Mercer County Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee) Form

Where an ordinary deed asks who receives the property, this Missouri quitclaim deed asks three questions instead: the trustee's name, the name of the trust, and the date the trust instrument was executed. That grantee block defines the variant. A single individual signs as grantor and lets go of whatever right, title, and interest that person holds in the described Missouri real property, and what receives it is a fiduciary capacity.

Naming a trustee so the land records can read it

Section 456.021 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri validates two ways of naming the receiving side: a transfer made only to the name of the trust, and a transfer made to the name or names of the trustee or trustees as trustee or trustees of the trust. Either way the statute asks that the trust be identified in the instrument of transfer and its terms set forth in a written instrument. This form takes the trustee-as-trustee route, gathering the trust name and instrument date beside the trustee's name, so the identification prints on page one and enters the recorder's grantee index. The section adds that the conveyance is not invalid because the trust is amendable or revocable, or both, or because it was amended after the deed was delivered.

A grantee who signs nothing

The form recites exactly one grantor, a natural person acting individually, with one signature line, a printed name line beneath it, and one notarial acknowledgment certificate. The trustee takes under the instrument and signs no part of it, so no second signature block appears. A vesting section states that title vests in the grantee in that person's capacity as trustee of the identified trust, and in the successor trustees of that trust, to be held under a written trust instrument the deed sets out nowhere. A settlor funding an irrevocable family trust with a parcel carried in one name, a person conveying to the trustee of a trust a parent settled years earlier, and a co-owner releasing a fractional share to the trustee holding the balance of the title present the pattern this deed recites. Two record owners take a different grantor section.

What the deed cannot say on the trust's behalf

Keeping trust terms out of a public record is deliberate, and Missouri supplies the substitute. Under Section 456.10-1013 a trustee may hand a third party a certification of trust in place of the trust instrument, stating that the trust exists and when it was executed, who settled it, who is acting as trustee, what powers that trustee holds, whether the trust is revocable, and how title to trust property is taken, while leaving dispositive terms out. Signed by all the trustees, it is prepared separately from this deed and is not included in this package. Section 456.10-1012 protects a person who in good faith and for value deals with a trustee, relieving that person of any duty to inquire into the extent of the trustee's powers.

Quitclaim words, and what they withhold

Section 442.420 turns the words grant, bargain and sell in a fee simple conveyance into implied covenants of title unless express terms restrain them. This deed never uses them. It remises, releases, and forever quitclaims, and states on its face that no covenant or warranty of title arises from any word or phrase in it and that title acquired after delivery does not pass. Liens, deeds of trust, easements, and tax obligations already on the property stay on it, and the trustee takes subject to them.

Recording and the first-page band

The signed and notarized deed goes to the recorder of deeds in the Missouri county where the land lies, or to the City of St. Louis recorder. No transfer tax attaches, so cost is the county's per-page schedule plus a statutory user fee. The form is built to Sections 59.310 and 59.313: letter size, three inches left clear across the top of page one, twelve point type, and a first page carrying the title, the date, the grantor with the Section 442.130 married or unmarried statement, the trustee grantee with the mailing address Section 59.330.2 wants, and a reference locating the legal description a page later.

The package holds three items: this trustee grantee quit claim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example running a Clay County conveyance into a family trust, and a guide covering every blank, the trust identification rules, and recording. The materials describe Missouri law in general terms and are informational, not legal advice.