Certification of Trust Requirements in North Dakota

At a glance

Requirements one by one

North Dakota requires seven information groups

N.D.C.C. § 59-18-13(1) authorizes a trustee to furnish a certification unless one of the listed North Dakota Uniform Trust Code chapters otherwise requires. The certification must include the trust's existence and effective date, its name if one was given, each settlor's identity, and the current trustee's identity and address.

It must also identify the applicable trustee powers, revocability and any person with a power to revoke, and cotrustee authentication and exercise authority. The powers statement may refer to the powers in the listed Trust Code chapters. Subsection (3) separately requires a statement that no revocation, modification, or amendment makes the certification's representations incorrect.

The recipient wording is broader than the model formulation

Section 59-18-13(1) says the trustee may furnish the certification “to the person.” Unlike the commonly used model formulation, the enacted North Dakota text does not limit that person to a nonbeneficiary and does not expressly say the certification is furnished instead of the full trust instrument.

The section still protects privacy by saying dispositive terms need not appear and by limiting the recipient's express excerpt right. But those later provisions should not be used to add recipient restrictions that North Dakota's operative text omits.

Any trustee may authenticate without a universal notary ceremony

Section 59-18-13(2) permits any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate the certification. It does not require every cotrustee to execute it merely because the certification reports how many cotrustees must act to exercise trust powers.

The certification section does not prescribe an oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notarial act. A separate transaction or recording formality should not be presented as a universal execution condition under § 59-18-13.

Dispositive terms may stay private, subject to narrow excerpts

Under § 59-18-13(4), the certification need not contain dispositive terms. Subsection (5) 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 focuses on trustee status and transaction authority. It is not an express right to every trust provision or the complete instrument.

Reliance, enforcement, and demand remedies have separate tests

Section 59-18-13(6) protects a person who relies without knowledge that the certification is wrong and permits assumption of the certified facts without inquiry. Holding all or part of the trust instrument does not by itself impute knowledge of its terms.

Subsection (7) requires good faith to enforce a transaction against trust property as though the certification were correct. Subsection (8) makes a person liable for damages when a court finds that a demand for the trust instrument in addition to the certification or excerpts was not made in good faith. It does not expressly add costs or attorney fees. Subsection (9) preserves access in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust.

What trips people up

• The trust name is conditional. It must be included if the trust was given a name; the statute does not require inventing one for an unnamed trust.
• Applicable powers may be stated by statutory reference. Section 59-18-13(1) expressly allows references to the powers in the listed Trust Code chapters.
• The section has no title-name or TIN field. Neither item appears in its complete content list.
• The section states no recording consequence. It does not make recording mandatory or state a notice, priority, conveyance, or other real-property effect.

Common questions

Must every settlor be identified?

Yes. Section 59-18-13(1) calls for “the identity of each settlor,” not only one settlor or the person who most recently amended the trust.

May the recipient demand the complete instrument outside litigation?

The section expressly permits only trustee-designation and pending-transaction-power excerpts. A bad-faith demand for the full instrument in addition to the certification or excerpts may produce damages, while subsection (9) separately preserves judicial access.

Does the certification section require notarization for a land transaction?

No. Section 59-18-13 contains no certification-specific acknowledgment or notary rule and states no recording effect. Separate transaction and recordability rules may still matter outside this section.

Statutes and sources

• N.D.C.C. § 59-18-13(1)-(9) — availability, seven required information groups, conditional trust name, statutory-power references, any-trustee authentication, no-inaccuracy statement, privacy and excerpts, reliance, enforcement, bad-faith-demand damages, and judicial access. North Dakota Legislative Council (accessed 2026-07-31).