deed is prepared for a married owner who holds real estate in that owner's name alone and names who takes it at death, outside probate, under K.S.A. 59-3501 through 59-3507; it is also searched for as a Kansas TOD deed or beneficiary deed for a married person.

Title in one name, and what that means at signing

Section 1 of the deed prints the configuration as deed text: the owner named below is a married person and the sole owner of the interest in real estate described in Section 4, and the owner's spouse is not a record owner of that interest. The owner alone signs, in Section 5, and one acknowledgment certificate in the Kansas short form of K.A.R. 7-43-17 follows; the deed carries no spouse signature line, consent line, or joinder. An owner who inherited a farmhouse before a second marriage and names an adult child from the first, and an owner whose name alone is on a purchase deed and who names the spouse, each present the pattern this deed recites.

What Kansas gives the spouse anyway

Signing alone does not change what Kansas law gives a surviving spouse. K.S.A. 59-505 entitles a surviving spouse to one-half of all real estate the decedent was seized or possessed of at any time during the marriage and to whose disposition the survivor did not consent in writing, by will, or by election. The elective share of K.S.A. 59-6a201 and following measures a percentage of an augmented estate that, under K.S.A. 59-6a205(a)(3), counts the decedent's ownership interest in property passing to another at death to the extent it passed to someone other than the estate or the surviving spouse. The Kansas Constitution, article 15, section 9, with K.S.A. 60-2301, bars alienation of the occupied homestead without the joint consent of husband and wife; this deed transfers no ownership until the owner's death and makes no statement about the homestead. The deed neither enlarges nor cuts off those rights; it states a beneficiary designation and leaves them where the statutes put them.

One beneficiary or several, and a named alternate

Section 2 takes one or more grantee beneficiaries, each by name and mailing address, the designation K.S.A. 59-3501(a) describes; the block is set up for natural persons. Section 3 is optional: its printed sentence designates an alternative grantee beneficiary to succeed to the interest of a beneficiary who dies before the owner, the designation K.S.A. 59-3504(c)(1) looks for before a transfer lapses. With no alternative named, K.S.A. 59-3504(c)(2) vests a predeceased beneficiary's share in that beneficiary's surviving issue per stirpes, and where there are no issue the transfer as to that beneficiary lapses.

The statutory sentence and the legend

Section 4 carries the operative words of the K.S.A. 59-3502 form: the owner as owner transfers on death to the grantee beneficiary, as grantee beneficiary, the described interest in real estate. The county and legal description follow, then the legend in capitals stating that nothing passes until the owner dies, that the deed can be revoked, and that it replaces every earlier designation by this owner for this interest. K.S.A. 59-3503 lets the owner revoke by a recorded instrument or replace the designation with a later recorded deed, and a will cannot do either; a revocation instrument is prepared and recorded separately and is not included in this package.

Recording before death, in the county where the land lies

The deed works only if it is on record while the owner lives: K.S.A. 59-3502 titles the interest in transfer-on-death form by executing, acknowledging, and recording the deed in the office of the register of deeds in the county where the land sits, before the owner dies. Kansas collects no transfer tax; the K.S.A. 28-115 fees apply, and the Department of Revenue's Directive #19-041 places a transfer on death deed outside the sales validation questionnaire because nothing passes at filing. After the owner's death the beneficiary completes the county record with evidence of the death, an affidavit of death prepared and recorded separately and not included in this package.

The package includes the fillable deed with its non-recorded instructions page, a completed example on a Douglas County fact pattern, and a guide covering each section, the signing formalities, the spouse's statutory rights, and recording. This description and the guide describe the form and the Kansas statutes in general terms and are not legal advice.