Two pages of statute, set out as bullets, published beside the designation form so that the person filling it in can read the law it operates under without going to the legislature's website. It is not an application and there is nothing on it to complete. It matters because it answers the questions the form itself raises and does not settle: what the beneficiary has to produce, whether the beneficiary can stop you selling in the meantime, what happens if the personal representative never heard of the form, whether a will can override it, and when title actually vests in the beneficiary.
Written against MV-308i (7/25), issued under WYDOT Motor Vehicle Services; a reprint of W.S. 31-2-104.1 and W.S. 2-18-103. The subsection that surprises people is (j). Once this designation is recorded, the vehicle is outside your will - and it stays outside it however carefully the will is later drafted, because a will is exactly the instrument the statute names as unable to change it. If your circumstances change, the fix is a new designation form recorded at the same county clerk, not a codicil.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV-308i from the dot.state.wy.us copy so you get the revision that is current today.
There is no completed sample of the MV-308i on this page because there is nothing on it that can be completed - WYDOT publishes it as two pages of reprinted statute, set out as bulleted subsections, with no blank, no tick box, no signature rule and no fillable field anywhere on either page. Its whole job is to sit beside the designation form and tell you what the law does with it. The list above walks the subsections in the order the department prints them, so you can read what each one settles before you decide whether the form beside it is the right instrument for your family.
| On the form | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| Subsection (a) and (b) | That each county clerk shall make a beneficiary designation form available, and that the form shall be recorded in the office of the county clerk in the county where the vehicle is titled. |
| Subsection (c), and what the beneficiary brings | On the death of the owner or the last surviving owner, the beneficiary presents the recorded form or a copy and asks for a new certificate - together with a certified copy of the death certificate and the title application fee. |
| Subsection (d) | On presentation of those three things the county clerk, subject to any liens and security interests, shall issue a new certificate of title to the beneficiary. |
| Subsections (e) and (f) | Neither the estate nor a successor is liable for obtaining a new certificate or transferring the title where the personal representative or the successor did not have actual knowledge that a valid, unrevoked designation existed. |
| Subsection (g) | During the owner's lifetime the beneficiary's consent is not required for any transaction related to the vehicle, and the designation may be revoked either by transferring ownership with a proper assignment and delivery of the certificate, or by executing a later form naming a new beneficiary. |
| Subsection (h) | The beneficiary's interest is subject to any contract of sale, assignment, lien, ownership or security interest the deceased owner was subject to. |
| Subsection (j) | The designation may not be changed or revoked by will or any other instrument, or by a change in circumstances - except by the later form described in subsection (g). |
| Subsection (k) | The transfer is a no probate transfer under the Wyoming Probate Code. |
| W.S. 2-18-103, reprinted at the foot | The transfer-on-death provision from the probate code itself, including the line that title vests in the designated grantee beneficiary only on the death of the owner. |
Every line here was read off MV-308i (7/25) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Wyoming Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Services 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 Wyoming seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Wyoming involves.