Lady bird deed in Florida: how an enhanced life estate deed works

A lady bird deed, also called an enhanced life estate deed, gives the owner a life estate in the property, names a remainder beneficiary, and reserves to the owner the power to sell, mortgage or give away the whole property without the beneficiary's signature. At the owner's death the remainder passes to the beneficiary without probate, because the property is not part of the probate estate (§ 731.201(14), Fla. Stat. (2026)). The deed's own wording creates the reserved powers (Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. of MI, 389 So. 3d 574 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023)).

How the deed works

Three Florida decisions describe the instrument. In Oglesby v. Lee, 73 Fla. 39, 73 So. 840 (1917), a father deeded land to his daughter as a gift, reserving possession for life and the right to resell. He later sold the land, and the Florida Supreme Court held the daughter had no title to clear because the deed “reserved to the grantor the right to sell the land.”

In Hirschenson, a son and his mother executed an enhanced life estate deed to facilitate a reverse mortgage to the mother, and the deed and mortgage were recorded together. A drafting error used “grantor” where the deed meant “grantee” in the paragraph on mortgage powers. The Third District affirmed the trial court's reformation of the deed, which confirmed the mother's right to mortgage the property without her son's consent, and affirmed the foreclosure judgment. A footnote quotes a Florida Bar CLE treatise (Wood, Florida Real Property Title Examination and Insurance, 11th ed. 2023) saying the holder of an enhanced life estate retains “the power to sell, convey, mortgage, and otherwise manage the property.”

In Varano v. Varano, No. 4D2024-1571 (Fla. 4th DCA June 11, 2025), a widow held an ordinary life estate under a deed with no language reserving a right to sell. The Fourth District held she could not sell a fee simple interest, and stated that “[i]n the absence of a ‘Lady Bird Deed,’ a life tenant cannot convey the property without the joinder of the remainderman.”

• During life. The owner keeps possession and the reserved powers. The Florida Department of Revenue described a deed with this wording: the life tenants reserved “full power and authority to grant, sell, convey, reconvey, mortgage, encumber, lease” and to divest a remainder beneficiary “without joinder of any Remainderperson” (TAA 20B4-004, October 16, 2020).
• At death. The life estate ends and the remainder passes to the beneficiary named in the deed. The deed reads the same way whether or not the owner left a will, because a will disposes of the estate, meaning property subject to administration (§ 731.201(14)).
• Signing. An interest in land over one year must be in writing, signed in the presence of two subscribing witnesses (§ 689.01(1)).
• Recording. The clerk may record the deed only if the names and post-office addresses of the signers, the preparer and each witness are printed on it, the name and address of each grantee appear, and the space reserved for the clerk is left clear: 3 inches by 3 inches at the top right of the first page and 1 inch by 3 inches on later pages (§ 695.26(1)).

Homestead rules

Table 1 lists the homestead provisions that bear on a deed of the owner's residence.

The constitution and chapter 732 speak of devise and descent. Neither text mentions a deed with a reserved life estate. Whether a remainder created by deed is treated as a devise when a spouse or minor child survives the owner is a question for the drafting lawyer and the title insurer before the deed is relied on.

Property taxes

• Exemption during life. A person whose possessory right rests on a beneficial interest for life is entitled to the homestead tax exemption if otherwise qualified, and that interest is declared “equitable title to real estate” (§ 196.041(2)).
• Recording the deed. A transfer by an instrument that lists the homestead owner as both grantor and grantee, with other individuals additionally named as grantees, is not a change of ownership for the assessment cap unless an additional grantee applies for a homestead exemption (§ 193.155(3)(a)1.c.).
• At death. A transfer of title is a change of ownership, and the property is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the following year (§ 193.155(3)(a)). The listed exceptions include transfers between spouses, transfers by operation of law to a surviving spouse or minor child under § 732.401, and a transfer on the owner's death to a permanent resident legally or naturally dependent on the owner (§ 193.155(3)(a)2.-4.).
• The beneficiary's own exemption. An exemption application is due to the county property appraiser on or before March 1 of each year, and missing it waives the exemption for that year with limited exceptions (§ 196.011(1)(a)).

Taxes on the deed and at death

Table 2 lists the tax rules most often asked about.

