Newton County Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee) Form

A 1919 Arkansas statute decides what a deed to a trustee accomplishes. Under Arkansas Code Annotated Section 18-12-604, the words as trustee following a grantee's name, standing alone, give no notice of any trust and vest title in that grantee. This quitclaim deed is configured around that sentence: one grantor conveys, and the grantee section names the trustee, the trust, and the date of the trust instrument, so the record shows a conveyance held in trust rather than one to an individual called trustee.

What the words as trustee do not accomplish

Section 18-12-604 is short and consequential. Where a deed follows the grantee's name with trustee or as trustee and carries nothing else showing a trust, those words put nobody dealing with the land on notice, and title vests in the grantee. Practitioner commentary is blunt: a deed to Jane Smith, Trustee leaves title in Jane Smith. Commentary on the Arkansas title standards adds that no statute or decision settles whether a trust itself may hold record title. The form answers both points by collecting the trustee's name, the trust's name, and the trust date as separate entries, and by carrying the trust and any successor trustee into the granting clause.

One grantor, one trustee, one certificate

The form recites a single grantor with a marital status entry and a single grantee taking as trustee. Under the operative sections sit the grantor's signature and date line, the two disinterested witness blocks of Section 18-12-104, and a single acknowledgment certificate covering the grantor, because a grantee does not sign a conveyance. The trustee's one signature line belongs to the transfer tax certification, which Section 26-60-110 assigns to the grantee or the grantee's agent. Configurations that present this pattern recur in the Arkansas records: a settlor deeding a rental parcel to the trustee of a trust signed weeks earlier, an heir releasing an inherited fractional interest to the trustee already holding the rest of the tract, and a trustee buying a parcel under Section 28-73-816. A conveyance by two record owners, or one naming cotrustees, falls outside these blocks, and Section 18-12-603 is why: its tenancy in common default for multiple grantees expressly excludes a grant to trustees.

No covenants, and everything that rides along

Section 18-12-102 attaches covenants of seisin, freedom from grantor caused encumbrances, and quiet enjoyment to a deed built on the words grant, bargain and sell, unless express words limit them, so a no warranty conveyance stays clear of that phrase. This deed operates by remise, release, and quitclaim and states on its face that no statutory covenant arises. The trustee receives the interest the grantor holds at delivery, with mortgages, tax liens, easements, restrictions, and severed minerals riding along untouched.

A gift into trust meets the transfer tax

A deed funding a trust often carries no price, and the Arkansas exemption list has no line for it: Section 26-60-102 excuses governmental transfers, security instruments, tax sale land, leaseholds, short term timber rights, divorce divisions, entity reorganizations, and beneficiary deeds, and a private trust is none of those. The measure of the tax resolves it. The $3.30 per $1,000 rate reaches actual consideration above one hundred dollars, so a gift produces nothing to pay, and Section 26-60-107 furnishes the affidavit stating that no tax is due.

At the Arkansas recording counter

The first page opens with the preparer statement of Section 14-15-403 and the return address block, and the pages follow the format numbers of Section 14-15-402: letter paper, two and one half inches clear at the top for the file mark, half inch side and bottom margins, and the same reserve at the foot of the last page. Photo identification arrived on August 5, 2025, when Act 752 of 2025 began conditioning counter and mail filings on the grantor's state or federal identification card, subject to the statutory exceptions the guide lists. A trustee asked for evidence of authority answers with the trust instrument or a certification of trust under Section 28-73-1013, prepared apart from the deed and not included here.

Inside the package

The download holds the Arkansas quitclaim deed in its trustee grantee configuration as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked through a Garland County conveyance into a family trust, and a plain language guide to the blanks, the execution formalities, and the recording steps. Searches that land here include quit claim deed to a trust and quick claim deed to a trustee. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.