Should I Use a Lady Bird Deed or a Living Trust for My Florida Home?

By Dominic L. Scheer, Esq., Florida Bar No. 1022250 · Reviewed by Dominic L. Scheer, Esq. · Last updated November 3, 2026

The papers are signed and the keys are on the table. The buyer, a retired teacher from Coral Springs named Diane who lost her husband last year, looks up and asks the question I hear at closings more than any other: "Should I just put my kids on the deed?" I'm a lawyer and a licensed Realtor, so I get this one from both sides of the table. The answer is no. The better question is whether her house needs a Lady Bird deed or a living trust, and that depends on facts about Diane, not about the house.

What is a Lady Bird deed in Florida?

"Lady Bird deed" is the nickname for an enhanced life estate deed. You sign a new deed to your home that keeps a life estate for yourself and names who gets the house when you die. Those people are the remainder beneficiaries. The "enhanced" part is what makes it useful: you keep the right to live there, sell, mortgage, or change the beneficiaries, all without asking them.

When you die, the house passes to the people you named without probate.

Two things worth knowing before you go looking for a form. First, no Florida statute creates or even names the Lady Bird deed. It's recognized in Florida practice and title standards, which is exactly why the wording matters. Second, Florida has not enacted a transfer-on-death deed for real estate. If you read online that you can record a "TOD deed" on your Florida house, you're reading about another state.

What does a Lady Bird deed do well?

For the right person, it's an elegant tool.

• One house, one document. No retitling a dozen accounts. You sign it, it gets recorded, and the house is handled.
• Your homestead exemption stays. Because you keep a life estate, you still hold equitable title for homestead exemption purposes (s. 196.041(2)).
• Save Our Homes doesn't reset. Deeding the house to yourself and adding others as grantees is not a change of ownership, as long as none of the added people applies for homestead on it (s. 193.155(3)(a)1.c). If your son later moves in and files for his own homestead exemption there, that changes.
• Your kids keep the step-up in basis. Because you kept a life estate, the house is included in your estate for federal tax purposes (26 U.S.C. 2036), and your beneficiaries generally take a tax basis equal to its fair market value at your death (26 U.S.C. 1014).

That last point is real money. Say Diane and her husband paid $185,000 for the Coral Springs house in 1999 and it's worth $575,000 when she dies. With a Lady Bird deed, her kids' basis is generally about $575,000. If they sell for around that number, there's little or no taxable gain.

And "included in your estate" doesn't mean estate tax for a family like Diane's. The 2026 federal exclusion is $15,000,000 per person, and Florida has no estate tax.

Where does a Lady Bird deed fall short?

A deed moves one house at one moment: your death. Everything else is outside its job description.

• It covers one property. The brokerage account, the CDs, the condo in Brickell: none of it. Each needs its own beneficiary designation, its own deed, or probate.
• It does nothing if you become incapacitated. If Diane has a stroke and the house has to be sold to pay for her care, the deed doesn't put anyone in charge. Her agent can sign only if her durable power of attorney gives that authority. Without one, the family may be headed to a court guardianship.
• It hands property over outright. If a grandchild under 18 ends up with a share, remember that parents can handle only up to $15,000 for a minor without a court; above that, Florida requires a court guardianship of the property (s. 744.301(2)). At 18 the guardianship ends and it's the child's (s. 743.07). For a beneficiary with special needs, or an adult child who shouldn't be handed a house, the deed can't hold anything back.
• It doesn't plan for what goes wrong. If one of your kids dies before you, gets divorced, or gets sued, the deed doesn't manage any of that. Fixing it means signing a new deed, and you have to be in a condition to sign one.

I'm married. Does a Lady Bird deed get around Florida's homestead rules?

No, and this is where we see the most trouble. If you're survived by a spouse or a minor child, Florida restricts who can receive your homestead at death (s. 732.4015). A lifetime transfer escapes that restriction only if you keep no power to revoke or revest (s. 732.4017). A Lady Bird deed keeps exactly that power. It's the whole point of the deed.

So when Hector deeds his Kendall homestead to the children from his first marriage with a Lady Bird deed, and his second wife survives him, the deed may not do what he expected. The homestead restrictions can still apply.

The fix is to have the spouse join in the deed or sign a written waiver of homestead rights in front of two subscribing witnesses (s. 732.702). If you have a minor child, the restriction applies no matter what your spouse signs. And a revocable trust doesn't escape this rule either (s. 732.4015(2)), so for married owners, both tools need the same spousal paperwork.

