Certification of Trust Requirements in Texas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Texas requires seven content groups

Texas Property Code § 114.086(a) authorizes the certification as an alternative to giving the trust instrument to a person other than a beneficiary. Unlike California's permissive fact list, Texas says the certification must contain the listed information.

The seven groups are the trust's existence and execution date; settlor identity; acting trustee identity and mailing address; trustee power information; revocability and the person holding a revocation power; cotrustee exercise authority; and the manner in which title should be taken. For powers, subsection (a)(4) allows either one or more powers or a statement that the trust powers include at least all powers granted by Chapter 113, Subchapter A.

Section 114.086(c) adds a required statement that the trust has not been revoked, modified, or amended in a way that makes the certification's representations incorrect. Subsection (d)(2) permits additional information, but does not turn a tax identifier, governing-law statement, legal description, or successor list into a statutory requirement.

Any trustee may authenticate the certification

Section 114.086(b) says the certification “may be signed or otherwise authenticated by any trustee.” It does not require every cotrustee to sign the certification.

That signer rule is separate from subsection (a)(6), which requires the certification to describe whether all or fewer than all cotrustees are needed to exercise trustee powers. Section 114.086 itself states no oath, acknowledgment, notarization, or witness requirement.

Only transaction-focused excerpts may be demanded

Under § 114.086(d)(1), dispositive terms need not appear. Section 114.086(e) lets the recipient require excerpts from the original trust and later amendments that designate the trustee and confer power to act in the pending transaction.

The section does not give the recipient a general right to every trust term. A demand for the full instrument beyond the certification or permitted excerpts can produce damages if a court finds the demand lacked good faith under § 114.086(i).

Knowledge and good faith do different work

Section 114.086(f) protects reliance without knowledge that the certification is incorrect and lets the recipient assume the stated facts without inquiry. Section 114.086(g) makes a transaction unenforceable against the trust when the recipient had actual knowledge, acquired before the transaction or binding commitment, that the trustee was acting outside the trust's scope.

Section 114.086(h) separately lets a good-faith recipient enforce the transaction against trust property as if the certification were correct. It also says an incomplete certification does not by itself imply recipient liability and that failing to demand a certification creates no good-faith inference.

The certification statute does not create a recording rule

Section 114.086 contains no requirement to record the certification and states no certification-specific constructive-notice, priority, public-record, or title-transfer effect. A recorder, deed, lender, or title company may raise separate transaction and recording questions, but those are not rules stated by this certification section.

What trips people up

• “Any trustee” answers who executes the certification, not who may conduct the underlying transaction. The certification must separately state the cotrustee exercise rule.
• Texas requires the acting trustee's mailing address. A name alone does not satisfy § 114.086(a)(3).
• A tax identifier is not one of Texas's seven required content groups. Adding extra information is permitted, but the statute does not require an SSN or EIN.
• Bad-faith demand damages do not expressly include attorney's fees. Section 114.086(i) says “damages”; do not import California's broader wording.

Common questions

Does the certification need to be notarized?

Not under § 114.086. Subsection (b) permits any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate and does not add an acknowledgment, notary, oath, or witness rule. A separate transaction or recording requirement must be analyzed on its own terms.

Can one trustee sign when there are multiple trustees?

Yes. Section 114.086(b) permits any trustee to authenticate the certification. The document still must state under subsection (a)(6) how many cotrustees are needed to exercise the underlying trustee powers.

Must the trustee provide the entire trust if asked?

Not automatically. Section 114.086(e) authorizes limited excerpts designating the trustee and conferring power for the pending transaction. A demand beyond the certification and those excerpts may lead to damages after a court finds lack of good faith; judicial proceedings remain an express exception under subsection (j).

Does Texas require recording the certification?

Section 114.086 does not. It supplies no recording command or certification-specific notice effect.

Statutes and sources

• Tex. Prop. Code § 114.086(a)–(e) — availability, required content, any-trustee authentication, omitted dispositive terms, and permitted excerpts. Official Texas Property Code chapter 114 (accessed 2026-07-31).
• Tex. Prop. Code § 114.086(f)–(k) — reliance, actual knowledge, enforcement, bad-faith demand damages, judicial-proceeding exception, and beneficiary rights. Official Texas Property Code chapter 114 (accessed 2026-07-31).