Wyoming Transfer on Death Deed

In Wyoming a transfer on death deed is a deed you sign and record while you are alive that names a grantee beneficiary to receive your real property automatically when you die, without probate. Wyoming authorizes it under the Nontestamentary Transfer of Real Property on Death Act, Wyo. Stat. 2-18-101 through 2-18-106, with 2-18-103 making the transfer effective on the owner death. During your lifetime you keep full control and can sell or revoke it, and the beneficiary has no interest until you die. It passes only the property described in the deed, subject to existing liens.

A Wyoming will directs who inherits your property, but the property still passes through probate, the court process that can take many months. A Wyoming transfer on death deed passes the specific real property it names directly to the grantee beneficiary at your death, outside probate. The will covers your whole estate; the transfer on death deed covers only the real property it describes. Many people use both, so the deed handles the home and the will handles everything else.

To be valid in Wyoming the deed must convey the property to a named grantee beneficiary, expressly state that it is effective on your death, and be executed and recorded in the office of the county clerk where the property is situated before you die (Wyo. Stat. 2-18-103). The statute contemplates a deed that is executed, acknowledged, and recorded, and the statutory form in 2-18-104 includes a notary acknowledgment, so sign it before a notary. Wyoming does not require witnesses.

Wyoming does not set a fixed number of days to record. The deed is valid only if it is executed and recorded in the office of the county clerk where the property is situated before the death of the owner or the last surviving owner (Wyo. Stat. 2-18-103(e)). Because the deed only works if it is on record before you die, the safest practice is to record it promptly after it is signed and notarized rather than holding it.

Yes. A Wyoming transfer on death deed may be revoked at any time by the owner, or by any owner who executed it, and to be effective the revocation must be executed and recorded in the county clerk office before the death of the owner who revokes it (Wyo. Stat. 2-18-103(f)). A deed executed, acknowledged, and recorded under the statute is not revoked by a will (2-18-103(m)). If you record more than one deed for the same property, the last one recorded before your death controls.

For the real property the deed describes, yes. When it is validly executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the county clerk office before your death, the described property passes directly to the grantee beneficiary at your death without probate (Wyo. Stat. 2-18-103). It does not cover your other assets. The grantee beneficiary takes the property subject to all existing encumbrances, and the state health department may assert a Medicaid recovery lien (2-18-103(g)).

Yes. A Wyoming transfer on death deed may designate multiple grantees, who take title as joint tenants with right of survivorship, tenants in common, or another valid tenancy, and may name a successor grantee beneficiary (Wyo. Stat. 2-18-103(b), (c)). If you name a successor, the deed must state the condition on which the successor interest would vest. Naming a successor helps keep the property out of probate if your first choice does not survive you.