Vermont Enhanced Life Estate Deed (Trustee Grantee)

On this Vermont enhanced life estate deed, the grantee line does not name an heir; it names a trustee. One owner conveys a contingent remainder to a named individual as trustee of an identified trust, and not individually, while reserving a common law life estate and the unrestricted right to convey the property during life. The form prepares that trustee grantee configuration under 27 V.S.A. chapter 6, the Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act, the statute behind what Vermont practice has long called a lady bird deed or Medicaid deed.

A remainder that lands in a trust, not an estate

An ordinary Vermont ELE deed sends the property to individual grantees at the owner's death. This deed sends it into a trust: if the property has not been conveyed away during life, title vests at the grantor's death in the trustee of the identified trust then serving, subject to encumbrances of record, and the trust instrument takes over from there. Probate administration of the property is bypassed, and so is the individual-grantee question of what happens when a remainder holder dies first. During the owner's life the arrangement stays dormant; 27 V.S.A. § 654 states that a validly executed and recorded ELE deed transfers no present right, title, or interest, so the property is not a trust asset while the owner lives and the owner's creditors and homestead position stay exactly as they were.

Lifetime control the statute spells out

Chapter 6 writes the reserved powers into defined mechanics. The grantor may sell, mortgage, lease, or give away the property, or any portion of it, without joinder by, consent from, agreement of, or notice to the trustee. Revoking the deed means recording a deed from the grantor back to the grantor; revising it means recording a new ELE deed naming a different or additional grantee, which supersedes and replaces the prior one. The trustee holds a contingent remainder that cannot be conveyed during the grantor's life, and the statute keeps the property clear of the grantee's creditors. The deed itself carries the § 660 statutory form language, including the operative words GIVE, GRANT, SELL, CONVEY, AND CONFIRM and the reservation of a common law life estate with exclusive use, possession, and enjoyment.

The successor trustee section

Section 658 of the Act supplies default rules when a named grantee dies before the grantor, and it opens with the words unless the ELE deed provides otherwise. This form provides otherwise. Its successor trustee section ties the remainder to the office of trustee rather than to the individual: if the named trustee dies, resigns, is removed, or otherwise stops serving before the grantor's death, the contingent remainder follows the successor trustee determined under the trust instrument, and at the grantor's death title vests in whoever then holds the office. A change of trustee inside the trust does not call for a new deed.

Signing and recording in Vermont towns

The grantor, who must be a natural person under § 653(4), signs before a notary public; the trustee does not sign, because § 655 makes the deed effective without the grantee's acceptance. The form carries a homestead joinder signature block and second acknowledgment certificate for the spouse of a married grantor, tied to the joinder statutes at 27 V.S.A. §§ 141 and 349. Recording happens at the town level, with the clerk of the town or city where the land lies, at the statewide fee of $15.00 per page, and the town clerk cannot accept the deed unless a completed Vermont Property Transfer Tax Return, Form PTT-172, comes with it. An executed and recorded ELE deed is subject to the property transfer tax, and where the deed is later revoked or revised, 32 V.S.A. § 9617(8)(B) supplies a refund petition route.

The package contains the enhanced life estate deed as a fillable PDF built for Vermont recording standards, a completed example showing every section filled in for a realistic Chittenden County fact pattern, and a plain language guide that walks through the form section by section, the notarization details, and the town recording process including the transfer tax return. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.