How to fill out Nevada VP 239, the Transfer on Death Application
Names a beneficiary on your Nevada title so the car passes to them automatically when you die, skipping probate entirely. It is the form to file while you are alive — the one that saves whoever inherits the car from needing every other document on this page.
Written against VP 239 (Rev 03/2024), issued under NRS 482.247 and NAC 490.435.
March 2024 revision. Two limits decide whether you can use it at all: the owner must be an individual rather than a business, and a beneficiary cannot be added while there is a lienholder on the title or while ownership is held as Tenants in Common.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VP 239 from the dmv.nv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VP 239 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VP 239, rendered from the PDF the Nevada 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
VP 239 completed by an owner adding her son as beneficiary to a 2009 Mini Cooper. Only one of the three boxes at the top is ticked; the other two and the off-highway box are grey.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Adding, removing or changing
One of the three boxes at the top.
Watch out: One tick, not two. Changing a beneficiary is its own option — you do not remove and re-add on separate forms.
2
You fill this in
Beneficiary's full legal name
First, middle and last of the person who will receive the vehicle.
Watch out: Their legal name as it appears on their own licence. This name is about to be printed on your certificate of title.
3
You fill this in
Beneficiary's address
Their physical address, then mailing address if it differs.
Watch out: Theirs, not yours. It is easy to fill this block with your own details out of habit because the rest of the form is about you.
4
You fill this in
Vehicle Identification Number
One character per box.
Watch out: From the title. The new title the DMV issues will be built from what you write here.
5
You fill this in
Year, make, model and body type
The vehicle description.
Watch out: Body type is on the face of the title and is the field people leave blank.
6
You fill this in
Off-highway vehicle box
Only for a side-by-side, dune buggy, ATV or snowmobile.
Watch out: Leave it alone for a car. Off-highway vehicles have their own Transfer on Death form.
7
You fill this in
Owner's printed name and licence number
You, the registered owner.
Watch out: Must match the owner printed on the title. If two people own the car, both are involved — and they cannot name different beneficiaries.
8
You fill this in
Signature and date
The owner signs and dates at the foot.
Watch out: Send the certificate of title and the title fee with it. The application on its own does nothing; the DMV has to issue a new title to record the designation.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
What you are doing
Adding, removing or changing a beneficiary.
The beneficiary
Full legal name, licence or ID number, physical and mailing address.
The vehicle
VIN, year, make, model, body type.
The owner
The registered owner's printed name, licence number, signature and date.
What gets this one rejected
•Filing it after the owner has died. The designation has to be on the title record beforehand; it cannot be added afterward, and at that point the estate forms are the route.
•Filing it on a vehicle with a loan on it. A beneficiary cannot be added while a lienholder is on the title, and adding a lienholder later automatically removes a beneficiary already there.
•Filing it on a title held as Tenants in Common. The form rules that out alongside the lienholder restriction.
•Filing it for a business-owned vehicle. The owner has to be a natural person.
•Naming two beneficiaries on one form. The form says to complete a separate one for each.
•Sending the application on its own. A title fee and the certificate of title itself go with it, and a new title is issued carrying the Transfer on Death designation.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The beneficiary has no interest in or control of the vehicle while the owner is alive. They cannot sell it, and it is not theirs until every owner named on the title has died.
•If more than one owner is on the title, the beneficiary cannot become the owner until all of them are deceased.
•The DMV's Transfer on Death page adds that multiple owners cannot each name a different beneficiary.
•There is a limit on how many names a title can carry, and the DMV states it two different ways: this form says four vehicle owners including the beneficiary, while the department's Transfer on Death page says up to five owners can be listed. Both are current as of August 2026 — worth confirming at the counter if your title is close to the limit.
Every line here was read off VP 239 (Rev 03/2024) itself —
the PDF is here — and off the Nevada 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.
