Certificate of trust

Where the statute uses it: Minn. Stat. § 501C.1013

What it means

The short version, built on purpose. Subdivision 1 lets the settlor or a trustee execute a document that “sets forth fewer than all of the provisions of a trust instrument” and requires the signature under oath before a notary public or other official authorized to administer oaths.

Six items must be in it: the name of the trust if one is given, the date of the trust instrument, the name and address of each trustee empowered to act, a statement of the trustees’ authority over real or personal property, the number of trustees required to act, and whether the trust has terminated or the instrument has been revoked. Dispositive terms — who takes what — are not among them.

Subdivision 4 is why a third party accepts it.

When a certificate of trust is recorded in a county where real property is situated, or in the case of personal property, when it is presented to a third party, the certificate of trust serves to document the existence of the trust, the identity of the trustees, the powers of the trustees and any limitations on those powers, and other matters the certificate of trust sets out, as though the full trust instrument had been recorded or presented.

Where the word shows up

At a bank opening an account for a trust, at a title company closing a sale, and in county land records, where subdivision 3 allows a certificate executed under subdivision 2 to be recorded with the county recorder, or with the registrar of titles for registered land the certificate describes. Subdivision 6 says a third party may rely on a certificate signed by any settlor or trustee.

Institutions still ask for the entire trust instrument. The statute supplies the instrument’s substitute and gives it prima facie effect until it is amended or revoked under subdivision 5, or until the full instrument is recorded or presented.