Certification of Trust Requirements in Indiana

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The recipient must be someone other than a beneficiary

Indiana Code § 30-4-4-5(a) allows a trustee to furnish a certification instead of the trust instrument to “a person other than a beneficiary.” The mandatory core is the trust's existence and execution date, settlor identity, the acting trustee's identity and address, trustee powers, revocability and the revocation-power holder, cotrustee authentication authority, and the manner of taking title.

Section 30-4-4-5(c) adds a required statement that the trust has not been revoked, modified, or amended in a way that makes the certification's representations incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate the certification

Section 30-4-4-5(b) says the certification “may be signed or authenticated by any trustee.” The certification must describe whether all or fewer cotrustees are needed to exercise trustee powers, but the statute does not convert that transaction-authority description into an all-trustee signature rule for the certification itself.

The section does not prescribe an oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notarial act for the certification. Those formalities should not be presented as statutory certification requirements merely because a separate transaction or recipient may request them.

Dispositive terms may be included, and targeted excerpts may be required

Indiana is explicit that a certification may contain the trust's dispositive terms under § 30-4-4-5(d). Their inclusion is permitted, not mandatory.

Subsection (e) lets the recipient require excerpts from the original trust and later amendments that designate the trustee and confer the power needed for a pending transaction in which the recipient has an interest. That is a targeted excerpt right, not an automatic right to every term of the trust.

Reliance and enforcement use different standards

Under § 30-4-4-5(f), a person who relies without knowledge that the certification is wrong is not liable and may assume the stated facts without inquiry. Holding some or all of the trust instrument does not by itself impute knowledge of its terms.

Section 30-4-4-5(g) separately requires good faith for enforcement: a person who in good faith enters a transaction in reliance on the certification may enforce the transaction against trust property as though the representations were correct.

A bad-faith full-instrument demand can produce damages

Section 30-4-4-5(h) makes a person liable for damages when a court determines that the person did not act in good faith in demanding the trust instrument in addition to the certification or permitted excerpts. The subsection says “damages”; it does not add an express attorney-fee or cost award. Subsection (i) preserves access to the instrument in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust.

What trips people up

• The acting trustee's address is mandatory, but a TIN is not. The seven-item list contains no trust-taxpayer-number, situs, governing-law, or legal-description field.
• One trustee may authenticate the certification. The separate cotrustee content rule reports who must exercise trust powers; it does not require every cotrustee to sign this substitute document.
• Dispositive terms are permitted. Indiana does not require their omission, even though a trustee may choose not to include them.
• The statute supplies no certification-specific recording rule. Section 30-4-4-5 does not require or authorize recording or state a real-property notice effect for the certification itself.

Common questions

Does the certification have to be notarized?

Not under § 30-4-4-5. Subsection (b) allows any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate the certification without prescribing a notarial act.

Can a beneficiary demand this certification under the statute?

Section 30-4-4-5(a) describes the substitute-document route as one furnished to “a person other than a beneficiary.” Beneficiary information rights arise under different trust-law provisions outside this certification rule.

May the recipient require trust excerpts?

Yes, but only the excerpts identified in § 30-4-4-5(e): provisions designating the trustee and conferring the power needed for the recipient's pending transaction.

What happens if the recipient demands the full instrument in bad faith?

Section 30-4-4-5(h) permits damages if a court determines that the demand, made in addition to the certification or permitted excerpts, was not made in good faith.

Statutes and sources

• Ind. Code § 30-4-4-5(a)-(i) — availability, mandatory contents, any-trustee authentication, optional dispositive terms, limited excerpts, reliance, enforcement, bad-faith-demand damages, and judicial access. Official 2026 Indiana Code chapter PDF (accessed 2026-07-31).