Certification of Trust Lawyer

If you are administering a trust, you will need to demonstrate your authority to take action on behalf of the trust. You can submit a lengthy copy of the trust each time you need to authenticate your authority, but that destroys the privacy of trust provisions, and it can be very inconvenient.

Fortunately, Georgia law provides for an alternative. You can instead present a certification of trust. A properly prepared certification of trust allows the trustee to provide essential information without revealing all of the trust terms. Peach State Wills & Trusts devises trust certification documents that set forth the information required by law while maintaining confidentiality of other provisions.

Protecting Your Privacy

One of the advantages of trusts that people often appreciate most is the privacy of trust terms. For instance, if you leave property through a will, the terms of the will become a matter of public record when the will is admitted to probate. Anyone can find out what the will includes.

When someone passes property through a trust, on the other hand, those terms do not ever become public. A pour-over will may be used in conjunction with the trust, and that would become public, but all it essentially says is that any property remaining in the estate will pass into the trust, and the terms of that remain private.

People might want to keep terms private for a wide variety of trust types, and using a certification of trust allows the trustee to manage trust property while maintaining a high level of confidentiality.

Creating a Certification of Trust

In order to function properly, a Certification of Trust must meet legal requirements. Ga. Code §53-12-280 specifies that the certification of trust must contain “some or all” of the following information:

• The date of the trust
• The identity of the grantor/settlor/creator of the trust
• Name and address of all trustees
• Powers of the trustee
• Restrictions on the powers of the trustee
• Whether the trust is revocable
• How the trust property should be titled
• A statement affirming that the transaction at issue does not require consent by anyone other than the trustee (with the exception of anything disclosed in the certification)
• Other information deemed appropriate by the trustee

Because there is room for significant interpretation in these requirements, it is crucial to understand the provisions that financial institutions and others typically require before they will accept a certification of trust in Georgia. Our experienced team knows how to prepare trust certification documents that provide exactly the right information without revealing more than necessary.

Simplify Your Role While Protecting Your Family with a Certification of Trust

Having a certification of trust document can make the task of a trustee considerably easier while also maintaining privacy for a family. However, if the document is not drafted properly, it will not be accepted.

Peach State Wills & Trusts can prepare the right certification of trust to enable you to do your job with efficiency while keeping key trust terms confidential. Contact us today at 678-730-2079 or online to learn more about how we can help with this document or other aspects of the trust administration process.