Certification of Trust Requirements in Vermont

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Vermont requires nine transaction-focused items

14A V.S.A. § 1013(a) authorizes a trustee to execute a certificate after the trust's execution or creation and furnish it instead of the trust instrument to a person other than a beneficiary. The certificate may serve as evidence of authority to sell, convey, pledge, mortgage, lease, or transfer title to an interest in real or personal property.

The certificate must give the trust name if one exists, the instrument date, each settlor, each original trustee, and the name and address of every trustee empowered to act when the certificate is executed. It must also abstract the instrument provisions authorizing the contemplated act, state that those authorizing provisions have not been revoked or amended, state that the trust exists, and state that no instrument provision limits the granted authority.

The ninth item states whether a court supervises the trust. If it does, the certificate must also say all necessary approval has been obtained for the trustee to act.

Any trustee may authenticate, but the signature is sworn

Section 1013(e) permits any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate the certification. Subsection (a) separately requires the certificate to rest on the trustee's representation that its statements are true and correct and requires the trustee's signature to be under oath before a notary public or another official authorized to administer oaths.

The signer need not be every trustee, but the certificate must identify every original trustee and every trustee then empowered to act. Those are content duties, not multiple-signature requirements.

The authorization abstract replaces the modal powers checklist

Vermont does not use the common certification fields for revocability status, the identity of a revocation-power holder, cotrustee signature count, title manner, or a TIN. Instead, § 1013(a)(6)-(9) focuses on an abstract of the provisions authorizing the contemplated act, the continued effectiveness of those provisions, the absence of limits on that authority, and any court supervision and approval.

A certificate that states the trust has limitations on the authority granted does not supply subsection (a)(8)'s required statement that no instrument provisions limit that authority.

Dispositive terms may stay private, subject to narrow excerpts

Section 1013(a) permits a certificate containing less than all trust and amendment provisions, and subsection (f) says dispositive terms need not appear. Subsection (g) allows the recipient to require excerpts that designate the trustee and confer power for the pending transaction, but expressly says the trustee is not required to furnish the entire instrument.

That protection does not limit judicial access. Subsection (i) preserves the right to obtain the instrument in a proceeding concerning the trust.

Recording, presentation, and conclusive proof work together

Under § 1013(b), a land-related certificate may be recorded in the municipal land records where the identified land lies. Once recorded or filed for recording—or, for personal property, presented to a third party—it documents the trust's existence, trustee identity, powers, limitations, and other stated matters as though the full instrument had been recorded, filed, or presented.

Subsection (c) makes the certificate conclusive proof unless the dealing party has actual knowledge of contrary facts, the certificate is amended or revoked, or the full instrument and amendments are recorded or filed. A good-faith transaction is enforceable against trust property under subsection (h).

An amendment or revocation must be a trustee-executed writing. It is ineffective against a party without actual notice. Subsection (d) defines actual notice as receipt of the written change or, for real property, either receipt or recording of the change in the municipal land records where the property is located.

What trips people up

• Original trustees remain a required field. Naming only the currently empowered trustees omits subsection (a)(4).
• The authority statement is an abstract, not a generic powers list. It must cover the provisions authorizing the contemplated act.
• Recording is optional. The certificate “may” be recorded, though recording or filing triggers the statutory documentation effect.
• Actual notice is not a blanket mailing duty. It is the condition for a change to become effective against a particular party and has the receipt-or-recording meaning stated in subsection (d).

Common questions

Must the certificate disclose a TIN?

No. A TIN is not one of § 1013(a)'s nine required items.

May the recipient demand the complete trust instrument?

Subsection (g) allows focused trustee-and-power excerpts and expressly says the trustee is not required to furnish the entire instrument. Judicial access remains available under subsection (i).

Does Vermont impose damages for a bad-faith demand?

No demand-specific damages, costs, or attorney-fee rule appears in § 1013. The section instead supplies conclusive-proof, actual-notice, and good-faith-enforcement rules.

Statutes and sources

• 14A V.S.A. § 1013(a)-(i) — availability, nine mandatory items, transaction- authority evidence, sworn trustee signature, any-trustee authentication, optional municipal recording, full-instrument-equivalent documentation, conclusive proof, written amendment or revocation and actual notice, privacy and excerpts, good-faith enforcement, and judicial access. Vermont General Assembly (accessed 2026-07-31).