What States Allow Lady Bird Deeds?

The Seven States, Grouped by What Backs the Deed

Lady bird deeds, known formally as enhanced life estate deeds, have real legal authority behind them in seven states. The authority comes in three kinds, and the kind matters as much as the list. The authority for each state is listed in the Sources of Law below, and the chart of all 50 states shows, for every state, what the deed is called there, the transfer on death statute if any, and which instrument an owner there would use.

• Two states recognize the deed by statute. Rhode Island has authorized the deed by statute since 2014. Vermont's Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act took effect July 13, 2020, and includes an optional form.
• Four states recognize the deed through court decisions. In 1917 the Florida Supreme Court upheld a deed in which a father gave land to his daughter and kept the right to sell it, and his later sale left her with nothing. A Maryland appellate court stated in 2005 that a life estate may carry a power to sell and that the remainder gives way when the power is used. A published Michigan Court of Appeals decision in 2015 upheld a lady bird deed against an undue influence challenge, and more than ninety later Michigan opinions quote its definition of the deed, so the Michigan Supreme Court’s 2017 footnote naming the deed is not the only authority there. In 2023 a Texas court of appeals enforced a lady bird deed signed by a husband and wife, holding that the husband’s half of the home vested in his son at the husband’s death and that the widow could not revoke it, and in 2024 the Texas Supreme Court described the deed without questioning it in a Medicaid case.
• One state recognizes the deed only in a Medicaid manual, and Texas has a manual rule as well. The North Carolina Medicaid manual has a section titled "Ladybird Deed or Life Estate with Powers," which counts the home at its full equity and treats the deed as no transfer at all, and no statute or reported court decision creating the deed was found in North Carolina. The Texas Medicaid handbook does not penalize a transfer of the home by an enhanced life estate deed approved by the agency's regional attorney.

In the remaining 41 states and the District of Columbia, no statute, court decision or Medicaid rule recognizing the deed was found, and one court has said so outright. In 2021 the Iowa Court of Appeals, voiding a family’s attempted transfer-on-death deeds, wrote that Iowa is not one of the few states that have recognized enhanced life estate deeds. A search of every court in the local case law corpus on October 7, 2026 found the terms in 54 opinions, 29 of them from Michigan, and none from Rhode Island, Maryland or North Carolina, whose authority rests on a statute, an older decision and a manual. A downloaded form may well be accepted by the clerk there, because clerks record documents rather than validate them. What you will not have is a title company willing to insure the result, and you will not find out until someone tries to sell.

Why a Medicaid Manual Is Weaker Ground Than a Statute

A lady bird deed has to work in two places. The first is the title record, where the next buyer's title insurer, a lender and eventually a probate judge decide whether the deed moved the house. The second is the Medicaid office, which decides whether the deed counts against you when you apply for long-term care.

A statute is the strongest footing in the title record, because the rules are in writing and a title examiner in Rhode Island or Vermont can point to them. A court decision binds the courts of its state, and a published decision that enforces the deed, like Michigan's 2015 ruling, carries more weight than a footnote that merely names it. A Medicaid manual binds only the Medicaid agency. The Texas and North Carolina manuals tell you how the agency will count your house, and a title company or a court does not have to follow either one.

For a homeowner, the result is a ranking. A deed backed by a statute or a court decision stands on firmer ground than a deed recognized only by a Medicaid manual. Recognition by statute also does not guarantee help with Medicaid. Rhode Island's statute authorizes the deed, and a separate Rhode Island statute counts a home held under one made after June 30, 2014 as an available asset when you apply for Medicaid.

Why West Virginia and Virginia Are Not on the List

West Virginia appears on nearly every published list of lady bird states, usually as one of five alongside Florida, Texas, Michigan and Vermont. A review of West Virginia's statutes, its reported court decisions and its Medicaid manual found nothing recognizing a deed in which the owner keeps a life estate and the power to sell without the heirs' signatures. The closest West Virginia statute deals with a power of disposal given to the person who receives the property, which is a different arrangement.

Virginia is the state most often cited on the strength of a statute. Virginia's statute and West Virginia's are close to identical. Each protects the remainder after a life estate given to another person with a power to sell, so the remainder gives way only to the extent the power is used. Neither statute addresses an owner who deeds the house away and keeps the life estate and the power to sell, which is the arrangement a lady bird deed creates. The two states are treated the same here, and neither is counted.

