South Carolina: Certification of Trust Requirements

Requirements one by one

South Carolina requires seven core information groups

South Carolina Code § 62-7-1013(a) lets a trustee furnish a certification instead
of the trust instrument to a person other than a beneficiary. The document must state
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.

The powers statement may refer to powers in the South Carolina Trust Code. Subsection
(c) separately requires the trustee to state that no revocation, modification, or
amendment makes the certification's representations incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate, despite the optional form's longer signature block

Section 62-7-1013(b) permits “any trustee” to sign or otherwise authenticate the
certification. Subsection (k) then supplies an optional statutory form that describes
the signers as all currently serving trustees and includes an all-trustee execution
line.

The statute resolves that apparent tension by expressly allowing “any other form that
satisfies the above requirements.” The optional form's all-trustee wording does not
rewrite subsection (b)'s general signer rule.

The optional form contains additions, not extra universal requirements

The subsection (k) form asks for an address of the trust and includes a representation
that no claim or challenge contests the trust's validity or the trustee's authority.
Those items are not in subsection (a)'s seven-part mandatory list.

A trustee may use the statutory form, but an alternative form may omit those additions
if it satisfies the actual requirements in subsections (a) through (j). The same
distinction applies to the optional form's witness and acknowledgment layout.

Real-property-title use requires a recordable acknowledgment route

For a transaction involving title to real property, § 62-7-1013(j) requires the
certificate to be executed and acknowledged in a way that permits recordation in the
register of deeds or clerk of court office for the county where the property lies.

Section 30-5-30 supplies alternative recordability routes: proof by a subscribing-
witness affidavit, compliance with the Uniform Recognition of Acknowledgments Act or
an authorized affidavit, or the subsection (B) route using an acknowledgment in the
presence of two witnesses. The two-witness route is therefore not the only route named
by current statute.

Excerpts, reliance, enforcement, and damages remain separate

Dispositive terms need not appear. A recipient may require excerpts designating the
trustee and conferring the power needed for the pending transaction.

Section 62-7-1013(f) protects reliance without knowledge that the certification is
wrong and permits the person to assume certified facts without inquiry. Subsection
(g) requires good faith to enforce the transaction against trust property. Subsection
(h) provides damages—but not express costs or attorney fees—when a court finds that a
full-instrument demand in addition to the certification or excerpts lacked good faith.

What trips people up

• The statutory form is optional. Its extra fields and all-trustee signature line
  are not automatically mandatory when another form satisfies subsections (a)-(j).
• A realty certificate must be recordable, but § 62-7-1013 does not require it to be
  recorded. The section also states no constructive-notice or title-transfer effect.
• South Carolina's bad-faith remedy is damages only. The certification section
  does not add costs, expenses, or attorney fees.
• The permitted excerpt is narrow. It covers trustee designation and the pending-
  transaction power, not every trust term.

Common questions

Must the certification use the exact statutory form?

No. Section 62-7-1013(k) permits either the displayed form or another form satisfying
the preceding requirements.

Does the certification itself transfer real-property title?

No. Subsection (j) addresses whether the certificate is in recordable form for a
title transaction; it does not make the certification the conveyance.

Can the full trust instrument still be obtained in court?

Yes. Section 62-7-1013(i) preserves access in a judicial proceeding concerning the
trust.

Statutes and sources

• S.C. Code § 62-7-1013(a)-(k) — availability, core contents, any-trustee
  authentication, omitted dispositive terms, excerpts, reliance, enforcement,
  bad-faith-demand damages, judicial access, realty recordability, and the optional
  statutory form. South Carolina Legislature
  (accessed 2026-07-31).
• S.C. Code § 30-5-30 — alternative proof and acknowledgment routes for a
  recordable written instrument. South Carolina Legislature
  (accessed 2026-07-31).