Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: a certification of trust is a short sworn summary you give a bank instead of the whole trust document. It proves the trust exists and that you are the trustee without disclosing who inherits what. In California, a third party who demands the full document in bad faith can be liable for damages and your attorney’s fees.
What it is for
Your trust names beneficiaries and states what each receives. A bank clerk opening an account has no business knowing any of that. The certification gives them what they actually need — that the trust exists, when it was created, who the trustee is, and that the trustee has power to act — and nothing else.
The enforcement provision
Except when requested by a beneficiary or in the context of litigation concerning a trust and subject to the provisions of subdivision (e), any person making a demand for the trust documents in addition to a certification of trust to prove facts set forth in the certification of trust acceptable to the third party shall be liable for damages, including attorney’s fees, incurred as a result of the refusal to accept the certification of trust in lieu of the requested documents if the court determines that the person acted in bad faith in requesting the trust documents.
— Cal. Prob. Code § 18100.5(h); accord Uniform Trust Code § 1013 (e.g., as enacted at Va. Code § 64.2-804)
Read what that does. It is not merely permission to use a certification; it attaches a cost to refusing one in bad faith — damages including attorney’s fees. The exceptions are narrow and sensible: a beneficiary asking, or litigation about the trust.
Most states have an equivalent, and the mechanics differ
The Uniform Trust Code contains a parallel provision at §1013, and states that adopted the UTC have some version of it — Virginia’s, for example, sits at Va. Code §64.2-804.
What we could not confirm. We verified California’s subsection (h) verbatim and confirmed the UTC provision through a state’s enactment rather than from the uniform act’s own text, which we could not retrieve as a readable document. And the mechanics are not identical — Virginia lets a trustee furnish excerpts of the instrument, which is structurally different from California’s certification-only approach. So: the concept is broadly shared; the specific remedy and procedure are not. Check your own state before relying on the attorney-fees hook.
What a certification normally contains
- That the trust exists, its name, and the date it was executed
- The settlor and the currently acting trustee
- The trustee’s powers relevant to the transaction
- Whether the trust is revocable and who may revoke it
- How title is to be taken, and the trust’s taxpayer identification arrangement
- A statement, signed under penalty of perjury, that the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that makes the certification incorrect
It does not contain the dispositive provisions — who gets what. That is the entire point.
When an institution pushes back
- Offer the certification first, in writing, and keep the copy.
- Ask what specific fact they still need. Often it is one power, and a supplemental certification resolves it.
- Escalate past the branch. Trust departments and legal review understand certifications; front-line staff frequently have not seen one.
- Cite your state’s provision. Naming it changes the conversation, and in California it carries a fee-shifting consequence.
- Do not hand over the whole trust to move things along. Once disclosed, it cannot be undisclosed — and it is usually not required.
Related: funding the trust · retitling accounts · what the lender asks for.
General information drawn from federal and state statute, not legal advice. Deeds, trust law and recording requirements are STATE law and differ; a deed prepared wrongly can cloud title, trigger a transfer tax, or affect a title policy. A living trust only controls the assets actually retitled into it – which is the entire point of this section of the site.