Texas Lady Bird Deed

Last updated: August 21, 2026 Jurisdiction: Texas

Texas recognizes the enhanced life estate deed

A Texas Lady Bird deed is an enhanced life estate deed. The Texas State Law Library explains that the owner retains full ownership and control while alive, and that Texas case law rather than a dedicated statute governs interpretation (Texas State Law Library).

Its defining feature is the grantor's retained power to sell, convey, lease, or mortgage the property without the remainderman's consent. That differs from an ordinary life estate, in which the life tenant ordinarily cannot convey a fee interest without the remainderman joining (Texas A&M AgriLife Law Blog).

The Texas A&M legal-education explainer places Texas among the five states that recognize Lady Bird deeds through case law and practice rather than a dedicated statute (Texas A&M AgriLife Law Blog).

What the two controlling decisions actually show

In Texas Health and Human Services Commission v. Estate of Clyde L. Burt, the Texas Supreme Court held that a home excluded from Medicaid resource counting must have been the applicant's principal residence when the Medicaid claim arose, together with intent to return. A property interest acquired after nursing-facility admission did not qualify for the homestead exclusion merely because it was conveyed through a Lady Bird deed (Texas HHSC v. Estate of Burt).

Important limit: a Lady Bird deed is not a substitute for the Medicaid homestead rule. Burt makes the principal-residence timing of an acquired property interest material to the exclusion analysis (Texas Supreme Court order in Burt).

Joint ownership can change revocability

In Wright v. Jones, the Waco Court of Appeals held that each spouse held a separate one-half interest under a jointly executed Lady Bird deed. When one spouse died, that spouse's interest vested in the remainderman and the surviving spouse could not revoke that deceased spouse's share alone (Wright v. Jones).

That decision illustrates why a deed that seems revocable during life can have an irrevocable consequence once a co-grantor dies. It also underscores the need to examine title, marital ownership, and the proposed remainder interest before signing (Wright v. Jones).

Probate avoidance is not a complete planning answer

Texas A&M AgriLife's legal-education explanation says a properly recorded Lady Bird deed lets title vest in the remainderman at death outside the grantor's probate estate, while the owner retains broad lifetime powers. It also identifies caveats, including no dedicated statute and a possible mortgage due-on-sale issue (Texas A&M AgriLife Law Blog).

Texas shares this tool with Florida's Lady Bird deed page; see The Home for the broader funding context (Texas A&M AgriLife Law Blog). Have a Texas attorney assess Medicaid timing, title, tax basis, lender terms, and the exact deed language.

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Texas recognizes the enhanced life estate deed

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