Covington County Transfer on Death Deed (Sole Owner, Multiple Beneficiaries (Unequal Shares)) Form

A Mississippi transfer on death deed can divide a home among several people in whatever proportions the owner chooses, because the statute's equal-share rule applies only where the deed says nothing else. This fillable form prepares that deed, under Miss. Code Ann. Section 91-27-1 et seq., for one owner who holds Mississippi real property alone and designates two or more beneficiaries to take it at the owner's death in unequal shares stated on the deed itself.

Where the unequal shares come from

Section 91-27-27(5) provides that concurrent interests pass to the beneficiaries in equal and undivided shares with no right of survivorship. The sentence that opens Section 91-27-27 applies every rule in the section except as otherwise provided in the transfer on death deed, so the equal division is a default, not a mandate. This deed is the instrument that provides otherwise. Section 4 lists each designated beneficiary beside an undivided share the owner sets, as a fraction or a percentage, and Section 8 states in the deed's own words that the beneficiaries take in those shares and not in equal shares, and that the shares together make up the whole of the interest transferred. A half to one child and a quarter to each of two others, or sixty, thirty, and ten percent across three people, is written on the recorded deed rather than left to a later argument about what the owner meant.

What happens to a share that fails

The deed fixes the shares and nothing more; the chapter supplies the rest. Under Section 91-27-27(4) each designated beneficiary's interest is contingent on surviving the owner, and the interest of one who does not survive lapses. Under Section 91-27-27(5) the lapsed share passes to the other designated beneficiaries in proportion to the interest of each in the remaining part of the property, so a sixty-thirty-ten division in which the ten percent beneficiary dies first leaves the survivors holding two thirds and one third of the whole. The form prints no survivorship provision and no alternate beneficiary, and it invents no substitute rule; where no designated beneficiary survives, the deed transfers nothing and the property passes under the owner's will or by intestacy. A beneficiary who prefers not to take a share may disclaim it under Section 91-27-31.

One owner, one signature, one certificate

The instrument recites a single owner who holds the property alone, and it prints that configuration as deed text: Section 8 states that the owner named in Section 1 is the sole owner of the property described in Section 5. The owner signs once, and a single acknowledgment certificate in the Section 89-3-7(2) short form follows the signature. Section 91-27-11 sends execution to Mississippi's acknowledgment statutes rather than the formalities of a will, Section 25-34-15 requires the owner to appear personally before the notarial officer, and Section 91-27-15 sets the capacity at that required to make a contract while barring an agent from making the deed unless the power of attorney specifically allows it. No subscribing witness signs a Mississippi deed that is acknowledged.

Nothing moves until death, and nothing moves without recording

Section 91-27-23 provides that during the owner's life the recorded deed does not affect the right to sell or encumber the property, does not disturb homestead rights or ad valorem tax exemptions, and gives the beneficiaries no legal or equitable interest. The deed is revocable under Section 91-27-21 by a later recorded transfer on death deed or an instrument of revocation, each prepared and recorded separately and not part of this package, and a will does not revoke it. Section 91-27-17(3) is the rule that decides whether the deed works at all: it must be recorded before the owner's death in the official records of the chancery clerk of the county where the property lies. The form prints that requirement in capital letters at the head of Section 8, and at the owner's death Section 91-27-29 passes each share subject to the mortgages, liens, and other interests then affecting the property.

Laid out for the chancery clerk's first page

Mississippi's recording statute, Section 89-5-24(2), puts the preparer's name, address, and telephone number, the name, mailing address, and telephone number of every party to the instrument, the return address, the title, and the legal description or indexing instruction on the first page below the three inch recording band. This deed places all of that on recorded page one: the return and preparer blocks, the owner's name, mailing address, and the business and residential telephone numbers Section 27-3-51 requires, an eight line block for the designated beneficiaries with the same contact data for each, and the indexing instruction Section 89-5-33(3) requires for the clerk's sectional index. The share schedule and the legal description open the second page, where the statute's own continuation sentence sends a description that does not fit the first. The body prints at twelve point over the ten point statutory minimum, and the chancery clerk's fee under Section 25-7-9 is $25.00 for the first five pages; Mississippi collects no transfer tax on the deed.

The configuration this deed recites

This is the sole-owner, unequal-share configuration of the Mississippi transfer on death deed, also searched as a TOD deed or beneficiary deed: one natural-person owner signing in that person's own right, married or unmarried, with no second owner block and no status fixed by the form; a beneficiary block that receives two or more designated beneficiaries of any class Section 91-27-3(d) allows, including an individual, a trust, or an entity; a four row share schedule; one signature block; and one acknowledgment certificate. A parent dividing a house among children in proportions that account for earlier gifts, an owner naming a child and a grandchild in different percentages, and an owner leaving a larger part to a relative and a smaller part to a charitable organization present the pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as a deed for two or more owners, for an owner who holds with another person as a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, for a trustee or entity owner, for an agent under a power of attorney, for a single beneficiary, for beneficiaries taking equal shares, or for a designation of alternate beneficiaries.

The package includes the fillable Mississippi transfer on death deed, a completed example filled in for an unmarried owner in Madison County dividing a platted lot among three beneficiaries in shares of fifty, thirty, and twenty percent, and the guide that explains each numbered section, the acknowledgment certificate, the spousal and homestead statutes that bear on a sole owner's deed, and recording at the chancery clerk's office. This description and the guide explain the form and the statutes behind it in general terms; neither is legal advice.