The enhanced life estate deed

Florida Lady Bird Deed (Enhanced Life Estate Deed)

Your home passes to the people you name — outside probate — while you keep every right an owner has: sell it, mortgage it, change your mind, or cancel the deed entirely, without anyone’s consent. Florida is one of the few states that recognizes it. This page explains how the instrument works under Florida law, then the deed we prepare: composed deterministically from your answers on a master curated from Florida practice, with the recording instruction sheet included.

Sell, mortgage, lease, or give away the property — no beneficiary consent, joinder, or notice
Change the beneficiaries, or cancel the deed entirely, by recording a new instrument
Keep every dollar of any sale — no duty to account to anyone
Homestead exemption and Save Our Homes assessment cap continue during your life

Start your deed — $199 →

Flat price. Sign with two witnesses and a notary, then record.

How it works

1Answer the guided questions — your current deed's legal description, your beneficiaries and their shares, and what happens if one does not survive you.
2The deed composes deterministically from the curated master — the reservation of powers, the homestead and marital recitals, and the recording blocks Florida law requires on the face of the instrument.
3Sign before two witnesses and a notary (your spouse joins if the property is a married owner's homestead).
4Record it with the Clerk in the property's county — the step-by-step instruction sheet with clerk links is included.

The instrument, explained

How a Florida lady bird deed works

A Florida lady bird deed — formally an enhanced life estate deed — lets you keep full control of your property for life, including the right to sell, mortgage, or change your mind, and then passes it automatically to the people you name when you die, without probate. This section is general information about Florida law, not legal advice.

What a lady bird deed is

A lady bird deed is a deed you sign now that reserves an enhanced life estate for yourself and names one or more remainder beneficiaries to receive the property at your death. Unlike a traditional life estate, the enhanced version lets you deal with the property freely during life — the beneficiaries get nothing until you pass. It is a common-law instrument recognized in Florida rather than a creature of a single Florida statute.

How it works in Florida

You stay in control

During your life you are the life tenant with enhanced powers: you can live in the home, rent it, sell it, mortgage it, or revoke the deed entirely — no beneficiary signature required.

It passes automatically at death

When you die, title vests in the named remainder beneficiaries by operation of the deed. Because the transfer happens outside your probate estate, that property avoids Florida probate administration.

It is revocable

You are not locked in. You can change beneficiaries or undo the deed at any time while you have capacity, which is why it is popular with people who want flexibility.

Why Floridians use it

The draw is probate avoidance for a specific property without giving up control. It is also commonly used to help preserve Florida homestead protections and the homestead tax exemption during life, and — because you retain control — it is generally not treated as a disqualifying transfer for Medicaid and can help avoid Medicaid estate recovery against the homestead. Those benefits are fact-specific and should be confirmed with a Florida attorney.

Limits and cautions

It only covers the property in the deed

A lady bird deed handles one parcel. It is not a substitute for a will, a revocable living trust, a durable power of attorney, or healthcare directives — most Florida plans use it alongside those documents.

Homestead rules still apply

If you are survived by a spouse or a minor child, Florida's constitutional homestead devise restrictions (§732.4015, §732.401) still limit how homestead can pass. The deed has to be drafted around those rules.

Drafting and title details matter

Legal description, the enhanced-powers language, recording, and how it interacts with mortgages and title insurance all have to be right. A defective lady bird deed can fail exactly when it is needed.

Lady bird deed vs. the alternatives

vs. a will

Property left by will must pass through Florida probate. A lady bird deed avoids probate for that property; the will still governs everything else you own.

vs. a revocable living trust

A trust can hold many assets and also plan for incapacity; a lady bird deed covers a single property. Many Florida plans use both.

vs. a transfer-on-death deed

Florida has no statutory TOD deed for real property — the lady bird deed is the Florida equivalent for passing real estate at death without probate.

Three ways to finish

From the deed itself to full concierge

Florida Lady Bird Deed

$199

Your completed deed, downloadable, with the recording instruction sheet and clerk links. You sign before two witnesses and a notary and record it with your county's clerk.

Start your deed

Lady Bird Deed + Remote Signing

$349

Everything in the deed — plus a remote signing session: a commissioned Florida online notary notarizes, and two witnesses witness, your own signing of the deed as you rendered it, in one video session under Fla. Stat. s. 117.285. You book the session; nobody reviews, corrects, or comments on the deed before or during it — the session is your execution, not the platform's supervision. County recording fees are paid by you at filing.

Start — choose this at checkout

Lady Bird Deed — All-In Concierge

$449

The remote signing session — and then a ministerial e-recording of the signed deed with the county exactly as executed, the county's recording fee passed through inside the package price, and the certified copy delivered to your vault as the clerk returns it. No acceptance guarantee: if the clerk rejects the filing, the rejection and the clerk's stated reason are reported to you verbatim, and you decide what to do.

Start — choose this at checkout

The deed is assembled from your own answers. The signing session and the recording are services performed on the deed as you executed it; nobody at EstateDraftFL reviews, corrects, or comments on it, and it is not a substitute for the advice or services of an attorney.

Add The Companion Will — $99 with any package

The will that backs up your deed — it covers everything the deed does not, names your personal representative and guardians, and carries the backstop devise so the property is caught if the deed ever fails. If you have a revocable trust, it composes as a true pour-over will. The deed services we compared did not list an actual will on the pages we checked. Read what the Companion Will covers.

