Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Guides › Transfer-on-Death Deeds
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: yes — New York finally authorized TOD deeds effective July 19, 2024 (Real Property Law §424), and it wrote the strictest execution rule in the country into them: two witnesses present at the same time PLUS a notary. Most states require only notarization; a New York TOD deed signed with the usual single-notary formality is defective. That one sentence will invalidate more DIY deeds here than any other rule.
The New York specifics
Record in the county clerk’s office before death — unrecorded means ineffective. Revocable no matter what the deed says — the statute overrides any “irrevocable” language someone drafts in. And the bar is openly cautious: state bar guidance has urged care with the new instrument, which is the polite way of saying title companies and clerks are still developing settled practice. For a statute this young, recording early and keeping the original formalities airtight is the whole game.
What it saves in New York is specific: executor commissions run on money the executor handles, so a house passing by deed never enters the SCPA 2307 commission base — on a $1M house, that is real money — and the probate bill shrinks with it. Every state: the verified table.
Getting the execution right in New York
New York requires two witnesses plus notarisation — the requirement most often missed, and the one that voids the deed when it is. LawDepot builds a transfer on death deed; the witnessing and recording steps above still govern it.
Create a transfer on death deed
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