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Arkansas: Certification of Trust Requirements

verified against the statute 2026-07-31 1 statute source

The short answer

Arkansas lets a trustee furnish a person other than a beneficiary a certification instead of the trust instrument. It must contain seven information groups—including the trustee's powers and the manner of taking title—plus a no-inaccuracy statement, but any trustee may sign or otherwise authenticate it and the section imposes no universal oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notary requirement. Limited trustee-and-power excerpts may be required; protected reliance and good-faith enforcement apply, while a bad-faith full-instrument demand produces damages only.

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This is the general rule in Arkansas. Ezel applies current Arkansas law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.

Governing law and availability	Ark. Code Ann. § 28-73-1013; general certification of trust authorized
Permitted use and recipient	Trustee may furnish a person other than a beneficiary a certification instead of the trust instrument (§ 28-73-1013(a))
Trust identity and party contents	Must state trust existence/execution date, settlor identity, and acting trustee's identity and address (§ 28-73-1013(a)(1)-(3))
Authority, status, and title contents	Must state trustee powers, revocability/revoker, cotrustee authentication authority, title manner, and no change making representations incorrect (§ 28-73-1013(a)(4)-(7), (c))
State-specific required contents	None beyond the seven listed information groups and no-inaccuracy statement; no TIN, situs, governing-law, successor, director, amendment-date, or property-description field (§ 28-73-1013(a), (c))
Signer, authentication, and acknowledgment	Any trustee may sign or otherwise authenticate; no certification-specific oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notary requirement (§ 28-73-1013(b))
Dispositive terms and permitted excerpts	Dispositive terms need not appear; recipient may require excerpts designating the trustee and conferring pending-transaction power (§ 28-73-1013(d)-(e))
Reliance, enforcement, and improper demands	No-knowledge reliance and no-inquiry assumption; good-faith enforcement; bad-faith full-instrument demand yields damages only; judicial access preserved (§ 28-73-1013(f)-(i))
Recording and real-property effect	No certification-specific recording rule or stated real-property effect in § 28-73-1013

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Requirements one by one

Arkansas requires seven listed information groups

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-73-1013(a)-(i) lets a trustee furnish a certification instead
of the trust instrument to a person other than a beneficiary. It must state the
trust's existence and execution date, settlor identity, the acting trustee's identity
and address, trustee powers, revocability and any revocation-power holder, cotrustee
authentication authority, and the manner of taking title to trust property.

Unlike UTC versions that narrow the power statement to the pending transaction,
Arkansas requires “the powers of the trustee.” Subsection (c) separately requires a
statement that no revocation, modification, or amendment makes the certification's
representations incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate without a universal notary ceremony

Section 28-73-1013(b) says a certification may be signed or otherwise authenticated
by any trustee. The signer need not be every cotrustee merely because the certification
must report whether all or fewer cotrustees are needed to exercise trust powers.

The certification section does not prescribe an oath, acknowledgment, witnesses, or
a notary. It also does not require a TIN, governing law, situs, settlor birth dates,
amendment dates, successor trustees, or a transaction-property description.

The title-taking manner is expressly required

Section 28-73-1013(a)(7) requires “the manner of taking title to trust property.”
That field should not be omitted merely because another state's version uses “the name
in which title” instead.

The listed contents do not make the certification itself a deed, asset schedule,
conveyance, or recording instrument.

Dispositive terms may stay private, subject to narrow excerpts

Under § 28-73-1013(d), the certification need not contain dispositive terms.
Subsection (e) permits the recipient to require excerpts from the original instrument
and later amendments that designate the trustee and confer power for the pending
transaction.

The excerpt right is tied to trustee identity and transaction authority, not the full
instrument or every amendment.

Reliance, enforcement, and demand liability use separate tests

Section 28-73-1013(f) protects reliance without knowledge that the certification is
wrong and permits the person to assume its facts without inquiry. Holding all or part
of the instrument does not by itself impute knowledge of trust terms.

Subsection (g) requires good faith to enforce the transaction against trust property.
Under subsection (h), a bad-faith demand for the trust instrument in addition to the
certification or excerpts yields damages; the section does not add costs or attorney
fees. Subsection (i) preserves instrument access in a judicial proceeding concerning
the trust.

What trips people up

The powers field is broad. Arkansas does not textually limit it to powers used in
the pending transaction.
The title-taking manner is mandatory. It is paragraph (a)(7), not a customary
extra field.
Any trustee may authenticate. The cotrustee-authority statement does not become
an all-trustee signature rule.
The section states no recording effect. It does not say recording is required,
transfers title, or creates constructive notice.

Common questions

Does the certification prove that the trust was validly created?

No. Section 28-73-1013 governs selected representations and reliance consequences.
It does not decide a separate dispute over trust creation or trustee appointment.

Does the substitute-document route apply to a beneficiary request?

No. Subsection (a) authorizes the certification in place of the instrument when the
recipient is a person other than a beneficiary.

May the full instrument still be obtained in a trust lawsuit?

Yes. Subsection (i) expressly preserves that right in a judicial proceeding concerning
the trust.

Statutes and sources

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-73-1013(a)-(i) — availability, seven mandatory content
groups, any-trustee authentication, no-inaccuracy statement, omitted dispositive
terms, limited excerpts, reliance, enforcement, damages-only bad-faith-demand
remedy, and judicial access. Official Code of Arkansas Rules public-domain
transformation
(accessed 2026-07-31).

Source links

Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.

Ark. Code Ann. § 28-73-1013(a)-(i) · accessed 2026-07-31

This page is general legal information about state-law certifications of trust, not legal advice about a particular trust, trustee, beneficiary, asset, account, deed, loan, sale, title issue, tax identifier, institution request, or transaction. A certification does not itself prove that a trust was validly created, settle a trustee-authority dispute, transfer property, or satisfy every lawful disclosure or underwriting request. Requirements and reliance protections depend on the current statute, document contents, signer authority, recipient knowledge, requested excerpts, and recording context. Verified against the cited official sources on the date shown; confirm current law and obtain licensed trust and property advice before signing, demanding, relying on, or recording a certification or related instrument.

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