Florida Certification of Trust

What Is a Certification of Trust in Florida?

A certification of trust is a short signed statement that proves a trust exists and that the trustee can act for it, without showing anyone who inherits. A trust agreement says who is in charge and who inherits. Anyone you do business with as trustee needs the first part. Nobody outside the family needs the second. A certification of trust is the document that gives them the first part alone.

Florida law lets a trustee give a certification of trust to anyone other than a beneficiary instead of a copy of the trust instrument. The document goes by several names. People call it a certificate of trust, and some banks and other states call it a trust abstract, an affidavit of trust or a memorandum of trust. In Florida the substance is set by one statute, section 736.1017.

What Florida Requires It to Say

A Florida certification of trust contains these eight items.

1. The fact that the trust exists, and the date the trust instrument was signed.
2. Who created the trust, called the settlor.
3. Who the currently acting trustee is, and the trustee’s address.
4. The powers of the trustee.
5. Whether the trust gives anyone a power of direction, and if so who the current trust directors are, which trustee powers they control, and whether they have directed or authorized the transaction the certification is for.
6. Whether the trust can be revoked, and who holds the power to revoke it.
7. Whether co-trustees may sign alone, or whether all or only some of them must act together.
8. How the trust takes title to property.

The certification must also state that the trust has not been revoked, modified or amended in any way that would make the certification incorrect. It does not have to include the dispositive terms, which are the provisions that say who receives what.

Item 7 is the one that decides whether a trip to the bank takes one trustee or two. If your trust requires co-trustees to act together, the certification says so, and a bank will expect both signatures.

Who Signs a Certification of Trust, and Does It Need a Notary?

Any trustee may sign the certification or otherwise authenticate it. When the settlor is serving as trustee of their own revocable trust, the settlor usually signs it at the same meeting where the trust is signed. When a successor trustee takes over, the successor signs a new one showing themselves as the currently acting trustee.

Florida’s certification statute does not mention a notary. Banks and title companies often require a notarized signature anyway, so the practical answer is to have it notarized. Florida allows remote online notarization, so a successor trustee in another state can usually sign without traveling.

Why Do Banks Accept a Certification of Trust?

Florida protects the person who relies on the certification. Someone who acts on it without knowing that its statements are wrong is not liable for doing so, and may assume the facts in it are true without looking further. Someone who enters into a transaction in good faith relying on it can enforce that transaction against the trust property as if the certification were correct.

A bank that holds a copy of the trust keeps the same protection. The statute says a person’s knowledge of the trust’s terms is not inferred just because they hold a copy of all or part of the trust instrument.

The recipient does keep one right. A bank or title company may require the trustee to furnish copies of the excerpts from the trust, and any later amendments, that designate the trustee and give the trustee power to act in the transaction at hand. Those excerpts are the pages naming the trustee and granting the relevant power, and the pages saying who inherits stay with the family.

Why Does the Title Company Want a Certification of Trust to Sell the House?

The question I get most from a successor trustee at a closing is, "Why does the title company want this when the deed already says the house is in the trust?" The answer is in the deed. Florida's recording statute lets a buyer rely on the recorded deed alone when the deed names the grantee as trustee and confers the power to protect, conserve, sell, lease, encumber and otherwise manage and dispose of the property, and a buyer dealing with that trustee has no duty to inquire into the beneficiaries or the trustee's authority. A deed that names the trust by its title and date and recites no powers refers the examiner to a document that is not in the public record. The Florida Bar's trust administration manual, written for title underwriters, says the title company will then require the trust, excerpts from it, or a certification of trust before it insures the sale, and that writing the statute number on the deed is not enough.

The certification answers the examiner's two questions in two of its eight items, the powers of the trustee and the manner of taking title, and the examiner may still ask for the pages of the trust and any amendment that name the trustee and grant the power to sell. A successor trustee signs a fresh certification after the death, naming the successor as the currently acting trustee, because the one signed at the original trust meeting names the trustee who has died. Where the trust itself has to be produced instead, the beneficiary list goes into the title company's file with it.

