Property Law, Retirement Investing & Planning, Tax Planning

Wisconsin Transfer on Death (TOD) Downloadable Form — But Does it Protect Your Home from a Nursing Home?

WI-Transfer-on-Death-Standard-Form‑9–2009 Download

How to Com­plete a Wis­con­sin Trans­fer on Death (TOD) Deed
A Wis­con­sin Des­ig­na­tion of Trans­fer on Death Ben­e­fi­cia­ry form (Form 9–2009) allows you to name a ben­e­fi­cia­ry to inher­it your real estate auto­mat­i­cal­ly upon your death, bypass­ing pro­bate.
Below is an overview of how to com­plete and record this doc­u­ment.
Step 1: Iden­ti­fy the Prop­er­ty and Own­ers
    • List cur­rent own­ers: Print the exact name(s) of the prop­er­ty own­ers as they appear on the cur­rent deed.
    • Add the legal descrip­tion: Copy the full, ver­ba­tim legal descrip­tion of the prop­er­ty from your cur­rent deed or tax records (a stan­dard street address is usu­al­ly not enough).
    • Insert the Par­cel ID: Include the unique tax par­cel iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber assigned by your coun­ty.

Step 2: Name Your Ben­e­fi­cia­ries
    • Des­ig­nate the ben­e­fi­cia­ries: Clear­ly print the full names of the indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions you want to inher­it the prop­er­ty.
    • Spec­i­fy shares: If nam­ing mul­ti­ple peo­ple, state how they will hold title (e.g., as “joint ten­ants” or “ten­ants in com­mon”).

Step 3: Sign in Front of a Notary
    • Do not sign ear­ly: Wait to sign the doc­u­ment until you are phys­i­cal­ly in front of a licensed notary pub­lic.
    • Pro­vide iden­ti­fi­ca­tion: All cur­rent own­ers must sign the form and present a valid pho­to ID to the notary.

Step 4: Record the Deed Imme­di­ate­ly
    • Locate your coun­ty office: Take the com­plet­ed, nota­rized form to the Reg­is­ter of Deeds office in the Wis­con­sin coun­ty where the prop­er­ty is locat­ed.
    • Pay the record­ing fee: Expect a stan­dard state record­ing fee (cur­rent­ly $30 per doc­u­ment).
    • Meet the dead­line: The form must be record­ed before the prop­er­ty own­er pass­es away, or it becomes com­plete­ly invalid.

Important Asset Protection Considerations

Does a Trans­fer on Death (TOD) deed pro­vide asset pro­tec­tion?

No, a Trans­fer on Death (TOD) deed does not gen­er­al­ly pro­tect your home from Med­ic­aid estate recov­ery.
If you or your spouse require Med­ic­aid for nurs­ing home care, gen­er­al­ly, your assets can be used to pay for your (and/or your spouse’s) care. 
The 5‑Year Look-Back vs. Med­ic­aid Estate Recov­ery
    • The Look-Back Rule: In Wis­con­sin, Med­ic­aid gen­er­al­ly reviews all asset trans­fers made with­in the 60 months (5 years) before you apply for long-term care ben­e­fits. Gift­ing or trans­fer­ring prop­er­ty for less than fair mar­ket val­ue dur­ing this win­dow trig­gers a finan­cial penal­ty, delay­ing your eli­gi­bil­i­ty. Some types of long-term care insur­ance increas­es your exclu­sion from the state tak­ing your assets.
    • The TOD Deed Trap: Record­ing a TOD deed is not con­sid­ered a divest­ment (gift) dur­ing your life­time because you retain full own­er­ship and con­trol. It does not trig­ger a look-back penal­ty.
    • The Estate Recov­ery Real­i­ty: While a TOD deed suc­cess­ful­ly bypass­es pro­bate, Wis­con­sin uses an expand­ed def­i­n­i­tion of “estate” for Med­ic­aid recov­ery. Upon your death, the Wis­con­sin Estate Recov­ery Pro­gram can still place a lien or claim on non-pro­bate assets—including prop­er­ty trans­ferred via a TOD deed—to get reim­bursed for your care costs.
    • The Wis­con­sin Estate Recov­ery Pro­gram is designed for the state to recov­er nurs­ing home costs and seeks repay­ment by fil­ing claims in pro­bate. Depend­ing on the facts, the pro­gram may also file liens against prop­er­ty to secure the Pro­gram’s place in line as a cred­i­tor. 

Why an Irrev­o­ca­ble Trust Pro­tects the Asset Bet­ter
    • Com­plete Asset Removal: Mov­ing your prop­er­ty into an Irrev­o­ca­ble Med­ic­aid Asset Pro­tec­tion Trust (MAPT) removes the asset from your per­son­al name entire­ly.
    • Beat­ing the 5‑Year Clock: Trans­fer­ring the deed into an irrev­o­ca­ble trust does count as a trans­fer under the 5‑year look-back rule. How­ev­er, once the 5‑year clock expires, the home is com­plete­ly shield­ed from Med­ic­aid eli­gi­bil­i­ty counts and is entire­ly safe from estate recov­ery liens after you pass away.