Certification of Trust Requirements in West Virginia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Eight fact groups and the no-change statement are mandatory

W. Va. Code § 44D-10-1013(a) lets a trustee give a person other than a beneficiary a certification instead of the trust instrument. The certification must state the trust's existence and execution date, the grantor's identity, the current trustee's identity and address, trustee powers, revocability and any revocation-power holder, cotrustee authority, the trust's taxpayer identification number, and the manner of taking title.

Subsection (c) adds the statement that no revocation, modification, or amendment makes the certification's representations incorrect. The statute uses “grantor,” rather than “settlor,” and does not add a universal situs, beneficiary, successor-trustee, amendment-date, or property-description field.

Any trustee may authenticate

Section 44D-10-1013(b) permits any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate the certification. It does not require every cotrustee to execute it.

That signer rule is separate from subsection (a)(6), which requires the certification to report whether all or fewer cotrustees must act to exercise trust powers. The certification section states no oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notarization rule.

Dispositive terms stay private subject to focused excerpts

Under § 44D-10-1013(d), the certification need not contain the trust's 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 is a transaction-focused excerpt right, not automatic access to every trust term. Subsection (i) separately preserves the right to obtain the trust instrument in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust.

Reliance and enforcement use different standards

Section 44D-10-1013(f) protects a person who relies without knowledge that the certification is wrong and permits assumption of the certified facts without inquiry. Possessing all or part of the trust instrument does not alone establish knowledge of its terms.

Subsection (g) separately requires good faith to enforce a transaction against trust property as though the certification's representations were correct. Under subsection (h), a court-determined bad-faith demand for the trust instrument in addition to the certification or excerpts creates liability for damages. The subsection does not state an attorney-fee award.

Real-property recording uses a separate memorandum

Section 44D-10-1013 states no recording route or effect for the certification itself. Subsection (j) instead preserves the separate memorandum-of-trust law in W. Va. Code § 36-1-4a.

For real property subject to the trust, § 36-1-4a permits a compliant memorandum to be presented to the county commission clerk. The memorandum has its own contents, signer, and deed-acknowledgment requirements. If recorded, it gives notice only of the information it contains and is indexed under the settlor or settlors and acting trustee or trustees. That rule does not convert the certification into a recordable instrument or make recording the full trust agreement mandatory.

What trips people up

• The taxpayer identification number is mandatory. It is item seven in the certification's required information list, without a transaction-necessity qualifier.
• One trustee may authenticate even if all cotrustees must transact. Signing the certification and exercising an underlying trust power are separate questions.
• The real-property memorandum is a different document. Its acknowledgment, recording, indexing, and limited-notice rules do not attach automatically to a certification under § 44D-10-1013.
• Bad-faith demand liability is stated as damages. Subsection (h) does not expressly add costs or attorney fees.

Common questions

Must a certification identify future successor trustees?

No. Section 44D-10-1013(a) requires the identity and address of the currently acting trustee. Successor information appears in the separate memorandum statute, not the certification's required list.

Does holding part of the trust instrument automatically defeat reliance?

No. Section 44D-10-1013(f) says knowledge of the trust terms may not be inferred solely because the recipient holds all or part of the instrument.

Can the complete trust instrument be obtained in a trust lawsuit?

Section 44D-10-1013(i) preserves the right to obtain a copy in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust. The certification rule does not override court disclosure.

Statutes and sources

• W. Va. Code § 44D-10-1013(a)-(j) — availability, mandatory contents and TIN, any-trustee authentication, no-change statement, omitted dispositive terms, limited excerpts, reliance, enforcement, bad-faith-demand damages, judicial access, and preservation of the memorandum statute. West Virginia Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).
• W. Va. Code § 36-1-4a(a), (c)-(e) — separate real-property memorandum, execution and acknowledgment, required contents, county recording, indexing, and notice limited to the memorandum's contents. West Virginia Legislature (accessed 2026-07-31).