Stearns County Transfer on Death Deed Form

A Minnesota transfer on death deed names who receives real property when its owner dies, without probate and without giving anything up during life. This form prepares that deed under Minnesota Statutes, section 507.071, for one or two grantor owners, with the insurance warnings section 507.072 has required on every TOD deed recorded since August 1, 2024.

A deed that is valid only if recorded before death

Under section 507.071, subdivision 8, a transfer on death deed is valid if it is recorded, before the death of the grantor owner upon whose death the transfer takes effect, in a county where at least part of the property is located. A deed that is signed and notarized but still in a drawer at that death transfers nothing. Until then the deed changes nothing about title, and the owner keeps every power to sell, mortgage, or lease.

The statutory form's own words

Section 507.071, subdivision 24, publishes a form, and this deed uses its operative sentence verbatim: the grantor owner conveys and quitclaims to the grantee beneficiary effective on the death of the grantor owner, if only one grantor is named, or on the death of the last of the grantor owners to die, if more than one is named. The statutory form also prints one optional statement with one box, the after-acquired property election of subdivision 21; the deed prints that statement exactly as the statute does, with its box unmarked, and the guide describes what the statute provides either way.

Two owners, one deed, one later death

Where two owners hold as joint tenants, section 507.071, subdivision 6, moves the transfer to the death of the last surviving grantor owner, and the deed's sentence states that trigger in the statute's words. A surviving joint tenant who did not sign prevails over the beneficiary, which is why the form provides for both owners to sign. Two tenants in common present a different picture, because subdivision 14 voids the deed as to property the grantor owner no longer owned at death; the guide describes that consequence.

Who signs, and the spouse who is not an owner

The form carries a free-form grantor owner block and two signature blocks, OWNER and SECOND OWNER, each with its own acknowledgment certificate. Section 507.02 provides that no conveyance of a married owner's homestead is valid without both spouses' signatures, and section 507.071 makes the transfer on death deed subject to that rule while excluding from the term grantor owner a spouse who joins only to release marital interests. The deed therefore carries a separate joining-spouse section and signature block, with a fixed sentence identifying the capacity in which that spouse signs, so the spouse's signature never reads as a second owner's. When both spouses own the property, both sign as owners and the joining-spouse section reads None.

What the configuration recites

This is the base configuration of the Minnesota TOD deed: one or two natural persons as grantor owners, one or more grantee beneficiaries of any class the statute permits, whether individuals, the trustee of a revocable or testamentary trust, or a qualified entity, and no preprinted statement about marital status or form of co-ownership beyond the statutory trigger sentence itself. A widowed parent naming adult children, and spouses holding a home in joint tenancy, present the one-owner and two-owner patterns this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed signed by an entity, a trustee, or an attorney-in-fact, nor for three or more owners on either side.

The warnings the 2024 amendment added

Since August 1, 2024, a Minnesota transfer on death deed contains two warnings under section 507.072, subdivision 7: one to the grantor owner, that temporary extended fire and casualty coverage after death exists only if the owner has notified the insurer of the deed and of every beneficiary's name and contact information, and one to the grantee beneficiary, that coverage is not to be presumed to continue after the owner's death. After the owner's death, a county agency clearance certificate and an affidavit of identity and survivorship follow, each recorded separately and not included in this package.

The package includes the fillable transfer on death deed, a completed example filled in for a realistic Hennepin County fact pattern, and the guide that walks through every numbered section, the signing rules, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.