Dec. 17, 2025 – On Dec. 9, 2025 Governor Tony Evers signed 2025 Wisconsin Act 60 (“the Act”) into law. The Act updates four areas relevant to real estate and other practitioners:

1. Revoking a transfer of real property on death - §705.15

2. Obtaining evidence of the termination of a decedent’s property interests - §§867.045 and 867.046

3. Real property wholesaler contracts; disbursing deposits after rescission - §710.13

4. Filing satisfactions of judgment - §806.22

This article is focused on the revocation of a transfer of real property on death (TOD). For information about the other changes, see 2025 Assembly Bill 195/2025 Senate Bill 193.

Before getting into the thrust of the changes, it's important to understand a bit of the history of §705.15 and a recent unpublished Court of Appeals decision highlighting the need for clarification. Section §705.15, which is the Wisconsin TOD statute, was originally enacted in 2006 under 2005 Wisconsin Act 206, three years before the Uniform Law Commission adopted the Real Property Transfer on Death Act in 2009. Consequently, Wisconsin’s TOD law did not mirror those in other states.

Fast forward to 2017 - the Wisconsin Legislature asked the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the State Bar (RPPT), to review §705.15 in light of the Uniform law and consider revisions to bring our statute in line with the uniform law.

RPPT created a subcommittee of real estate and estate planning practitioners, including one of the authors,^[1] who performed a full-scale comparison of §705.15 and the uniform law. The subcommittee’s review resulted in 2017 Wisconsin Act 332, updating various sections of §705.15, including:

• Requiring that the TOD is submitted to the register of deeds for recording before the death of the owner - §705.15(2)
• Clarifying that the TOD is of no effect until the death of the last owner - §705.15(3)
• Adding a 120-day post-death time frame for challenging a TOD - §705.15(8)

At that time, the subcommittee and RPPT also considered revising the process for revoking a TOD under §705.15(3), but, for various reasons, chose to keep the 2006 version intact.

Now switch forward to 2024 and the unpublished Court of Appeals decision in McGarry v. Zambo (In re Estate of Witzig), Appeal No. 2023AP119. At the outset, it's important to note that this is a case of bad facts, shedding light on the need for clarification. Generally, here are the facts:

• 2013: Kenneth Witzig (Witzig) owned a home on Okauchee Lake in Waukesha County. In 2013 Witzig designated his neighbor Michael P. McGarry (McGarry) as his TOD beneficiary and named McGarry in his will.

• 2016: Witzig changed his designations, naming his financial advisor, Ruth Zambo (Zambo), as the TOD beneficiary and beneficiary in his new will.

• 2020: As part of a reverse mortgage, Witzig executed and recorded a quitclaim deed for the home, naming himself as both the grantor and grantee. This deed did not designate any TOD beneficiary.

• February 17, 2021: Witzig died.

• February 24, 2021: Zambo recorded a termination of decedent's interest/HT110, naming herself as the transferee.

• July 6, 2021: Zambo sold the property via a warranty deed (deed recorded August 5, 2021)

• September 17, 2021: McGarry filed a declaratory action, arguing that the 2020 quitclaim deed revoked Zambo's TOD beneficiary status and that she therefore had no valid title to convey the home. McGarry sought to have the property transferred to Witzig's probate estate.

Based on these facts, the circuit court^[2] ruled in favor of Zambo, concluding that: (i) the 2020 quitclaim deed did not revoke Zambo's TOD beneficiary status because it did not explicitly state an intent to do so or contain specific elements for revocation, and (ii) McGarry's claims were barred by the 120-day statute of repose in §705.15(8).

McGarry appealed. By its decision entered on March 27, 2024, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. The appellate court found:

1. Revocation of TOD Designation: Reading the plain language of §705.15(3), the appellate court found that a TOD beneficiary designation can be revoked by executing and recording "another document that designates a different TOD beneficiary or no beneficiary." Since the 2020 quitclaim deed, which conveyed Witzig's entire interest to himself, did not designate a TOD beneficiary, its recording effectively revoked Zambo's previous TOD beneficiary status. The Court rejected the argument that a revoking document must explicitly mention the TOD designation or include specific statutory elements.

2. Applicability of Statute of Repose: The Court held that the 120-day statute of repose under §705.15(8) did not apply to McGarry's claims because Zambo's TOD beneficiary status was revoked by the 2020 quitclaim deed. Thus, Zambo was not a TOD beneficiary at the time of Witzig's death.

As stated above, bad facts. Without going into whether it's proper for a financial advisor to inherit assets of their client/customer, at the end of the day it’s not abundantly clear what Witzig intended. In 2020 did Witzig understand and intend to revoke the 2016 TOD to Zambo? Or was he just signing a quitclaim deed to complete the reverse mortgage without thinking about who would receive his home when he died? Did Witzig want his neighbor McGarry to get the lake home? What did Witzig want?

Truly, we won’t ever know. But with the Act we now have a clearer framework for when a TOD is revoked. Section 705.15(3) now reads in its entirety:

(a) The designation of a TOD beneficiary on a document does not affect ownership of the property until the death of the sole owner or the last to die of multiple owners regardless of whether the document provides otherwise. Subject to par. (b), an instrument is effective to revoke a previously recorded document designating a TOD beneficiary, or any part of the previously recorded document, only if the instrument meets all of the following requirements:

1. The instrument is one of the following:

a. A document that complies with sub. (2) (a) and revokes the previously recorded document, or any part of the previously recorded document, expressly or by inconsistency.

b. An instrument of revocation that expressly revokes the previously recorded document, or any part of the previously recorded document.

c. An inter vivos deed that expressly revokes the previously recorded document, or any part of the previously recorded document.

2. The instrument is acknowledged by the owner after the owner acknowledged the previously recorded document, and the instrument is submitted for recording to the office of the register of deeds in the county in which the real property is located before the death of the sole owner or the last to die of multiple owners.

(b) If a document designating a TOD beneficiary is made by more than one owner, all of the following apply:

1. Revocation by an owner does not affect the document designating a TOD beneficiary as to the interest of another owner.

2. A document designating a TOD beneficiary of real property owned by 2 or more individuals as joint tenants or by spouses as survivorship marital property is revoked only if it is revoked by all of the living joint tenants or spouses.

(c) This subsection does not limit the effect of an inter vivos transfer of the property

With this revision to §705.15(3), Wisconsin’s TOD law is in line with the Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act’s section on Revocation.

Practice Pointer: Review your Transfer on Death Documents/ Designation of TOD Beneficiary forms - are you using the most recent version from the State Bar? Does your form include language like “By this document, the Owner revokes all previous TOD beneficiary designations”? If not, please update your form(s).

Endnotes

[1] In addition to Ms. Hipenbecker, the other members of the subcommittee included: Kathy Lambert, John Koch, Mark Schulz and the late, great, Robert Henzl.

[2] Waukesha County Case No. 2021 PR149 In the Estate of Kenneth J. Witzig, Jr.