No statutory TOD deed in Florida
Florida never adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, the framework roughly 30 other states have used to create a formal transfer-on-death deed. Its only statutory transfer-on-death law, Florida Statutes Chapter 711, covers securities — it doesn't extend to real property at all. A deed labeled "transfer on death" recorded on Florida land has no statutory basis and isn't a recognized instrument the way it would be elsewhere.
The common-law substitute: enhanced life estate
Instead, Florida recognizes the Lady Bird deed — formally, an enhanced life estate deed — at common law, supported by Florida Bar (Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section) Uniform Title Standards rather than a specific statute. The owner keeps a life estate with enhanced powers: the right to sell, mortgage, lease, or revoke the arrangement, all without needing the remainder beneficiary's consent. The remainder interest passes automatically to the named beneficiary at the owner's death, outside probate.
The key difference from an ordinary life estate
A traditional life estate deed doesn't offer this flexibility. Without the enhanced powers, a life tenant generally needs the remainder beneficiary's consent before selling, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of the property — a real constraint on the owner's control during their lifetime. The enhanced-powers language is what makes a Lady Bird deed function like a revocable transfer-on-death arrangement rather than a permanent, consent-requiring life estate; a standard life-estate form that's missing this language simply isn't a Lady Bird deed.
The homestead wall
Here's where things get genuinely complicated. Florida's Constitution restricts how homestead property can be devised when the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child. Under the Florida Bar's title standards, a remainderman named in a Lady Bird deed takes full title at the life tenant's death only when that transfer doesn't violate this constitutional restriction. In practice, this means a Lady Bird deed on homestead property needs to be structured with the surviving spouse's rights specifically accounted for — commonly through spousal joinder on the deed — or the deed can fail to accomplish what the owner intended, regardless of how clearly the enhanced-powers language was drafted.
Common ways a Lady Bird deed goes wrong
Beyond the homestead issue, a few recurring mistakes show up in practice: missing spousal joinder on homestead property, no contingent beneficiary named in case the primary beneficiary doesn't survive the owner, and generic online deed forms that omit the enhanced-powers language altogether — producing an ordinary, consent-requiring life estate instead of the flexible arrangement the owner actually wanted.
Signed like any other Florida deed
As a conveyance of an interest in real property, a Lady Bird deed has to be signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses under § 689.01, and recorded to meet Florida's ordinary recording requirements. There's no separate, simplified execution process just because the deed is meant to function like a transfer-on-death tool.