Mortgages

For residential property with fewer than five dwelling units, a lender may not exercise a due-on-sale clause on the listed transfers (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)):

• a transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower, paragraph (5);
• a transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower become an owner, paragraph (6);
• a transfer into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which does not transfer rights of occupancy, paragraph (8).

A remainder beneficiary who is not a spouse, a child or a relative at the owner's death is not on that list. In Hirschenson, the deed was recorded to facilitate a reverse mortgage, and the lender foreclosed after the life tenant's death on a mortgage the reformed deed authorized.

Medicaid and long-term care

• Estate recovery. Florida recovers Medicaid payments made after age 55 by filing a statement of claim against the estate of the deceased recipient in the probate proceeding (§ 409.9101(2)-(3)). “Estate” means the property of a decedent that is the subject of administration (§ 731.201(14)). Section 409.9101 contains no provision that reaches property outside the probate estate.
• Limits on recovery. The debt is not enforced if the recipient is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently and totally disabled child, and not against property exempt from creditors under the constitution or laws of Florida (§ 409.9101(6)-(7)). The Agency for Health Care Administration claim ranks in Class 3 for payment (§ 733.707(1)(c)).
• Eligibility look-back. A person who disposes of assets for less than fair market value within the look-back date may be ineligible for nursing-facility coverage. The look-back is 60 months for disposals on or after February 8, 2006 (42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)).
• Open point. These sources do not say how the Medicaid agency treats a lady bird deed for eligibility. The Medicaid planning guide covers the planning side.

Deed or revocable trust

Both pass property at death without a probate case. Table 3 sets the two side by side.

Problems the sources show

• No spouse joinder on homestead. The constitution requires it (Art. X, § 4(c)).
• Reserved powers missing or garbled. A life estate without power-to-sell language cannot convey without the remainderman (Varano), and a drafting slip produced a trial and an appeal in Hirschenson.
• Defects in signing or recording. Two subscribing witnesses (§ 689.01(1)) and the recording requirements of § 695.26(1).
• Several remainder beneficiaries. They become co-owners at the owner's death. The court “shall adjudge … that partition be made if it appears that the parties are entitled to it” (§ 64.051).
• A will that says something different. A will disposes of the estate (§ 731.201(14)). The home passes under the deed.
• A new home. A deed conveys the property it describes, so a replacement home needs its own deed.

Sources

Last checked: October 17, 2026. Statutes are cited to the 2026 Florida Statutes on the Florida Senate site.

• Art. X, § 4 and Art. VII, § 5, Fla. Const., The Florida Senate. Homestead; estate, inheritance and income taxes.
• § 731.201, § 732.401 and § 732.4015, Fla. Stat. (2026). Definitions; descent and devise of homestead.
• § 689.01, § 695.26 and § 64.051, Fla. Stat. (2026). Conveyance of real estate; recording requirements; partition.
• § 193.155, § 196.011 and § 196.041, Fla. Stat. (2026). Homestead assessments and exemption.
• § 201.02, Fla. Stat. (2026), documentary stamp tax on deeds. Florida Department of Revenue TAA 20B4-003 and TAA 20B4-004, October 16, 2020.
• § 28.222 and § 28.24, Fla. Stat. (2026). Clerk as county recorder; clerk service charges.
• § 409.9101, § 733.707 and § 736.0401, § 736.0201, § 736.0801, § 736.0813 and § 736.05055, Fla. Stat. (2026).
• Oglesby v. Lee, 73 Fla. 39, 73 So. 840 (1917). Hirschenson v. Compu-Link Corp. of MI, 389 So. 3d 574, No. 3D22-1960 (Fla. 3d DCA Sept. 6, 2023). Varano v. Varano, No. 4D2024-1571 (Fla. 4th DCA June 11, 2025).
• 12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3; 42 U.S.C. § 1396p; 26 C.F.R. § 25.2511-2; 26 U.S.C. § 2036, § 2038 and § 1014.
• IRS, Estate tax, accessed October 17, 2026. Florida Department of Revenue, Estate Tax, accessed October 17, 2026.
• Fla. Prob. R. 5.405, Florida Probate Rules, October 15, 2026 edition, The Florida Bar.

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