Practice pointer. Read the recorded funding deed before the house is listed, because a deed that recites the six powers needs nothing more than the death certificate and the successor's certification, while a deed without them needs the excerpts assembled before a buyer's lender starts its clock. The deed itself can be corrected now, while the owner is alive, for $550, and a corrected deed is cheaper than a closing extension. What the funding deed has to say →

How the Big Banks Use It

Each bank has its own practice, set out in its own documents. We read them for our guide to opening a trust account.

• Chase says it may rely solely on the Chase Certification of Trust in place of the trust agreement and any amendment or restatement, and the trustee who signs it agrees to indemnify Chase for relying on it.
• Ally Bank accepts a certification of trust, which it says may be called a trust abstract or affidavit of trust depending on the state, or specific pages of the trust agreement, including the list of beneficiaries.
• Wells Fargo lists a Certification of Trustee form, on its own form or a third party’s, among the documents for a trust account when a trustee dies.
• Bank of America names no trust certification form, and its deposit agreement says it may refuse a legal document that is not on its own form.

Sending a bank a certification instead of pages of the trust keeps your beneficiary list out of the bank’s files. Ally’s alternative to a certification includes the list of beneficiaries.

What Does Wells Fargo Require to Change the Successor Trustee on an Existing Account?

Wells Fargo’s published checklist covers the change when a trustee dies, and it asks for a certified copy of the death certificate and a Certification of Trustee form, either Wells Fargo’s own or a third party’s, naming the successor trustee. Its Estate Care Center takes the request at 1-888-790-7980, by mail with a notarized letter of instruction, or online, and it says copies may be submitted online with the certified copies brought to a branch appointment. The Wells Fargo documents we reviewed give no checklist for replacing a successor trustee while the current trustee is alive, so that change starts with a call to the branch that holds the account.

A common question I hear is, “Do I have to give Wells Fargo the whole trust to change the successor trustee?” Florida law answers that the bank may ask only for the pages naming the trustee and granting the power to act, and a certification signed after the amendment covers the rest. Wells Fargo defines its Certification of Trustee as a listing of limited information about the trust’s administrative provisions, which is the same ground a Florida certification covers.

When Do You Need a New Certification of Trust?

A certification is accurate only as long as the trust matches it. You need a new one when an amendment or restatement changes the trustee, the successor trustee, the trustee’s powers, or how co-trustees act, and whenever a successor trustee takes over. A new name for the trust means a new certification too.

Keep a signed, current certification with the trust and tell your successor trustee where it is. At the first bank visit after an incapacity or a death, a current certification saves a second trip.

Practice pointer. An amendment that changes the successor trustee leaves the old certification in the bank’s file, still naming the old successor. I prepare a new certification at the same signing as any amendment that touches the trustee, and I tell the client which banks received the old one so the new one can replace it.

What Does a Certification of Trust Cost?

A certification of trust is prepared with every trust we draft. The Complete Trust Plan is a flat fee from $3,200 for an individual or $4,500 for a couple, and it includes the revocable trust, a pour-over will, the incapacity documents and one funding deed for your Florida home. A certification for a trust someone else drafted is a flat fee quoted at consultation, because the work starts with reading the trust and every amendment to confirm who the current trustee is and what powers the trustee holds. Government costs such as recording are additional and passed through at cost, and posted fees are honored for 90 days. The full list is on the pricing page.

Related Guides

• Florida successor trustee, what the job is and how to take over
• How to fund a trust in Florida
• Florida trust administration after a death
• Trust account requirements at 185 banks, brokers and insurers

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The amendment that outdated the certification. A couple amends their trust to replace their son with their daughter as successor trustee and keeps using the certification signed with the original trust. That certification now names the wrong successor, and a bank relying on it after the amendment would be relying on something the trustees know is wrong. The fix is a new certification signed with the amendment.

