Montana Disclaimer of Interest (Transfer on Death Beneficiary)

A beneficiary named in a recorded Montana transfer on death deed can refuse the property instead of taking it, and Montana law says exactly how that refusal is delivered: by recording it. This form prepares a disclaimer of interest for one designated beneficiary of a Montana transfer on death deed, also searched as a TOD deed or beneficiary deed, made after the transferor's death, under the Montana Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act, MCA 72-2-817 through 72-2-833, as MCA 72-6-413 authorizes.

Recording the refusal is how it is delivered

Under MCA 72-2-821(3), a disclaimer is effective only if it is in writing, declares the disclaimer, describes the interest, is signed by the person making it, and is delivered or filed in the manner MCA 72-2-828 provides. For most disclaimers that means handing the writing to a personal representative or a trustee. A transfer on death deed is different. It is a nonprobate transfer at death, which MCA 72-2-828(1)(e) counts as a beneficiary designation, and it is revocable only while the transferor lives (MCA 72-6-405); once the transferor has died, MCA 72-2-828(7)(b) provides that a disclaimer of an interest in real property created by a beneficiary designation, made after the designation becomes irrevocable, must be recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county where the real property is located. The county clerk and recorder's stamp is the delivery. MCA 72-2-831 preserves an unrecorded disclaimer between the parties for other kinds of interests, and carves this one out by name.

The form states that rule on its face, above the first numbered section, so the one condition that makes the instrument work is not buried in a guide. The disclaimer becomes irrevocable when it is recorded or when it takes effect, whichever occurs later, under MCA 72-2-821(5).

What the disclaimant gives up, and where it goes

The operative section refuses, irrevocably and unqualifiedly, the interest in the described property that the deed would have passed to the disclaimant at the transferor's death. The disclaimant describes that interest in whole or in a stated part; MCA 72-2-821(4) allows a partial disclaimer expressed as a fraction, a percentage, or another interest or estate in the property. The form contains no blank for naming who takes instead, because a disclaimer under the act is not a transfer, assignment, or release (MCA 72-2-821(6)) and the disclaimed interest passes without any direction by the disclaimant. MCA 72-2-822 supplies the path: under any provision in the deed for a disclaimed interest, and otherwise as if the disclaimant had died immediately before the transferor, which brings the deed's alternate beneficiary designation, the substitute-gift rule of MCA 72-2-716, and the lapse rules of MCA 72-6-412 into play. The guide walks through that sequence with citations; the form leaves it to the statutes.

The form also carries the disclaimant's statements on the events MCA 72-2-829 lists as bars: that the disclaimant has not accepted the interest or its benefits, has not assigned, conveyed, encumbered, pledged, or transferred it or contracted to do so, and has not waived the right to disclaim in writing. Under MCA 72-2-829(6), a disclaimer that is barred takes effect as a transfer to the persons who would have taken under the act, so those statements sit beside the refusal they protect.

A form built for one beneficiary after the transferor's death

The form recites exactly one disclaimant, signing in an individual capacity, and one recorded transfer on death deed, identified by its transferor, the date of the deed, its recording date and document number, the county whose clerk recorded it, and the transferor's date of death. One signature block and one acknowledgment certificate follow the operative section. A deed naming two beneficiaries who both refuse presents two of these disclaimers, one per signer. A disclaimer made while the transferor is still living follows a different delivery rule, to the transferor under MCA 72-2-828(6), and a disclaimer signed by a personal representative, trustee, or agent under a power of attorney involves a representative signer and a representative acknowledgment; the form is not set up for either, and the guide says so.

Nothing on the form asks for the disclaimant's marital status, and no spouse signs. Montana has no community property regime and no tenancy by the entirety, dower and curtesy are abolished under MCA 72-2-122, and the disclaimant, who refuses the interest, conveys nothing to which the homestead joinder rule of MCA 70-32-301 could attach.

Signing, acknowledgment, and the county counter

The act's execution formality is the disclaimant's signature, with no acknowledgment or witness of its own, but the instrument has to be recorded to be delivered, and MCA 70-21-203 provides that an instrument's execution is acknowledged or proved before it is recorded. The form's acknowledgment certificate carries the Montana short form sentence of MCA 1-5-610(1), This record was acknowledged before me on, with venue lines the notarial officer completes for wherever the disclaimant actually appears. The page layout follows the Montana recording standards of MCA 7-4-2636: a 3 inch reserve at the top of the first page with the return name and address inside it, as MCA 7-4-2636(1)(f) places them, and 1 inch margins elsewhere. The recording fee under MCA 7-4-2637 is $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page for documents recorded on or after October 1, 2025, and the guide explains the Realty Transfer Certificate the person who takes the property files after the transferor's death.

The package includes the fillable disclaimer form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Gallatin County fact pattern, and the guide that describes every numbered section, the Montana statutes behind it, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing law in general terms; they are not legal advice.