Wisconsin Termination of Decedent's Interest Checklist: How to File, Step by Step

The fill-in form is the Wisconsin Register of Deeds Association's standard HT-110/TOD-110, supplied free by each county register of deeds and posted at wrdaonline.org — an association form, not a state-issued one. Either way, Wis. Stat. §§ 867.045, 867.046(2) is what sets out what a compliant filing must contain. Here is the full sequence, with the statutory fact behind each step.

1. 1

   Find the document that made the interest end at death

   Locate the recorded deed (joint tenancy, life estate, or transfer-on-death), the land contract or mortgage, or the marital property agreement. Its wording decides whether this filing applies and which statute it falls under.

2. 2

   Choose the statute on the form

   Check § 867.045 for real property held in joint tenancy or a life estate, or a land-contract vendor's or mortgagee's interest. Check § 867.046 for survivorship marital property, a marital property agreement, or a transfer-on-death designation.

3. 3

   Confirm you can sign

   Under § 867.045, any person interested in the property may sign. Under § 867.046, the spouse, the marital-property-agreement beneficiary, or the transfer-on-death beneficiary signs; any interested person may after 90 days if none of them has acted.

4. 4

   Get the standard form from the register of deeds

   Use the Wisconsin Register of Deeds Association's "Termination of Decedent's Interest" form (HT-110 and TOD-110, Version 6.21.18) and its instructions (revised 12/15/2025), from your county register of deeds or the association's forms page. View source →

5. 5

   Complete the form

   Enter the decedent's name, date of death, and address at death; the document under which the interest ended (recorded document number, or the unrecorded agreement); the property (the legal description from the recorded document, the current one if different, or a description of non-real property such as an account or security); the names and addresses of the owners immediately after death; and your interest in the property.

6. 6

   Sign before a notary

   The declaration is signed and acknowledged before a notary. The statute requires the applicant to verify the information under oath.

7. 7

   Gather the attachments

   A copy of the creating document (for an unrecorded agreement or trust, at least the first page, the page saying who receives the property, and the signature pages); for real property, the legal description if different and a copy of the tax bill for the year before death or the most recent bill if your county requires it; and a completed electronic real estate transfer return using exemption 11 (joint tenancy, life estate) or 11m (transfer-on-death deed). View source →

8. 8

   Record it with the right county

   Record real property with the register of deeds in the county where it is located — a separate form for each county — and non-real property with the register of deeds in the county where the decedent last lived. The recording fee is $30. For a § 867.046 filing, the register of deeds also sends a copy to the circuit court unless the clerk of courts has told it that isn't necessary.

9. 9

   Keep the recorded copy

   Once recorded, the form is evidence that the decedent's interest ended, with the same effect as a court certificate, and a later buyer or lender who relies on it in good faith takes title free of the estate's claims.

Who publishes the form, and what the statute requires

The fill-in form is the Wisconsin Register of Deeds Association's standard HT-110/TOD-110, supplied free by each county register of deeds and posted at wrdaonline.org — an association form, not a state-issued one. Whichever version you use, the requirements above — read directly against Wis. Stat. §§ 867.045, 867.046(2) — are what a compliant filing has to satisfy.

Recording it is only step one

A recorded filing doesn't always finish the job on its own — some mechanisms still need a follow-up step before a sale or transfer can actually close. Free one-pager: the real scenarios that come up after recording and what resolves each, emailed now. Then a few short follow-ups over the next few weeks — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.

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