The same five-state list also leaves out Rhode Island, Maryland and North Carolina, where authority does exist. An owner in Virginia or West Virginia looking for this result should ask a lawyer licensed there about a transfer-on-death deed rather than a lady bird form.

Texas Recognizes the Deed in Court and in Its Medicaid Handbook

Texas is on every list, and until 2023 the authority behind it was narrower than most readers assumed, because the recognition sat in the Medicaid handbook, which treats a transfer of the home by an enhanced life estate deed approved by the agency's regional attorney as carrying no penalty. In July 2023 a Texas court of appeals enforced one. A husband and wife had signed a lady bird deed naming his son from an earlier marriage, the husband died, and the widow signed two revocations. The court held that the husband's half of the home vested in the son the moment the husband died and that the widow could not revoke the deed as to that half, and it remarked on how little Texas case law construes these deeds. In 2024 the Texas Supreme Court described a lady bird deed in a Medicaid eligibility case without questioning it. No Texas statute creates the lady bird deed.

Texas does have a statute for the other instrument. The Texas Real Property Transfer on Death Act took effect September 1, 2015, and it writes two limits into the transfer-on-death deed, namely no warranty of title and a two-year window in which the estate can reach the house to pay the owner's debts. How those two limits compare with Florida's position is covered in the Florida TOD guide. A Texas owner deciding between the two deeds should ask a Texas lawyer, because we are not licensed there.

What Your State Probably Has Instead

Most states solved the same problem a different way. Roughly two thirds of states have enacted a transfer-on-death deed, also called a beneficiary deed or a TOD deed, and Maryland's act takes effect October 1, 2026. You record the deed during your lifetime, it names who receives the property when you die, and you keep the right to sell or revoke it in the meantime.

The practical effect is close to a lady bird deed. The legal machinery is entirely different. Because a transfer-on-death deed is statutory, its requirements are written down and they vary, including the exact wording, whether beneficiaries have to be notified, and how revocation works. So the form has to be your own state's form, and the lawyer should be licensed there.

Florida recognizes the lady bird deed and has no transfer-on-death deed statute at all, which is why generic TOD forms from other states are useless here. Texas has both instruments, and Maryland joins it on October 1, 2026. A handful of states have neither, and in those the usual tool is a revocable trust. The Florida TOD gap is worth understanding if you arrived expecting a TOD deed, and the two instruments compared side by side is here.

The Rule That Decides It Is Where the Land Sits

Real estate is governed by the law of the state where the property is located, not the state where the owner lives. The location rule answers most of the questions people arrive with.

If you live in Michigan and own a house in Michigan, Michigan law decides whether a lady bird deed works for it. If you live in Michigan and own a condo in Naples, the Florida property needs a Florida instrument. And if you live in Florida and own a cabin in North Carolina, your Florida deed does nothing at all for the cabin, which is how families end up in a second probate in another state that nobody planned for.

If You Own Florida Property and Live Somewhere Else

Out-of-state owners are exactly who the Florida deed is for, and they are a large group. Roughly 45% of the people searching for help with Florida probate are not in Florida. A New Yorker with a condo in Naples, a family in Ohio that inherited a house in Ocala, a Canadian with a place on the Gulf.

You do not need to be a Florida resident to use a Florida lady bird deed. Only the property has to be here. You sign wherever you live, in front of two witnesses and a notary, and Florida accepts an out-of-state notarization on a deed conveying Florida land. The deed then records in the county where the property sits. Nothing about the fee or the process changes because you live elsewhere.

Why Out-of-State Owners Often Have It Easier

Florida's constitutional restrictions on transferring a home attach to homestead, meaning property that is the owner's permanent residence. Two of those restrictions are what most often void a Florida deed, namely the requirement that a spouse join in the deed and the rule that a surviving minor child blocks the transfer entirely.

A Florida vacation condo owned by somebody whose permanent home is in Ohio is generally not that owner's homestead. So those two restrictions usually do not apply, and the deed is simpler than it would be for a Florida resident. Homestead is one of the few areas where living out of state makes the planning easier rather than harder. The homestead question is still worth confirming rather than assuming, because the answer turns on where your permanent residence actually is, and people who spend half the year here are not always sure.

