How to fill out Connecticut Beneficiary designation
The Connecticut transfer-on-death provision, and it does not live on the title. It is printed on the reverse of the registration certificate - the same side as the change-of-address block - and a sole individual owner can complete it in three minutes with somebody in the room to witness. Do it and the car passes on death without probate. Miss the sixty-day application window afterwards and the statute takes it away again.
Written against Beneficiary designation (no revision printed), issued under Conn. Gen. Stat. s. 14-16(b), designation of beneficiary on the certificate of registration.
The department prints no revision date on this sheet, and it is not a form you obtain separately - it is the reverse of your own registration certificate, which is why its instruction is to keep it in the vehicle rather than return it. Complete it, keep it, and tell the beneficiary where it is.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Beneficiary designation from the portal.ct.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual Beneficiary designation, rendered from the PDF the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Filled in on the reverse of a live registration certificate, which is where Connecticut keeps its transfer-on-death provision. The change-of-address block at the top is greyed because it is a separate, unrelated part of the same sheet. Every name and number here is invented for the sample.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Name of Owner(s) and Address
The owner information block, filled in exactly as the front of the certificate carries it.
Watch out: If there is a co-owner named on the front, stop - the designation is only available where there is no specified co-owner.
2
You fill this in
Vehicle Year, Make and Model
Three boxes describing the car this designation applies to.
Watch out: The designation is per vehicle. A second car needs a second certificate completed the same way.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number and Current Odometer Reading
The VIN, and the mileage as it stands on the day you sign.
Watch out: The odometer box surprises people on a document about death. Fill it in anyway; the department asks for a reading whenever ownership is going to change.
4
You fill this in
Name of Beneficiary
One individual, last name first.
Watch out: One person only. There is no second beneficiary line and no alternate - if the named person predeceases you, the designation does nothing.
5
You fill this in
Operator Licence Number and Date of Birth
The beneficiary's licence number, with the issuing state where it is not Connecticut, and a date of birth if you know it.
Watch out: Both are how the department identifies the applicant sixty days after your death. Guessing at them helps nobody.
6
You fill this in
Signature of Owner and Date Signed
Your own signature, as it appears on the front of the certificate.
Watch out: Match the front. This designation will be read by somebody comparing it against a registration record and a death certificate.
7
Somebody else fills this in
Signature of Witness, Printed Name and Date
One witness signs and prints their name beside yours.
Watch out: It cannot be the beneficiary - the form says so in its own parenthesis. A neighbour, a colleague or a friend is fine; there is no notary requirement.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Change of address for a motor vehicle
The top half of the same sheet, and nothing to do with the designation. Its own instruction: change of address must be reported to the DMV within 48 hours ... Enter new address below, but do not return this certificate. Continue to keep it in the vehicle.
Owner Information: Name of Owner(s), Address
Two full-width boxes.
Vehicle Information: Vehicle Year, Vehicle Make, Vehicle Model
Three boxes across a row.
Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), and Current Odometer Reading
Two boxes beneath them. The odometer reading is asked for even here.
The eligibility sentence
If the owner is an individual (not a firm or corporation), and if there is no specified co-owner, then the owner may designate a BENEFICIARY below who shall assume ownership of the motor vehicle described in this certificate upon the death of the owner of record.
Name of Beneficiary (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial)
One person, named in full.
Operator License Number (If NOT CT, specify state issuing license), and Date of Birth (If known)
Two identifying boxes for the beneficiary.
Address
The beneficiary's, on one line.
The designation
I hereby designate the above individual person as my BENEFICIARY with respect to this motor vehicle specified on the front of this certificate, who shall assume ownership of this motor vehicle after my death upon proper application to the DMV no later than (60) days from the date of my death.
Signature of Owner (as appearing on front of this certificate), and Date Signed
The owner's own signature, matched against the registration.
Signature of Witness (Note: Beneficiary can NOT sign as a witness), Printed Name of Witness, Date Signed
One witness, and the form rules out the obvious candidate in its own parenthesis.
Notice to beneficiary
The reminder at the foot: no later than sixty days after the death of the owner, the beneficiary applies to the department.
What gets this one rejected
•A designation by two co-owners. The eligibility sentence limits it to an individual with no specified co-owner.
•A designation by a company. Firms and corporations are excluded in the same sentence.
•The beneficiary signing as the witness. The form says so in capitals inside a parenthesis, which is as clear as Connecticut gets.
•An application more than sixty days after the death. Section 14-16(b) does not extend it - the beneficiary shall have no right to obtain ownership.
•Assuming it does anything while you are alive. The statute is explicit: the owner making such designation shall have all rights of ownership of such motor vehicle during the owner's life and the beneficiary shall have no rights in such motor vehicle until such time as the owner dies and an application is made.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•What the beneficiary has to produce. Section 14-16(b): the original certificate of registration in which the beneficiary is designated, a death certificate for the deceased owner, proof of the beneficiary's identity, the transfer fee under subsection (c), and the applicable registration, title and number plate fees.
•A registration survives its owner's death for a while. Section 14-16(c): unless the vehicle is destroyed the registration continues in force until the end of the registration period, or until ownership is transferred - and a transfer to a brother, sister, father, mother, child or spouse continues it for a fee the statute writes as twenty dollars.
•It sits alongside the probate route rather than replacing it. Where there is no designation and the title says AND, the Probate Court appoints a fiduciary and a certified decree travels with the certificate.
•It is not the same as a joint OR title. A joint title with OR gives survivorship immediately and needs no application. A beneficiary designation gives nothing until death and then needs one within sixty days.
•The sheet does two jobs. The upper half is a change-of-address block with its own forty-eight hour deadline, and it has nothing to do with the designation below it.
Every line here was read off Beneficiary designation (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
