In effect since January 2018
Maine adopted the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, part of its Probate Code at 18-C M.R.S. §§ 6-401 to 6-421, applicable to a transfer on death deed made before, on, or after January 1, 2018, as long as the transferor dies on or after that date. It lets an owner record a deed naming a beneficiary who receives real property automatically at death, without probate.
A later lifetime transfer can still override it
Maine's statute is specifically clear on one point that matters a great deal in practice: the transfer-on-death deed provisions do not limit the effect of an inter vivos transfer of the property. In plain terms, if the owner later sells, gifts, or otherwise conveys the property during their own lifetime, that later transfer can override the earlier TOD deed's beneficiary designation. A TOD deed is not a guarantee that the named beneficiary will actually receive the property — it only controls what happens if the owner still holds the property, unchanged, at the moment of death.
Creditor claims and the one-year deadline
A TOD deed beneficiary is not automatically shielded from the transferor's debts. Where the rest of the probate estate is insufficient to cover allowed claims against it, or statutory spousal and child allowances, the beneficiary is liable up to the value of the property they actually received. This liability is generally subject to a written-demand requirement, with the usual deadline running one year after the transferor's death.
MaineCare estate recovery can reach it too
Here's a distinctive and genuinely important point for anyone considering a TOD deed as part of Medicaid planning: an allowed MaineCare estate-recovery claim can use this same nonprobate-transferee liability mechanism that applies to ordinary creditor claims against a TOD deed beneficiary. In other words, simply moving real estate out of the probate estate through a TOD deed does not, by itself, shield that property from MaineCare's ability to recover benefits paid on the transferor's behalf. Anyone using a TOD deed specifically with Medicaid or long-term-care planning in mind should discuss this reach directly with an elder law attorney rather than assuming the TOD deed alone accomplishes that goal.
Revocation, especially for joint owners
Where a transfer on death deed is made by more than one transferor, revocation by one transferor doesn't affect the deed as to another transferor's interest — but a deed made by joint owners together is revoked only if it's revoked by all of the living joint owners. Once the deed has been recorded, it can no longer be revoked simply by performing a revocatory act on the physical document itself, such as tearing it up or writing "void" across it; a proper recorded revocation instrument is required instead.
Joint ownership still comes first
If the transferor is a joint owner survived by one or more other joint owners, the property belongs to those surviving owners with right of survivorship instead — the TOD deed only becomes effective if the transferor turns out to be the last surviving joint owner. See our guide to Maine joint tenancy rules for how that underlying co-ownership question gets decided, including Maine's unusually detailed list of accepted survivorship phrasing.