When You Own Property in More Than One State

A deed handles one property in one state. If you own real estate in two or three, you would need a separate instrument for each, drafted under each state's law, and you would still have nothing covering your accounts or your belongings.

Past the second property the arithmetic usually flips. A revocable trust can hold real estate wherever it is located, which avoids a probate in each state, and it covers everything else at the same time. Our trust-based plan is $3,200 for an individual and $4,500 for a couple, which stops looking expensive once you are pricing three deeds and two out-of-state probates.

What to Do Next, Depending on Where You Are

• The property is in Florida. A lady bird deed is available to you whether or not you live here, at $399 for an individual deed or $449 joint, plus county recording.
• The property is in Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland, Michigan, Texas or North Carolina. Your state has some authority for the deed, and the strength of that authority varies as described above. Find a lawyer licensed there, because we are not, and the drafting conventions differ.
• The property is anywhere else, including Virginia and West Virginia. Ask a lawyer in that state about a transfer-on-death or beneficiary deed. If your state has one, the deed very likely does the job you came here looking for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The downloaded form in the wrong state. A homeowner in Georgia finds a lady bird deed template online, fills it in, and records it with the county. The clerk accepts it, because clerks record documents rather than rule on them. Two years later a refinance stalls when the title underwriter will not insure around an instrument that no Georgia statute or reported court decision recognizes.

The condo the Florida deed did not cover. A retired couple in Sarasota sign a Florida lady bird deed on their home and assume they are finished. The couple also own a lake house in Michigan. The Florida deed reaches only the Florida property, and their children discover the gap when the Michigan house has to be probated separately.

