Kansas: Certification of Trust Requirements

Requirements one by one

Kansas requires seven listed information groups

K.S.A. 58a-1013(a)-(i) authorizes a trustee to furnish an acknowledged
certification instead of the trust instrument to a person other than a qualified
beneficiary. The certification must state the trust's existence and execution date,
settlor identity, acting trustee's identity and address, trustee powers, revocability
and any revocation-power holder, cotrustee authentication authority, and the manner of
taking title.

Kansas requires “the powers of the trustee,” not only powers used in the pending
transaction. Subsection (c) separately requires a statement that no revocation,
modification, or amendment makes the representations incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate, but the certification is acknowledged

Section 58a-1013(b) says any trustee may sign or otherwise authenticate the
certification. That is different from the statement reporting whether all or fewer
cotrustees must exercise the underlying trust powers.

The opening sentence nevertheless requires an “acknowledged certification of trust.”
Thus the statutory substitute document requires acknowledgment even though it need
not carry every trustee's signature. The section does not add witnesses or an oath.

The excluded recipient class is qualified beneficiaries

Subsection (a) does not exclude every beneficiary. It excludes use of this substitute
route for a “qualified beneficiary,” a defined Trust Code term. A recipient's actual
status therefore matters before treating the certification as a statutory replacement
for the instrument.

The section does not require a TIN, amendment dates, successor trustees, trust situs,
governing law, property schedule, parcel number, or legal description.

Dispositive terms may stay private, subject to narrow excerpts

Under K.S.A. 58a-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.

That excerpt right has no added good-faith threshold in subsection (e), and it is not
an automatic right to the full instrument.

Reliance, enforcement, and demand liability use separate tests

Section 58a-1013(f) protects reliance without knowledge that the certification is
wrong and permits assumption of its facts without inquiry. Holding all or part of the
instrument does not by itself impute knowledge of the trust terms.

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

What trips people up

• Acknowledgment and signer count are separate. The certification is acknowledged,
  but any trustee may authenticate it.
• “Qualified beneficiary” is the statutory boundary. It should not be shortened
  to “beneficiary” without checking the defined class.
• The powers field is broad. Kansas does not textually limit it to pending-
  transaction powers.
• The section states no recording effect. It names no recorder, filing condition,
  notice effect, or real-property consequence.

Common questions

Does the certification prove that the trust was validly created?

No. Section 58a-1013 governs selected representations and reliance consequences. It
does not decide a separate trust-creation or trustee-authority dispute.

Must every current trustee sign?

No. Subsection (b) allows any trustee to authenticate, although the certification must
accurately report cotrustee action authority and must be acknowledged.

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

• K.S.A. 58a-1013(a)-(i) — qualified-beneficiary boundary, seven mandatory
  content groups, acknowledgment, any-trustee authentication, no-inaccuracy statement,
  omitted dispositive terms, limited excerpts, reliance, enforcement, damages-only
  bad-faith-demand remedy, and judicial access. Kansas Office of Revisor of
  Statutes
  (accessed 2026-07-31).