Personal Finance & Estate › Wills, trusts & estate planning › Beneficiary designations (they override your will)
Transfer-on-death & payable-on-death (incl. CA TOD deed)
CA TOD deed since 2016· Legal document or tool
Depends on youExperts differ; the right answer depends on your situation.
Named beneficiaries on bank accounts, brokerage accounts and even a California house deed, who inherit directly without probate.
See it on the Personal Finance & Estate map →How it works
Banks offer payable-on-death (POD) accounts, brokerages offer transfer-on-death (TOD) registration, and the DMV allows TOD vehicle titles. Since 2016 California also permits a revocable TOD deed for real property: signed before a notary and, since 2022, two witnesses, then recorded within 60 days. You keep full control and can revoke it. Main traps: no help if you become incapacitated, gaps if a beneficiary dies first, and conflicts with your trust or will.
Why it matters for you
Depends on you: a cheap probate-avoider for simple estates, but experts differ on TOD deeds versus a living trust. Ask an estate attorney before recording one.
Rules, limits and sources (2026)
California Probate Code Secs. 5100 (POD accounts), 5500 (securities) and 5600-5698 (TOD deeds); after a Law Revision Commission review, the deed law now runs to January 1, 2032.
Watch out for
Whether the TOD deed law will be made permanent, and how often these deeds are later contested by other heirs, is still unsettled.
Connections (2)
▸Transfer-on-death & payable-on-death (incl. CA TOD deed) work like Beneficiary designations (they override your will)Standard practice
How they connect
TOD and POD registrations are beneficiary designations for bank accounts, securities, vehicles and real estate. Like retirement-plan beneficiary forms, they pass assets directly at death, outside probate, and override whatever a will or trust says. They must be updated after marriages, divorces and deaths, or assets go to the wrong person.
When it applies
POD bank accounts came first; California adopted uniform TOD rules for securities in the late 1990s and the revocable TOD deed in 2016.
How sure?
California Probate Code Secs. 5000-5698 treat these as nonprobate transfers; courts routinely enforce them over contrary wills.
Watch out for
Divorce doesn't always cancel them: Probate Code Sec. 5040 voids many transfers to an ex-spouse, but federal law preempts it for 401(k)s and other ERISA plans.
▸Transfer-on-death & payable-on-death (incl. CA TOD deed) can still trigger reassessment under Proposition 19 (parent–child transfer limits)Watch out
How they connect
A TOD deed avoids probate, but the transfer at death is still a change in ownership for property tax. Under Prop 19, a child keeps a parent's low Prop 13 value only on a family home the child moves into, and only up to about $1 million of added value. Rentals and commercial buildings are reassessed to market.
When it applies
Applies to transfers since February 16, 2021, when Prop 19 replaced the broader Prop 58 parent-child exclusion.
How sure?
California Constitution Article XIII A as amended by Prop 19; Revenue and Taxation Code Sec. 63.2; county assessors' BOE-19-P claim forms.
Watch out for
Families debate transferring during life, at death, or through an LLC; each carries different Prop 19, Prop 13 and basis costs. Check with an attorney and the assessor first.