South Dakota Transfer on Death Deed

One record owner, one signature line, and full ownership kept until the end: this fillable South Dakota transfer on death deed is built for a sole owner, the transferor, who names who takes the property at death and remains free to sell, mortgage, or change course at any time. The deed is signed and notarized now, placed of record during the owner's life, and moves nothing while the owner lives.

A beneficiary deed under South Dakota's probate code

South Dakota's version of the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act took effect July 1, 2014 and lives in the probate code, SDCL 29A-6-401 to 29A-6-435. The instrument it authorizes, searched for as a beneficiary deed or TOD deed, is nontestamentary: the property passes outside the will and without probate administration. The act asks three things of the deed itself under SDCL 29A-6-408: the elements and formalities of an ordinary recordable deed, a statement that the transfer happens at the transferor's death, and recording, before that death, with the register of deeds where the land lies. This form is drafted from the optional statutory form in SDCL 29A-6-430 and keeps its operative sentence word for word.

Revocable until the last day

While the transferor lives, the deed does nothing (SDCL 29A-6-414): the beneficiary holds no interest of any kind, and no consideration, notice, delivery, or acceptance is involved (SDCL 29A-6-409). Changing course takes a recorded instrument: a later transfer on death deed, an express instrument of revocation, or a lifetime deed that expressly revokes, each placed of record before the transferor dies (SDCL 29A-6-410). Tearing up the paper accomplishes nothing; SDCL 29A-6-412 rules out revocation by an act on the deed itself. An owner who sells the property outright simply leaves the deed with nothing to transfer at death.

One transferor, one certificate, and the elections the form carries

Exactly one record owner signs this deed as transferor; the signature section carries one line and the notary section one certificate. A marital status entry, an element the statutory form includes, sits near the top, and the owner's name and mailing address open the deed the way the register's index expects. The beneficiary sections name one or more primary designated beneficiaries, each with the mailing address the recording statutes call for, and where several are named the statutory default divides the property in equal shares, as tenants in common. A contingent section answers the case where no primary beneficiary survives, and the statutory survival election states whether the transfer is conditioned on the named beneficiary surviving the owner by one hundred twenty hours. A widowed Sioux Falls homeowner naming an adult son, and an unmarried owner of a lake cabin naming a sister and a brother, present the single-owner pattern this deed recites; a title held by two or more owners presents a different configuration.

At the register of deeds

The recording half of the work is already handled on the deed's face. The first page reserves the three inch blank space SDCL 43-28-23 requires, with a preparer statement block in its left half the way SDCL 7-9-1 and SDCL 43-28-23(4) describe. No Certificate of Real Estate Value rides along: SDCL 7-9-7(5) excepts transfer on death deeds from the PT-56 that accompanies most South Dakota conveyances. No transfer fee is due either, and the printed exemption line citing SDCL 43-4-22(18) satisfies the face statement SDCL 43-4-23 requires of an exempt instrument. The statewide recording fee under SDCL 7-9-15 is thirty dollars for a deed of this length.

The download includes the blank single-owner deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Minnehaha County house from the owner's name to the notary block, and a plain language guide covering each numbered section, the signing, and the recording steps. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.