Virginia Transfer-on-Death Deed

Last updated: August 21, 2026 Jurisdiction: Virginia

Virginia authorizes a transfer-on-death deed

Virginia has adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act. The statute authorizes an individual to transfer property to one or more beneficiaries effective at the transferor's death by a transfer-on-death deed. This is a statutory transfer-on-death deed, not Florida's enhanced life-estate deed, and its requirements and consequences should be analyzed under Virginia law rather than borrowed from another state (Virginia Code § 64.2-624).

A valid deed must have the formalities of a recordable inter vivos deed, state that the transfer occurs at the transferor's death, and be recorded before the transferor dies in the proper circuit-court land records. If joint owners use the deed, all joint owners must execute it for it to be effective. A purported form that is signed but not recorded before death does not satisfy the statute (Virginia Code § 64.2-628).

Its lifetime effect is unusually clear

During the owner's life, a Virginia transfer-on-death deed does not affect the owner's right to transfer or encumber the property, does not create a legal or equitable interest for the designated beneficiary, and does not subject the property to the beneficiary's creditors. Most importantly for this subject, the statute expressly says the deed does not affect the transferor's or designated beneficiary's eligibility for any form of public assistance during the transferor's life (Virginia Code § 64.2-631).

At death, the interest transfers and vests in the designated beneficiary under the deed if the beneficiary survives. The beneficiary takes subject to existing conveyances, encumbrances, contracts, mortgages, liens, and other interests affecting the property. A deed is therefore neither a substitute for checking title nor a blanket promise of creditor or Medicaid protection (Virginia Code § 64.2-632).

Medicaid planning needs a separate recovery review

The lifetime public-assistance rule is important, but it does not settle what happens after death. Virginia's estate-recovery regulation defines the estate to include property and assets in which the deceased had any legal title or interest at death, to the extent of that interest. Because a TOD deed becomes effective at death, families should obtain Virginia advice about estate recovery before treating probate avoidance as a Medicaid-recovery shield (Virginia estate-recovery regulation; DMAS estate-recovery fact sheet).

Virginia TOD deed: record it before death; it does not create the beneficiary's interest or change public-assistance eligibility during the owner's lifetime; at death, the property remains subject to existing interests and a separate recovery analysis (Virginia Code § 64.2-628; Virginia Code § 64.2-631).

For the broader home-planning framework, see The Home. Have a Virginia real-estate and elder-law lawyer review deed language, title, tax, spouse, creditor, eligibility, and recovery effects before signing.

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Virginia authorizes a transfer-on-death deed

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