Sources of Law

• Each authority below was read in the saved primary source on 2026-09-23.
• The state-by-state authorities, and how Medicaid estate recovery treats a house passing by lady bird deed, transfer on death deed, joint tenancy or revocable trust in all 50 states and DC, are in the Medicaid estate recovery and home-transfer deed table (verified 2026-09-28).
• Recognized by statute: R.I. Gen. Laws §34-4-2.1 (reservation of life estate with enhanced powers to sell, convey or mortgage without the consent or joinder of the remainder holders; P.L. 2014, ch. 145, art. 19, §1). R.I. Gen. Laws §40-8-3.1 (a principal residence held under such a life estate is not an excluded resource for Medicaid eligibility; deeds created, executed and recorded on or before June 30, 2014 are protected). Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 27, §§651 to 660, the Enhanced Life Estate Deed Act (2019, No. 145 (Adj. Sess.), §1, eff. July 13, 2020), with the optional form at §660.
• Recognized by case law: Oglesby v. Lee, 73 Fla. 39, 73 So. 840 (Fla. 1917) (grantor who reserved the right to resell and then sold left the grantee no title to be clouded). Florida's recognition also rests on title-insurance practice. A search of every court in the local case law corpus on 2026-10-07 for "lady bird deed," "ladybird deed" and "enhanced life estate" returned 54 opinions, six of them Florida appellate decisions (Agee v. Brown, 73 So. 3d 882 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011); Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. (Fla. 3d DCA 2023); Johnson v. Johnson (Fla. 1st DCA 2025); Varano v. Varano (Fla. 4th DCA 2025); Dominguez v. Suarez (Fla. 3d DCA 2026); McFarlane v. Holness, No. 4D2025-2750 (Fla. 4th DCA Sept. 23, 2026)). Berrett v. Standard Fire Ins. Co., 166 Md. App. 321, 888 A.2d 1189 (2005), citing Burke v. Burke, 204 Md. 637 (1954) (a life estate may be created with a power in the life tenant to dispose of the property, and the remainder is then defeasible; the deed in Berrett itself reserved no such power). Maryland's 2026 transfer-on-death deed act, 2026 Md. Laws ch. 751, §2, directs courts to apply "existing law governing life estates with powers of alienation" to the extent practicable. Bill & Dena Brown Trust v. Garcia, 312 Mich. App. 684, 880 N.W.2d 269 (2015) (published; affirming summary disposition for the grantee of a Lady Bird deed against an undue-influence challenge and a quiet-title action; its footnote 2 definition of the deed is quoted by 96 later opinions in the corpus). In re Rasmer Estate, 501 Mich. 18 (2017), n. 18 (naming Lady Bird deeds among means to avoid probate, citing Garcia). Reading note: the Rasmer statement is dicta; Garcia is a holding. Wright v. Jones, No. 10-21-00297-CV (Tex. App., Waco, July 26, 2023) (joint lady bird deed; the husband's one-half interest vested in the remainderman at his death and the surviving grantor could not revoke the deed as to that half; no reporter citation in the corpus). Tex. Health & Human Servs. Comm'n v. Estate of Burt, No. 22-0437 (Tex. May 3, 2024) (describing the applicants' Lady Bird deed, n. 4, in a Medicaid eligibility case). King v. Smith, No. 20-0137 (Iowa Ct. App. June 16, 2021) (Iowa has not recognized enhanced life estate deeds). Corpus files for each are in reference/caselaw/ladybird/.
• Recognized by Medicaid agency rule only: Texas HHSC, Medicaid for the Elderly and People with Disabilities Handbook, §I-3100, Transfer of Home (Rev. 20-4, eff. Dec. 1, 2020). NC Medicaid, Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid Manual MA-2240, §X.C.6, "Ladybird Deed or Life Estate with Powers" (revised 06/30/2026, Change No. 09-26). The Texas transfer-on-death deed statute is Tex. Est. Code ch. 114, the Texas Real Property Transfer on Death Act (eff. Sept. 1, 2015).
• Virginia and West Virginia, not counted: no statute, reported case or Medicaid rule recognizing a deed that reserves to the owner a power to sell without the remainder holders' consent was found in either state. Va. Code §55.1-106 (where a deed gives property for life with a remainder over and confers a power on the life tenant to dispose of it absolutely, the remainder fails only to the extent the power is exercised) and W. Va. Code §36-1-16 are near-identical general statutes addressing a power of disposal conferred on the person who takes the life estate, not one the grantor keeps. Reading note: neither statute uses the terms "lady bird" or "enhanced life estate." Virginia's transfer-on-death deed statute is Va. Code §§64.2-621 to 64.2-638. A CourtListener search of West Virginia state and federal courts and the Fourth Circuit for "lady bird deed," "ladybird deed" and "enhanced life estate" returned no opinion (searched 2026-09-23). West Virginia's transfer-on-death deed statute is W. Va. Code §§36-12-1 to 36-12-17.
• Transfer-on-death deed count: the count is approximate and changes as legislatures act, so it is given as "roughly two thirds" rather than a fixed number. Maryland's act, Md. Code, Real Prop. §§14-1001 to 14-1014, takes effect October 1, 2026. Requirements differ by state, so a form must be the enacting state's form.
• Florida deed formalities and recording: Fla. Stat. §689.01 (two subscribing witnesses); §695.01 (recording); §695.03 (acknowledgment, including before an out-of-state notary); §695.26 (witness mailing addresses required for recording since January 1, 2024).
• Florida homestead restrictions, which attach to a permanent residence: Fla. Const. Art. X §4(c); Fla. Stat. §732.401. Whether a given property is homestead is a factual question about permanent residence, so it is confirmed rather than assumed for an out-of-state owner.
• Florida has no transfer-on-death deed statute. Reading note: states that offer one have generally adopted a version of the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act or an equivalent statute of their own.
• Fee schedule per the firm's posted rates, September 2026. Recording charges are set by the county and passed through at cost. (retrieved 2026-08-30)

Why the Map Matters Less Than It Looks

In 14 years of law practice, people find the list of states first and the harder question second.

A common question I hear is, "My state does not have these, so what do I do?" Most states have something that does part of the job. A transfer-on-death deed passes the property outside probate in many of them, and what it does not do is leave you free to sell or mortgage without involving the person you named.

What actually decides your answer is where the land is, not where you live. Real property follows the law of its own state, so a Florida resident with a cabin elsewhere is asking two questions rather than one.

Practice pointer. List every parcel by state before choosing an instrument. A plan that works beautifully for the Florida house may need something entirely different for the property two states away.

Avoid copying a form from another state because the names look similar. The reserved powers are the whole point of this deed, and a form written for a different statute may not reserve them.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. Any case described is a decision of a court rather than a matter handled by this firm. General information rather than advice on your situation.

Updated on October 7, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. We are licensed in Florida and do not advise on the law of other states; for property outside Florida, consult a lawyer licensed where the property sits. No result is guaranteed. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.