Who this lane is for
- Trustees selling South Florida property held in a revocable living trust or land trust
- Successor trustees — the parent who created the trust has passed, and the succession chain now has to be proven of record
- Listing agents taking a trust listing who want the one document that prevents most trust-sale delays requested on day one
- Trustees who live out of state or abroad — certifications travel by secure delivery, and signings happen by RON or coordinated mail-away
How the lane runs
- Step 1 — Request the certification of trust the day the lane opens: Florida's certification-of-trust statute lets a concise attorney-prepared certificate stand in for the private trust document — it's the single document that prevents 90% of trust-sale delays
- Step 2 — Establish the proof points the closing must show: the trust exists and hasn't been revoked or restated out from under the deed; the signer is the current trustee (including the successor chain); the power of sale is shown; all required co-trustees are signing; and the trust's name on the deed matches reality
- Step 3 — Assemble succession paper early: death certificates, resignations, and acceptance documents for successor trustees — gathered at opening, not discovered at the table
- Step 4 — Route drafting to counsel: when something's missing — a certification to prepare, a successor-trustee affidavit, or the classic unfunded trust where the property was never deeded in — that is legal work the law firm drafts under separate engagement (trusts are the firm's home turf), or any attorney you choose
- Step 5 — Paper the money correctly: proceeds are disbursed to the trust, not to beneficiaries directly, unless the trustee properly directs otherwise — and structures that change the tax analysis (irrevocable trusts, foreign settlors, post-death sales) get flagged for your tax professional
- Step 6 — Give the wire somewhere to land: proceeds belong to the trust, which means a bank account titled in the trust's name — and banks generally require the trust's FEIN to open one. After the settlor's death, a formerly revocable trust typically needs its own EIN rather than the late settlor's Social Security number. We raise it at file opening, so the account exists before funding day instead of being invented at a bank branch that afternoon
- Step 7 — Screen the homestead question early: when the property is (or was) the settlor's Florida homestead, the trustee's signature alone may not carry the deed — a surviving spouse may need to join, and in some post-death scenarios the title underwriter requires a joinder of beneficiaries on the deed itself. Whether joinder is required is a legal determination on the specific trust and family facts — the exam flags it on day one, and the drafting or advice it triggers is legal work the law firm handles under separate engagement, or any attorney you choose
Start here
Run the Probate & Trust Estimator for the net sheet and the curative-risk checklist, or order title and flag the trust in your order so the certification request goes out with the file opening.
Trustee-duty questions — consents, contentious beneficiaries, court instruction — are legal advice territory: the law firm can counsel the trustee under a separate engagement, at fees the firm determines.