How to fill out Montana MV13

Montana's transfer-on-death paperwork for a vehicle, and it belongs on a seller's list for two opposite reasons. If you are keeping the car, this is how you spare whoever inherits it a trip through probate. If you are selling it, the designation dies with the sale - a transfer of ownership processed before the last surviving owner's death revokes it automatically - and if you are selling a car you inherited under someone else's designation, this form's instructions are the checklist for doing it. Up to five beneficiaries, none of whom has any interest at all while you are alive.

Written against MV13 (8/26), issued under MCA 61-3-226, certificate of title transfer on death; signed under MCA 45-7-203. If you inherited the car under a designation and are now selling it, do not sign the title as though the designation transferred ownership by itself. MCA 61-3-226(5)(b) is explicit that a beneficiary acquires no use, ownership or economic interest until the department has actually issued a replacement title or effected the transfer - so the paperwork has to reach a counter before your signature means anything.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV13 from the mvdmt.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our MV13 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Section 1: the owners, as the title prints them

   Full legal name including any suffix, physical address, identification number, email and phone for every owner.

   Watch out: Use the name on the face of the title. A designation filed under a shortened version of your name is a mismatch the department has to resolve before it can attach it to the record.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Section 2: the vehicle

   Year, make, model and the VIN or hull number.

   Watch out: The designation attaches to a vehicle record, not to you. Selling this car and buying another leaves the new one with no designation at all.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Section 3: who inherits it

   Legal name, identification number and issuing state, mailing address, phone and email for each beneficiary, up to five.

   Watch out: Name them all now. If more than one is designated, the instructions require every one of them to apply and to provide identification after the death - so a beneficiary you left off cannot be added later by agreement.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Section 4: every owner signs

   Signature and date for the owner and for any joint owner.

   Watch out: The certification you are signing says a will does not revoke or supersede this designation. If your will leaves the car to somebody else, one of the two documents needs changing, and it is not going to be this one.

What gets this one rejected

• •One signature on a two-owner title. The certification's own last line is all owners must sign, and a joint owner who did not sign has not designated anybody.
• •A designation filed on its own. This form travels with a title transaction: an MV1 when applying for a title, or an MV7 replacement application when adding, changing or revoking a designation already on record.
• •Six beneficiaries. The instructions cap it at five.
• •A beneficiary trying to claim without every death certificate. All owners on the current Montana title need one, and where there are multiple beneficiaries, all of them must apply and all must provide identification.
• •Treating a will as an override. The form says the opposite in its own certification - a will does not revoke or supersede this designation regardless of when the will is made.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It survives everything except a sale or a new filing. The instructions give exactly two ways it ends: a transfer of ownership processed before the last surviving owner's death, or a new designation form filed to change or revoke it.
• •A beneficiary has three routes afterwards. Request a title in their own name, request title and registration, or sell the vehicle straight on - the third needing an MV24 signed by all beneficiaries, an MV1 in the purchaser's name, and the purchaser's identification.
• •It does not outrank a lender. The certification and MCA 61-3-226(6) agree: the designation does not limit the rights of a lienholder whose lien attached before the death of the owner or last surviving joint owner.
• •Joint owners are already covered without it. MCA 61-3-202(4) presumes joint ownership with right of survivorship on a multi-name Montana title, so a designation is about what happens after the last of you, not the first.
• •It can be filed anywhere the division works. The instructions accept it at the MVD, a county treasurer's office, or an MVD authorized agent, with the usual title and registration fees.

Every line here was read off MV13 (8/26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Montana Department of Justice, Motor Vehicle Division, Vehicle Services Bureau pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Montana seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Montana involves.