The bank that asked for everything. A successor trustee is asked for the whole trust to retitle an account. Florida lets the bank ask for the pages that name the trustee and grant the power to act, and the trustee can offer those pages and the certification rather than the provisions dividing the estate among the grandchildren.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §736.1017 (annotated) (certification of trust), in full as of 2026. (1) contents, items (a) to (h); (2) may be signed or otherwise authenticated by any trustee; (3) must state that the trust has not been revoked, modified or amended in any manner that would make it incorrect; (4) need not contain the dispositive terms; (5) recipient may require excerpts designating the trustee and conferring the power to act; (6) reliance without knowledge of incorrect representations, and knowledge not inferred from holding a copy; (7) good-faith transactions enforceable against trust property; (8) no limit on obtaining the instrument where required by law or in a judicial proceeding.
• Bank practice: Chase Deposit Account Agreement (effective 6/14/2026), p. 7; Ally Bank Accounts for Trust FAQs and Trust Account Application, p. 1; Wells Fargo Estate Care Center checklist, p. 2; Bank of America Deposit Agreement and Disclosures (effective May 15, 2026), PDF p. 5. Quotations and links are on each bank’s page. Retrieved September 24 and 25, 2026.
• Remote online notarization: Fla. Stat. ch. 117, part II.
• Selling trust real estate: Fla. Stat. §689.073(1) to (3) and (5) (a recorded instrument naming a grantee as trustee and conferring the power to protect, conserve, sell, lease, encumber and otherwise manage and dispose of the property vests those powers in the trustee; no duty to inquire; purchasers take free of beneficiary claims; applies to chapter 736 trusts). Administration of Trusts in Florida (The Florida Bar, rev. Dec. 2025) ch. 14, §14.5.B.4 (the trust, excerpts or a §736.1017 certification will be required to verify the trustee’s powers unless the deed grants them, and a reference to the statute number is not sufficient). Resnick v. Goldman, 133 So. 2d 770 (Fla. 3d DCA 1961), and Grammer v. Roman, 174 So. 2d 443 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965), as cited in Florida Real Estate Transactions §10.06[3] (opinions not read for this page). (verified 2026-10-18)
• Fla. Stat. §736.1016 (annotated)(1) to (4) (a person who in good faith deals with a trustee, or with a former trustee without knowledge the trusteeship ended, is protected from liability as if the trustee properly exercised the power). Text read from the 2026 Florida Statutes, retrieved 2026-10-15.
• Wells Fargo Estate Care Center checklist, “When a loved one passes away,” pp. 1 to 3 and p. 5 (trust accounts, required documents, Certification of Trustee definition, how to submit). Retrieved September 2026.
• Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date. Government costs are additional and passed through at cost. Fees are not a prediction of outcome.

What I See When a Bank Relies on the Paper

In my practice, a certification of trust is the paper a bank acts on, and Florida protects a bank that acts on it in good faith even when the paper turns out to be wrong. I have come across an out-of-state case that shows who pays when it does. A father set up two trusts for his two sons in 1990. The trusts let the first trustee choose her own successor. The father’s lawyer began acting as trustee in 1996, the two men fell out two years later, and years of litigation followed over whether the lawyer had ever been validly appointed. In March 2006 a trial court named the lawyer trustee while the family appealed (the family had not posted a bond to suspend that judgment). One son’s lawyer wrote the bank holding the money and asked it to allow no withdrawals during the appeal. The next day the bank wired $739,739.95 and $609,499.76 to the claimed trustee’s accounts at another bank.

The appeals court later ruled that he was not the trustee, and he had not returned the money by then. The trusts’ new trustee went after the bank and lost, because the court found the bank had acted in good faith on a court paper that named him trustee. The family did not ask the trial court to suspend his appointment until two weeks after the $1,349,239.71 left. A successor named in the trust by name, with no appointment left to anyone’s later choice, would have given the bank one answer about who the trustee was. My reading of the Florida statutes is that a Florida bank relying on a certification of trust has the same protection that bank had.

Practice pointer. When a trust lets the current trustee pick a successor, I require the appointment in a signed, dated writing kept with the trust and a new certification signed the same day, because the fight in that case was over whether an appointment had ever been made.

Avoid treating a letter to the bank as a stop order, because a bank holding a certification or a court paper that names a trustee may pay that trustee and keep its protection.

The protection has an honest limit. Florida protects a bank only when it acts without knowledge that the certification is wrong, so a family that gives the bank a copy of the amendment replacing the trustee has changed what the bank knows. Nothing in the statute guarantees that a bank will move quickly once it is told.

Updated on October 18, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.