U/D/T

Also called: Under declaration of trust.

What it means

A drafting abbreviation, not a statutory term. No section of Minnesota’s trust code uses it: the full text of chapter 501C contains neither “U/D/T” nor the phrase “declaration of trust”. The Treasury publication explaining how securities are registered in trust form does define it, and it draws the distinction the abbreviation exists to carry.

Personal trusts are further divided into either 1) Under Declaration of Trust (U/D/T) meaning the grantor and the trustee are the same person and the grantor controls the trust assets, and 2) Trust Under Agreement (U/A) meaning the grantor and the trustee are different persons and the trustee controls the trust assets.

The Minnesota analogue to the declaration is § 501C.0401(a)(2), which lists among the methods of creating a trust a “declaration by the owner of property that the owner holds identifiable property as trustee.” One person, wearing both hats, holding their own property in a new capacity.

Where the word shows up

Inside the trust’s name, on the line where a name belongs — a specimen, not a quotation from anything: Jane A. Rooney, Trustee U/D/T dated March 3, 2019. On a deed, on a brokerage account title, on a bank signature card. Compressed into that line are pieces of three of the six things § 501C.1013 requires a certificate of trust to state: the trust’s name if it has one, a trustee empowered to act, and the date of the trust instrument.

It is also read wrong. On the source that defines it, U/D/T is one of two divisions of a personal trust, and revocability is a separate axis — FS Publication 0049 says a personal trust “can also be set up by the grantor to be irrevocable or revocable.” So the abbreviation carries no information about whether the trust can be revoked. It reports the one fact its words state: the person who created the trust is also its trustee.