What The Hive Law Charges for a Transfer on Death Deed
The Hive Law charges $550 to prepare, notarize, and record a Transfer on Death Deed for a Georgia property. This is one flat fee. It is not an hourly bill. You know the full cost before any work starts.
That fee is for one property. A TOD deed only covers the one piece of real estate named on it. If you own more than one property, talk to an attorney about your options. You may want a deed on each property, or a revocable living trust instead.
What the $550 Flat Fee Actually Covers
An attorney checks your property and your current plan first. This step confirms a TOD deed will not clash with a will, a trust, or another form you already signed.
The attorney then drafts the deed. It has to meet every rule in Georgia’s TOD deed law, O.C.G.A. § 44-17-2. A deed can be missing just one small thing, like the correct legal description. If it is, the deed is not valid. This is true even if you signed it in front of a notary.
Signing is not the last step. The deed is not final until it is filed with the county’s clerk of superior court. The Hive Law handles that filing as part of the flat fee. You do not make a separate trip to the courthouse.
Georgia’s Recording Fee Is a Separate, Much Smaller Cost
Georgia counties charge their own fee to file any deed. TOD deeds are no different. That county fee is $9.50 for the first page, plus $2 for each extra page. You pay this to the county, not to The Hive Law. It is separate from the $550 attorney fee.
This small county fee is what most people mean when they ask how much it costs to file a TOD deed. But that is not the same question as how much it costs to get a TOD deed done right. The county fee only pays to stamp the paper into the record. It says nothing about whether your deed is valid, or whether it is even the right tool for your family.
What Online Deed Services Charge, and What They Don’t Do
A few online services will fill out a Georgia TOD deed for $249 to $395. You type your information into a web form. They drop it into a template.
What they will not do is look at your full picture. They will not tell you if a trust should hold this property instead. They will not check if your new deed clashes with your will. They will not warn you what happens if your chosen heir dies before you do. An attorney at The Hive Law checks all of this as part of the $550 fee. It is not an extra charge.
When a TOD Deed Is the Right Tool for the Price
A TOD deed fits a simple case well. Say you own one property. You want it to go to one person, or a few people you can name by name. You do not have a funded trust yet. In that case, a $550 TOD deed can move that property around probate for a fraction of what a full trust costs.
It also works well as a quick add-on. Someone with a will but no trust can add a TOD deed just for the house. They do not have to rebuild their whole plan to do it.
When a TOD Deed Costs Your Family More Than It Saves
A TOD deed only works if your named heir actually finishes the process. If your beneficiary dies before you do, the deed does nothing. The property does not go to anyone else on its own.
Georgia removed the old 9-month deadline. This applies to deaths on or after July 1, 2026. There is no longer a set deadline your beneficiary has to beat. But the transfer is still not done until they sign and record the paperwork. Until they do, the property sits in an unclear state. That can make a later sale or refinance harder. Georgia law now also requires something new. The estate’s personal representative must tell each named beneficiary the deed exists. This happens once someone is formally appointed to that role.
If the transfer never gets finished, this can happen. The property ends up back in the same probate process a TOD deed is supposed to avoid.
- Cost: Georgia probate costs around $14,700 for a simple estate. It costs more for a contested one.
- Timeline: Probate usually takes about 13 months on average. It can take longer for a contested one.
- Control: Your family cannot sell, refinance, or transfer the property while it sits in probate. This is true even if everyone agrees on what to do.
A TOD deed also does nothing if you lose the ability to manage your own affairs before you die. If that happens, your family would need court approval just to manage the property for you. A funded trust avoids that extra cost and delay on its own.
How a TOD Deed’s Cost Compares to a Revocable Trust
A revocable living trust at The Hive Law starts at $3,500. That is several times the cost of one TOD deed. The higher price buys more. A trust covers every asset you place in it, not just one property. It also protects you automatically if you lose the ability to manage your own affairs, which a TOD deed cannot do.
Want the full comparison? See Transfer on Death Deed vs. Revocable Trust in Georgia for a side-by-side look at cost and coverage.
Do you own your property with someone else already? A TOD deed works differently on jointly owned property than a trust does. JTWROS vs. TOD Deed in Georgia walks through how the two compare when more than one name is on the title.
What Makes the Total Cost Go Up
The $550 fee covers a standard TOD deed on one Georgia property with a clean title. A few things can add cost. A title with an old error or an unresolved lien is one. A property owned by a trust or an LLC, instead of a person, is another. A messy legal description that has to be pulled from county records is a third. Your attorney will tell you first if your case falls into one of these groups, before any work starts.
What to Do Next
A Transfer on Death Deed is one of the fastest, cheapest ways to keep a Georgia property out of probate. But it is not the only tool, and it is not right for every family. Talk to our team about your property. We will tell you honestly whether a $550 TOD deed, a broader estate plan, or a mix of both fits what you actually need.
