Montana has adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, and under Montana Code 72-6-404, a property owner can name one or more beneficiaries to receive real property automatically at death through a transfer-on-death deed — no probate required for that asset.
The paperwork has to be right. Montana Code 72-6-408 requires the deed to carry the same essential elements and formalities as any properly recordable deed made during life, state clearly that the transfer takes effect at death, and be recorded before the owner dies in the county clerk and recorder's office where the property sits.
Revocation works in a few specific ways: a later qualifying TOD deed, a separate instrument of revocation, or an inter vivos deed that expressly revokes the prior one — each acknowledged and recorded before death, per Montana Code 72-6-410. One thing that doesn't work: simply scratching out or marking up the recorded deed itself does not revoke it.
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