What does a living trust do that a deed can't?

A revocable living trust is a plan, not a single transfer. You're the trustee while you're alive and well, and you keep full control. What changes is what happens when you aren't able to act:

• Everything in one place. The house, the accounts, the Brickell condo, all governed by the same instructions.
• Incapacity is covered. The successor trustee you named can manage trust assets if you can't.
• Kids and vulnerable beneficiaries are protected. Instead of a guardianship over $15,000 and a check at 18, a child's share stays in trust with a trustee you picked, paid out at the ages you choose.
• Backups are built in. If a beneficiary dies first, the trust already says where that share goes.
• The house keeps its tax treatment. Your homestead exemption survives the transfer into your revocable trust, and the transfer isn't a change of ownership for Save Our Homes as long as no additional person applies for homestead (s. 196.041(2); s. 193.155(3)(a)1.b).

What a revocable trust doesn't do: it doesn't save taxes, and it doesn't protect you from creditors. Anyone selling it that way is selling something else. It also controls only what's actually titled in it. Our Florida trust funding checklist goes asset by asset.

Why not just add my kid to the deed?

Because it's a gift, and you can't take it back. Say Gloria bought her Pembroke Pines house in 1994 for $120,000 and adds her son to the title when it's worth $480,000.

• Taxes. The share she gives him keeps her old basis (26 U.S.C. 1015). No step-up on that share when she dies. A Lady Bird deed generally would have preserved it.
• Control. Want to sell or refinance? Now you need his signature.
• His problems become your house's problems. His creditors, his divorce, his bad year.
• The wording matters. In Florida, a deed to two or more people creates a tenancy in common unless it expressly provides survivorship (s. 689.15). Get it wrong and your half can end up in probate anyway.
• The Save Our Homes trap. If he later applies for homestead on the property, it becomes a change of ownership and the cap resets (s. 193.155(3)(a)1.c).

It's never the easier option. It just looks like one at the closing table.

So which one should I use?

Here's the rule of thumb we use.

A Lady Bird deed can be enough if all of these are true:

• You're not married, and you have no minor children.
• Your Florida home is most of what you own, and your accounts already have beneficiary or payable-on-death designations.
• Your beneficiaries are adults you'd hand the keys to tomorrow.
• You've already signed a durable power of attorney and a health care surrogate designation.

Use a funded revocable trust if any of these is true:

• You're married, especially in a second marriage with kids from before.
• A beneficiary is a minor, has special needs, or shouldn't get property outright.
• You own more than one property, or real money outside the house.
• You want one plan that keeps working if you can't manage your own affairs.

Diane, by the way, checks every box on the first list. Hector, remarried with kids from his first marriage, lands squarely on the second.

Whichever you pick, the house is only part of the plan. You still need a will, a power of attorney and a health care surrogate. And the wording is the whole game. A deed that leaves out the reserved powers can hand your kids a vested remainder, and then you need their signatures to sell your own house. That's not a shortcut. That's three co-owners you didn't mean to create. We draft and record these as part of a complete plan, not as a one-page favor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Florida have a transfer-on-death deed for real estate?

No. As of 2026, Florida has not enacted a transfer-on-death deed for real estate. The enhanced life estate (Lady Bird) deed is the closest tool, and it rests on Florida practice rather than a statute.

Will a Lady Bird deed cost me my homestead exemption?

No. A life estate holder holds equitable title for homestead exemption purposes (s. 196.041(2)), and Save Our Homes does not reset as long as none of the added beneficiaries applies for homestead on the property (s. 193.155(3)(a)1.c).

Can I sell my house after signing a Lady Bird deed?

Yes. With an enhanced life estate deed you keep the right to sell, mortgage or change the remainder beneficiaries without their consent.

Does a living trust protect my house from creditors or lower my taxes?

No. A revocable trust doesn't save taxes and doesn't protect you from creditors. Its value is control, a plan for incapacity, and keeping funded assets out of probate.

If I'm married, does my spouse need to sign?

If the house is your homestead, yes, in practice. A Lady Bird deed doesn't escape Florida's homestead devise restrictions (ss. 732.4015 and 732.4017), so your spouse should join in the deed or sign a waiver with two witnesses under s. 732.702.