Wyoming Disclaimer of Interest (Transfer on Death Beneficiary)

A Wyoming transfer on death deed hands its grantee beneficiary an interest in land at the moment the owner dies, and the beneficiary has no say in that until it happens. This form prepares the instrument by which one grantee beneficiary, after the owner's death, refuses what the recorded deed carried: a disclaimer of interest under Wyoming Statutes 2-18-106 and 2-1-401 through 2-1-405, for a single disclaimant signing in that person's own right, with one acknowledgment certificate for recording in the county where the land lies.

A refusal made after the deed has already operated

Wyoming's Nontestamentary Transfer of Real Property on Death Act keeps the grantee beneficiary out of the picture while the owner lives. Section 2-18-103(k) provides that the beneficiary's signature, consent, or agreement, and even notice to the beneficiary, are not required for any purpose during the owner's lifetime, and section 2-18-103(o) vests title in the designated grantee beneficiary only on the death of the owner. Section 2-18-106 then supplies the beneficiary's one lever: a grantee beneficiary may refuse to accept all or any part of the real property interest conveyed by a transfer on death deed, and a beneficiary who refuses or disclaims has no liability under the chapter by reason of having been designated. The form recites exactly that configuration. Section 2 states that the owner who executed the deed has died and that the deed was recorded before that death: the recording before death that section 2-18-103(e) makes a condition of the deed's validity, and the death at which section 2-18-103(o) vests the interest there is to refuse.

The deed stays of record

A beneficiary's disclaimer is not a revocation. Only the owner can revoke a transfer on death deed, by an instrument executed and recorded before the owner's death under section 2-18-103(f), and after the owner's death that door is closed. The disclaimer therefore leaves the deed exactly where the clerk recorded it and changes only what happens to the interest the deed carried; the form says so in one sentence so that no examiner reads the disclaimer as an attempt to undo the deed. The form identifies the deed the same way section 2-18-103(n) requires the post-death affidavit to identify it, by deed book and page or document number, together with its date, its recording date, and the county whose clerk recorded it, so the disclaimer and the deed index to each other in the county records.

Where the refused interest goes under the deed's own terms

The disclaimant never conveys anything and never names a recipient; section 2-1-403(a)(iv) requires that the interest pass without any direction on the part of the person making the disclaimer, and the form contains no sentence of that kind. Section 2-1-404 supplies the disposition rule and opens with the words unless otherwise expressly provided in the deed of gift or will, which gives a transfer on death deed's own terms the first word. Section 2-18-103(c) lets a deed designate a successor grantee beneficiary and requires the deed to state the condition on which that successor's interest vests, and the statutory deed form in section 2-18-104 carries a marked choice for a grantee beneficiary who predeceases the owner. The guide describes how section 2-1-404 reads a deed that speaks to the question and how it fills the gap when the deed is silent, sending the interest under the owner's residuary clause or by intestacy as though the disclaimant had not survived the owner.

Nine months, measured by receipt

Section 2-1-403(a) qualifies a disclaimer on four terms: a written, irrevocable, and unqualified refusal; receipt of the writing by the transferor, the transferor's legal representative, or the holder of the legal title within nine months after the later of two days, the day on which the transfer creating the interest is made and the day on which the disclaimant attains age twenty-one; no acceptance of the interest or any of its benefits; and passage of the interest without the disclaimant's direction. Recording is not delivery, and the act does not treat it as such; the guide walks through the three recipients the statute names and how a personal representative of the owner's estate and the beneficiary vested under section 2-18-103(o) fit them. The form carries the disclaimant's statement that the interest and its benefits have not been accepted, so a beneficiary who has already taken possession or collected rent has passed the point at which this instrument speaks. Federal tax treatment rests on 26 U.S.C. 2518, which sets its own terms for a qualified disclaimer, and section 2-1-403(d) describes a Wyoming route for a disclaimer that is effective under state law without qualifying for tax purposes; the form takes no position on either.

One grantee beneficiary, one signature

The form recites one disclaimant, an individual who signs in the disclaimant's own right and not as a personal representative, trustee, agent under a power of attorney, or guardian for anyone else; that capacity is fixed text in Section 1, and the entries about the signer are a name and a mailing address. It carries one DISCLAIMANT signature block and one acknowledgment certificate in the Wyoming short form of section 32-3-115, and it carries no signature for a spouse, because a disclaimer refuses an interest rather than conveying one. A deed that names two grantee beneficiaries who both wish to refuse presents two separate disclaimers, one by each; a fiduciary's disclaimer under section 2-1-401(b) and a guardian's disclaimer for a minor or incompetent ward under section 2-1-405 follow a different pattern with a different signer. The interest refused is stated in Section 5 as the whole of what the deed conveyed or an undivided portion of it, both of which section 2-18-106 allows.

Recording in the county where the land lies

A disclaimer that decides who holds the interest a recorded deed carried is an instrument by which title to land may be affected, which is how Wyoming Statutes 34-1-102 defines a conveyance for recording purposes, and the acknowledged instrument is entitled to record under section 34-1-118 with the county clerk of the county in which the land is situated. The statewide recording fee under section 18-3-402(a)(xvi) is twelve dollars for the first page and three dollars for each additional page, and Wyoming imposes no transfer tax. The form is letter size in twelve point type with a two inch reserve at the top of the first page for the clerk's recording information. The separate post-death step the chapter requires, the affidavit and the Wyoming Department of Health certificate of clearance under section 2-18-103(n), is filed by the person who takes the property and is not included in this package.

The package contains three things: the fillable disclaimer form, a completed example worked through for a Natrona County fact pattern, and the guide, which covers every numbered section, the delivery rule, the bar on acceptance, the acknowledgment, and recording. These materials describe the form and the statutes it rests on; they are not legal advice.