Transfer on death deed in Hawaii

Hawaii at a glance

TOD deed for real estate

Yes

Name in Hawaii law

Transfer on death deed

Law

HRS ch. 527 (Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act), §§ 527-1 to 527-17

Notary

Required

Witnesses

None

When to record

Before the death

Where to record

Bureau of Conveyances (Regular System), or the office of the assistant registrar of the Land Court for Land Court property

After-death document

Land Court property: a petition to the Land Court noting the transferor's death and asking for a new certificate of title. Regular System property: the statute names no document.

Notice to heirs

Not required

Official form

No state form

Your checklist

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Making a valid TOD deed in Hawaii

• What the law does. A recorded deed transfers the owner's Hawaii real property to the named beneficiaries at death. It has no effect during the owner's life and can be revoked.
• Signing. An individual owner signs. The deed must have the essential elements and formalities of a recordable deed, and any recordable conveyance needs a certificate of acknowledgment (notary). No witnesses are required. Capacity is the same as for making a will.
• Recording. The deed must say the transfer happens at the owner's death, and it must be recorded or filed before the owner dies. The statute sets no deadline after signing. A deed not recorded before death does not meet the requirements. Hawaii's Department of Taxation says a document that conforms to a chapter 527 TOD deed needs no conveyance tax certificate (Forms P-64A/P-64B) and may be recorded or filed directly with the Bureau of Conveyances.
• Payment, delivery, acceptance. No notice, delivery, acceptance, or payment is needed during the owner's life.
• Form. HRS ch. 527 contains no statutory form.

Changing it, and who you can name

• Revoking or changing. The deed can always be revoked. Revocation works only by an instrument the owner acknowledges after the TOD deed and records or files before death. That can be a later TOD deed, an instrument of revocation, or an inter vivos deed that expressly revokes it. Tearing or destroying a recorded deed does not revoke it. A deed signed by joint owners is revoked only if all living joint owners revoke it.
• Beneficiaries. Beneficiaries can be any person, including individuals, trusts, and entities. A beneficiary must survive the owner, or the share lapses, subject to the probate code's survival and anti-lapse rules cross-referenced in the statute (HRS 560:2-702, 2-706, 2-707). Multiple beneficiaries share equally with no survivorship. A lapsed share goes to the other beneficiaries.

After the owner dies

• Document. Land Court property: a petition to the Land Court noting the transferor's death and asking for a new certificate of title. Regular System property: the statute names no document.
• Where. Land Court (assistant registrar) for registered land. For Regular System land, the Bureau of Conveyances (no procedure named in the statute)
• Steps. For Land Court property, the beneficiary must file and process a petition noting the death and requesting a new certificate of title in the beneficiary's name before the interest transfers. For Regular System property, the statute says the property transfers at death but names no after-death filing. No official Bureau of Conveyances guidance was found. Statute 527-14 allows disclaimer.

Debts, Medicaid and the spouse

• Creditors and Medicaid. If the probate estate cannot pay allowed claims or statutory allowances to a surviving spouse or child, the estate may enforce them against the TOD property. Liability is split among multiple properties by net value. A claim must start within eighteen months after death. HRS 346-37 lets the state claim against a deceased Medicaid recipient's 'estate', but the sources reviewed do not say whether TOD property counts.
• Surviving spouse. The statute makes the TOD transfer subject to the probate code's elective-share provision (HRS 560:2-202) and the related rules it cross-references.

Good to know in Hawaii

• If the owner is a joint owner and another joint owner survives, the property goes to the surviving joint owner and the TOD deed has no effect (527-13(c)).
• The deed transfers property without warranty of title, and the beneficiary takes subject to mortgages, liens, and other interests existing at death (527-13(b), (d)).
• The TOD deed does not affect the owner's or beneficiary's eligibility for public assistance during the owner's life (527-12(4)).
• For Regular System (Bureau of Conveyances) property, the law names no specific after-death document; ask the Bureau of Conveyances what it needs.

Official pages

• Hawaii statute
• No TOD deed or other plan? How Hawaii handles a small estate without probate →

Sources

• HRS chapter 527, Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act (read October 28, 2026)
• HRS 502-41, certificate of acknowledgment required to record (read October 28, 2026)
• HRS 346-37, recovery of medical assistance (read October 28, 2026)
• Hawaii Department of Taxation, Instructions for Form P-64A (Rev. 2024) (read October 28, 2026)

Legal information from the official sources above, not legal advice. A TOD deed can affect Medicaid, taxes, creditors and co-owners; for a decision about your own property, ask the county recorder, a legal aid office or a lawyer. How we check: methodology.