Last reviewed: July 2026
The proof stack
- Certification of trust: the statutory short-form — existence, trustees, powers — that keeps the full document private while giving closings what they need
- Successor documentation: death certificates, resignations, acceptances proving today's trustee holds yesterday's deed's power
- Co-trustee compliance: when the instrument requires multiple signatures, it means it
- Name hygiene: the deed's trust name (with date, as amended) must match the certification — mismatches are curable, but only deliberately
The two classic failures
The unfunded trust: a beautiful plan, and a deed still in the settlors' names. Alive, it's a simple corrective deed (law-firm work, quick). After death, it's the probate the trust was designed to skip — the pour-over will catching what funding missed. Our exams surface unfunded trusts constantly; the cheap fix window is while everyone's healthy.
The vanished document: property deeded to a trust nobody can locate. Florida practice has paths — restatements, court instruction, title-repair strategies — none fast, all legal work. The lesson runs backward: keep trust documents findable, and give your successor trustee the certification before they need it.
Buying in trust, briefly
Decide vesting before the contract; tell the lender at application (trust-friendliness varies); expect a certification request; align insurance and the policy with the vesting. Planned, it adds zero friction. Improvised at the closing table, it adds a week. And if the trust doesn't exist yet — that's an estate-planning conversation the law firm has daily, with the deed work built in.