Living-Trust Trustee Deed Requirements in Utah

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Current power sections are in recodified Title 75B

Utah Code §§ 75B-2-813–814 give the trustee trust-conferred and owner-equivalent powers without court authorization, subject to trust limits and fiduciary duties. They expressly cover public or private sales, exchanges, partitions, mortgages, in-kind distributions, transaction instruments, and conveying realty either in the trust's name or in the trustee's fiduciary name.

Cotrustee disagreement and director control are separate questions

Section 75B-2-703 starts with unanimity and permits majority action when cotrustees cannot agree. It also addresses a vacancy, temporary unavailability or refusal after reasonable notice, delegation limits, and a timely dissent.

The trust may separately grant a direction power under § 75B-3-106. Section 75B-3-109 generally requires reasonable compliance, bars compliance that would be willful misconduct, and allows a doubtful directed trustee to petition for instructions.

Trust-real-estate recitals are statutory

Section 75B-2-814(3)(c) requires all recorded documents affecting real property to which the trust is a party to state the trustee's name and address and the trust's name and date. Section 75B-2-816 uses the same three facts when trust terms are made public through the deed to the trustee or a separately recorded instrument. An asset-protection trust with the stated transfer restriction adds the statutory title label.

A certification is optional and narrower than the entire trust

Section 75B-2-1013 permits any trustee to authenticate a certification instead of furnishing the whole instrument. It states seven groups of facts, including the pending-transaction power, cotrustee authority, and title name. A recipient can demand the trustee-designation and transaction-power excerpts, but not the entire instrument in bad faith.

Recordability and priority come from Title 57

The deed must be a subscribed writing under § 25-5-1. Section 57-3-101 makes an acknowledgment, proof, jurat, or other qualifying notarial certificate the route to recording with the county recorder where the land lies. Sections 57-3-105–106 add the grantee and tax-mailing address, legal description, original-or-electronic-document, caption, and legibility rules. No cited provision requires subscribing witnesses.

What trips people up

Unpublished trust terms can favor a value purchaser without notice. Under § 75B-2-816(2), when the terms were not made public through the deed to the trustee or a separately recorded instrument, a trustee's conveyance is absolute in favor of a value purchaser without notice of those terms.

The land records do not make an unnamed beneficiary visible. Section 57-3-102 says a recorded grantee designation as trustee, without beneficiaries or trust terms, does not itself charge a third person with notice of unnamed interests. It also allows the grantee to convey free of claims not disclosed in that document or another properly recorded document containing the specified beneficiary, interest, and property facts.

Utah Code § 75B-2-1012 separately protects a good-faith value dealer without knowledge of an improper exercise and removes the ordinary duty to inquire into the trustee's powers or the propriety of their exercise.

Conflict rules remain even when the deed is recordable. Section 75B-2-802 makes a personal-account or otherwise conflicted sale voidable unless a listed safeguard applies. A proper acknowledgment and recording do not cure the trustee's fiduciary breach, although protected third-party rights still matter.

Common questions

Must every cotrustee sign? Not always. Apply the trust first, then § 75B-2-703's failed-unanimity majority, vacancy, unavailability/refusal, or delegation route. The certification may state whether all or fewer than all authenticate the power.

Are witnesses required? The cited Utah writing and recording statutes require a subscribed writing and recordable acknowledgment or other qualifying certificate, not subscribing witnesses.

Must a certification be recorded with the deed? No universal companion rule appears in § 75B-2-1013 or the cited recording provisions. It may still be furnished to support reliance without disclosing dispositive terms.

What happens if the deed is not recorded? Section 57-3-103 makes it void against a later good-faith value purchaser whose document is recorded first. Recording also creates the title presumptions listed in § 57-4a-4, including a presumption that a fiduciary signer held the stated position and acted within authority.

Statutes and sources

• Utah Code §§ 75B-2-703, 75B-2-802, and 75B-2-813–816 — cotrustees, conflicts, trustee powers, trust-realty recitals, and purchaser effect. Official current Title 75B PDFs accessed August 13, 2026.
• Utah Code §§ 75B-3-106 and 75B-3-109 — trust directors and directed trustees. Official current Chapter 3 PDF accessed August 13, 2026.
• Utah Code §§ 75B-2-1012–1013 — dealer and certification reliance. Official current Part 10 PDF accessed August 13, 2026.
• Utah Code § 25-5-1; §§ 57-3-101–106; and § 57-4a-4 — writing, acknowledgment, county recording, contents, priority, and presumptions. Official current PDFs accessed August 13, 2026.