Montana Transfer on Death Deed (Sole Owner, One Individual Beneficiary)

One owner, one name, one signature. This Montana transfer on death deed is built for the simplest designation the Montana Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act allows: a single owner who holds the property alone names a single beneficiary, a natural person, to receive it at the owner's death. The deed text fixes that configuration, the owner's name and the beneficiary's name and address are the blanks, and the form prepares the instrument for one owner of Montana real property under MCA 72-6-401 through 72-6-418, sometimes searched as a TOD deed or, under the pre-2019 Montana term, a beneficiary deed.

What the deed fixes and what it leaves blank

Section 1 opens with a recital that the owner named below is the sole owner of the property and makes the deed in the owner's own right as an individual; the printed name and mailing address follow. Section 5 recites that the beneficiary named below is an individual and the only beneficiary designated in the deed, then carries the designation sentence of the MCA 72-6-415 statutory form word for word: I designate the following beneficiary if the beneficiary survives me. Section 6 states the transfer at the owner's death to that one beneficiary and the statutory form's own sentence that before death the owner has the right to revoke the deed. Nothing is preprinted about marital status, because a Montana owner who holds record title alone is the sole owner this form describes whether married or unmarried; the guide sets out the declared-homestead statute beside the act's rule that the deed affects no interest during life.

Why a single beneficiary changes the survival question

Under MCA 72-6-412(1)(b) the beneficiary's interest is contingent on surviving the owner, and MCA 72-2-712, which the act applies to the deed, treats survival by less than 120 hours as not surviving. A deed naming several beneficiaries has the statute's own fallback: a lapsed share passes to the others in proportion to their interests. A deed naming one beneficiary and no alternate has none. If the named person does not survive, the designation lapses, the deed transfers nothing, and the property remains part of the owner's estate. The form does not hide that result behind an alternate block; it states one beneficiary, and the guide describes what the statute does when that beneficiary is gone. An owner who later wants a different or additional beneficiary records a new deed, acknowledged after this one and recorded before death, which revokes this deed to the extent of the inconsistency under MCA 72-6-410.

Nothing happens until recording, and nothing until death

MCA 72-6-408 makes recording before the owner's death, in the office of the clerk and recorder of the county where the property lies, a condition of the deed's effectiveness, and the deed prints the statutory form's notice to the owner stating exactly that. Once recorded, the deed still does nothing during the owner's life: under MCA 72-6-411 the owner keeps every right to sell, mortgage, lease, or give the property away, the beneficiary acquires no interest and the beneficiary's creditors cannot reach the land, and the owner can revoke at any time by a recorded instrument. At death the beneficiary takes the interest the owner then holds, subject to every mortgage, lien, and other interest affecting the property at that moment, and without covenant or warranty of title (MCA 72-6-412). If the owner has sold the property by then, there is nothing for the deed to transfer.

What this configuration recites

The form recites exactly one record owner and exactly one individual beneficiary, and it carries one signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the Montana short form of MCA 1-5-610(1), with a marked area sized for the Montana notary's rectangular official stamp. A parent naming one adult child, an owner naming a sibling, and an owner naming an unmarried partner present the one-owner, one-beneficiary pattern this deed recites. The form is not set up as an instrument for two or more record owners, for a corporation, limited liability company, or trustee holding title, for an agent signing under a power of attorney, for two or more beneficiaries, for an alternate beneficiary, or for a trust or charity as beneficiary; those configurations follow different patterns. One Montana trap the guide treats at length is MCA 70-1-314, under which an interest held by several persons, including spouses, is a tenancy in common unless declared a joint interest: an owner who appears on the vesting deed beside anyone else is a co-owner, not the sole owner this form recites.

Built to Montana's recording standards

The layout follows MCA 7-4-2636: white letter size paper, three inches reserved at the top of the first page, the return name and address placed in that reserve's upper left corner as the statute directs, one-inch margins on every other edge, and a 12-point body. The beneficiary block takes a mailing address; under MCA 7-4-2618 the clerk and recorder may not receive a deed for recording unless the grantee's post-office address appears in it. Three recorded pages follow the instructions cover page, which is removed before recording; under MCA 7-4-2637 as amended in 2025 the clerk and recorder charges $20 for the first page and $10 for each additional page. The Department of Revenue's materials state that no Realty Transfer Certificate is required when a transfer on death deed is first recorded; the certificate, the certified death certificate, and the water right ownership update belong to the beneficiary's filing after the owner's death, which is prepared separately and is not part of this package.

The package contains three items: the fillable Montana transfer on death deed with its instructions cover page, a completed example prepared for a Gallatin County owner naming her son, and the guide, which treats each numbered section, the acknowledgment, and the trip to the clerk and recorder. The description above and the guide explain the form and the Montana statutes behind it in general terms and are not legal advice.