Add the will

Have a revocable trust? Add the Pour-Over Will — $99

The will whose residuary pours into your revocable living trust at death (Fla. Stat. § 732.513), with the testamentary-trust fallback that keeps your plan alive even if the trust ever fails, the digital-assets authority, and the self-proving affidavit. The dedicated pour-over will pairs with your trust so everything the deed does not cover pours into it — with the fallback that keeps your plan alive even if the trust ever fails.

Add the pour-over will

Some deed services sell a living will, power of attorney, healthcare surrogate, and HIPAA authorization as add-ons around their deed. Those four documents are already inside our Will-Based plan at $199.

What this deed does

Passes outside probate

At death, the property passes to your named beneficiaries by operation of law — the deed itself is the transfer document, so the home does not go through probate administration.

The minimum documentary stamp

Florida's Department of Revenue has published its treatment (TAA 20B4-004): a deed reserving these enhanced powers makes no present transfer, so only the minimum documentary stamp — seventy cents — is generally due at recording, even on mortgaged property.

Title-practice ready

The deed carries the express divest-and-change power and the fee-simple later-conveyance clause reflected in Florida's Uniform Title Standards (6.10–6.12) — the language title examiners look for.

Recognized Florida practice

Enhanced life estate deeds are long-standing Florida practice — clerks in all 67 counties record them, and the Palm Beach County Clerk publishes its own form of this instrument.

Built like the best deeds on record

How this deed was built

Not a fill-in-the-blank form. One master, curated from Florida practice — and every claim below is documented, not asserted.

Six Florida drafting standards, compared

The master was composed from a specimen-by-specimen study of published lady bird drafting standards from six Florida practices — four in Miami and South Florida — with each firm's distinctive technique carried into one instrument.

The tax ruling, built in

The Department of Revenue's advisement (TAA 20B4-004) conditions the minimum-stamp treatment on the deed's reservation language — so that language, and a statement of intent reinforcing it, are permanent clauses of this master.

The title-examiner clauses

The express power to divest and change beneficiaries, and the fee-simple effect of later conveyances, follow Florida's Uniform Title Standards (6.10–6.12) — the provisions examiners look for before insuring a later sale without the beneficiaries' signatures.

The traps, closed by design

The predeceased-beneficiary probate trap, the married-homestead joinder requirement, the recharacterization risk of vague "life estate" wording, and the tax-bill legal-description mistake — each has a specific clause or a hard questionnaire rule aimed at it.

Questions families ask

What is a Florida Lady Bird deed?

An enhanced life estate deed: you keep full ownership and control of your property for life — including the rights to sell, mortgage, lease, change beneficiaries, or cancel the deed, without anyone's consent — and at your death the property passes to the beneficiaries you named, outside probate, by operation of law.

Is a lady bird deed legal in Florida?

Yes. Florida is one of a small number of states that recognizes the enhanced life estate deed — commonly called a lady bird deed. It is a common-law instrument (not created by a single Florida statute), and Florida title practice and courts treat it as valid when properly drafted and recorded.

Does it really avoid probate?

For the property it covers, yes — a properly signed and RECORDED enhanced life estate deed passes the property at death without probate administration. It covers only that property; a will still handles everything else, which is what the Companion Will add-on is for.

Can I change my mind later?

Yes. The deed reserves the power to sell, mortgage, give away, or convey the property, and to change or remove beneficiaries, by recording a later instrument — with no notice to and no consent from the beneficiaries.

Does Florida have a transfer-on-death (TOD) deed?

No. Florida did not adopt a statutory transfer-on-death deed for real property. The lady bird (enhanced life estate) deed is the Florida tool that achieves a similar 'pass at death without probate' result for real estate.

Does a lady bird deed affect my homestead exemption or Medicaid?

Generally it is designed to preserve Florida homestead protections and the homestead tax exemption during your life, and because you keep control it is generally not treated as a disqualifying transfer for Medicaid and can help avoid Medicaid estate recovery. These rules are highly fact-specific — confirm your situation with a licensed Florida attorney.

What does it cost to record?

The clerk's modest per-page recording fees, plus documentary stamp tax. Under the Department of Revenue's published treatment of enhanced life estate deeds (TAA 20B4-004), only the minimum stamp — seventy cents — is generally due, even if the property is mortgaged.

We own the home together — can my spouse and I make one deed?

Yes. The questionnaire offers the joint form for married co-owners: both spouses convey as grantors, every reserved power belongs to both of you together and then to the survivor alone, and the property passes to your beneficiaries only at the second death. Because both spouses sign as grantors, the homestead joinder happens on the face of the deed itself.

What if I'm married, or have a minor child, and this is my homestead?

Florida's constitution restricts how a married owner's homestead may pass, and a married owner's homestead conveyance requires the spouse to join in signing — this deed includes the joinder block. Whether an enhanced life estate deed fully satisfies the homestead restrictions where a spouse or minor child survives is a question Florida's appellate courts have not definitively settled, so that situation is one to bring to a licensed Florida attorney before signing.

What happens to my mortgage?

It stays on the property. Federal law (the Garn-St Germain Act) generally keeps common estate-planning transfers by an owner-occupant from triggering a due-on-sale clause, and many owners also confirm with their lender before recording.

What it does not do

It is not a will — it covers only the property described in it, and names no personal representative or guardian.
It does not protect the property from your own creditors during your life.
If you are married or have a minor child and the property is your homestead, Florida's constitutional homestead restrictions raise questions the courts have not definitively settled — a question for a licensed Florida attorney before signing.
An existing mortgage stays on the property.