Indiana Transfer-on-Death Deed

Indiana's Transfer on Death Property Act gives homeowners a specific tool: a transfer-on-death deed for real property. For it to work, the deed has to be executed by the owner or their legal representative and recorded with the county recorder before the owner dies — an unrecorded deed is void under the statute.

The mechanics have some helpful flexibility built in. The statute doesn't require consideration or delivery to the beneficiary, it supplies sample TOD wording, and it requires county-auditor endorsement before recording. Those procedural details are exactly why it's worth using Indiana-specific real-estate counsel or a recorder-approved process rather than a generic online deed template.

The bigger caution, though, is what a TOD deed does — and doesn't — protect against. It keeps the property out of probate, but Indiana's Medicaid estate-recovery definition reaches beyond probate property, so nonprobate transfers made through a TOD deed can still land inside the state's recovery net.