The form that keeps a Delaware car out of an estate, filed while the owner is alive. It names up to three beneficiaries who take the vehicle on the owner's death, and it must accompany the title when the transfer-on-death designation is added - which is why the Division puts a warning on the form itself about lenders holding the certificate.
Written against MV2025 (12/16/2024), issued under 21 Del. C. s. 2304, printed on the form itself, under which a motor vehicle may be titled in transfer-on-death form.
The single most common way this form fails has nothing to do with the form. If a lender is holding your certificate, you cannot attach a transfer-on-death designation to it, and getting the certificate back is an MV35 to the lender and a wait of up to sixty days at the DMV. Start there, not here.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV2025 from the dmv.de.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV2025 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual MV2025, rendered from the PDF the Delaware Division 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
One owner, one beneficiary, and two thirds of the page left grey because Delaware prints three identical beneficiary blocks whether you need them or not. Note where the vehicle owner signs and where the beneficiary signs - both are required, and they are in different halves of the form.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Registration number and VIN
The top row: the plate number the car is registered on, and its vehicle identification number.
Watch out: Delaware calls it registration here and tag elsewhere on the same set of forms. It is the same number.
2
You fill this in
Current expiration, year, make, model
The second row of the vehicle block, all four boxes.
Watch out: The expiry date comes off the registration card, not off the sticker on the plate - they can differ by a few days.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle owner and licence number
Your name and Delaware licence number, on the first of the two owner rows.
Watch out: Exactly as the front of the certificate carries it. This is a document about who owns the car, and the Division reads it against its own record.
4
You fill this in
The second vehicle owner row
The co-owner's name and licence number, where the title names two.
Watch out: On a title joined by AND, both owners are giving the car away and both have to be here and to sign below.
5
You fill this in
Printed name, signature, date - owner one
Under the heading ALL VEHICLE OWNERS(S) MUST SIGN. Print, sign, date.
Watch out: The certification above it is that the person named below is the beneficiary to whom the vehicle shall be transferred upon your death. Read it before you sign it.
6
You fill this in
Printed name, signature, date - owner two
The second row of the same block.
Watch out: Left empty on a sole-owner car, which is why it is greyed on the sample. Filled in, it is not optional.
7
Somebody else fills this in
TOD beneficiary and licence number
The first beneficiary block: their full name and Delaware licence number.
Watch out: A beneficiary without a licence number slows this down. If they do not drive, the Division will want another identifier - ask before you file.
8
Somebody else fills this in
Their address, city, state and ZIP
Four boxes across two rows in the same block.
Watch out: Where the Division will write when the time comes. Worth revisiting if they move.
9
Somebody else fills this in
Relationship
One box at the end of the address row - daughter, son, spouse, and so on.
Watch out: Not decoration. It is one of the ten things the Division asks for in each beneficiary block.
10
Somebody else fills this in
TOD signature, date and phone
The beneficiary signs and dates their own block and adds a phone number.
Watch out: The beneficiary has to sign. A designation naming somebody who has not signed it is an incomplete form, and there are three blocks like this one.
11
Somebody else fills this in
The second and third beneficiary blocks
Identical to the first, for two more beneficiaries.
Watch out: Leave them empty rather than writing none. Delaware prints three because it accepts up to three, not because it expects three.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Registration number, VIN, current expiration, year, make, model
The vehicle, across two rows at the top.
Vehicle owner and licence number, twice
Two rows, because a Delaware title can carry two names and both of them are giving the car away.
The certification
I (we) hereby certify that the below applicant(s) is the beneficiary (TOD) to whom my (our) motor vehicle shall be transferred upon my (our) death(s).
All vehicle owners must sign
Two rows of printed name, signature and date. The heading above them is in capitals and means what it says.
Beneficiary blocks, three of them
Each with TOD beneficiary name, licence number, address, city, state, ZIP, relationship, signature, date and phone. Three identical blocks down the page.
21 Del. C. s. 2304
Printed in the bottom right corner, next to the form number and its date - the statute the whole page runs on.
What gets this one rejected
•Sending it without the certificate. The instruction sits under the title of the form: this form must accompany the title when adding TOD.
•Forgetting the lender has the title. Printed in the same sentence: if a lienholder has the title you must request the title from the lienholder - which is the MV35 errand, and it takes weeks.
•One owner signing where two are named. All vehicle owners must sign, in capitals, above two full rows of printed name, signature and date.
•A beneficiary who does not sign. Each of the three beneficiary blocks carries a TOD signature line and a date of its own.
•Leaving the relationship blank. It is one of the ten items in every beneficiary block, and the Division asks for it in each one.
•Filing it after the owner has died. A transfer-on-death designation is made by a living owner. Afterwards the car moves under 21 Del. C. s. 2506, by operation of law, and that is a different route entirely.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•What the statute does. 21 Del. C. s. 2304 lets a motor vehicle be titled in transfer-on-death form by including the designation in the application for the certificate. The vehicle then passes outside the estate to the named beneficiary.
•Why it matters to a seller. A car with a transfer-on-death designation on its certificate is still yours to sell in your lifetime - the designation only bites on death. But the certificate carries it, and a buyer's clerk will see it, so know it is there before somebody at a counter asks you about it.
•The other half of the death set. Where no designation was made, 21 Del. C. s. 2506 governs. The registration expires and the vehicle may not be operated until the person entitled applies for registration, inspection and a transfer of title - unless the surviving spouse, children or immediate household members give the Department due and proper notice, on the form provided for it.
Every line here was read off MV2025 (12/16/2024) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Delaware Division 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.
