Gallatin County Quitclaim Deed (Trustee Grantee) Form

A trust does not sit in the grantee blank of a Montana deed. Its trustee does, and the capacity words matter. This Montana quitclaim deed is built for that arrangement: one grantor releases whatever interest that grantor holds in the described real property, and the grantee section names the trustee, the trustee capacity, the trust, and the date of the trust instrument, so the instrument designates its grantee as trustee on the face of the county record.

What the capacity words accomplish

Montana Code Annotated Section 72-38-1111 governs conveyances of real property to and from a trust, and subsection (2) is why this deed is worded as it is: a conveyance to a trustee designated as such in the conveyance vests the whole estate conveyed in the trustee, subject only to the trustee's duties, while the beneficiaries take no estate or interest in the land itself. Subsection (4) shows the cost of leaving the designation out. Absent a clear reference to or designation of a grantee as trustee, either in the conveyance or in a separately recorded instrument covering the same property, the conveyance counts as absolute to that grantee in favor of purchasers or encumbrancers who act for value without actual knowledge, whatever trust may in fact exist.

A blank most deeds into trust do not have

Section 8 of the form collects any limitation on the trustee's power to convey or encumber the property. That entry answers Section 72-38-1111(5): as against a third person acting for value without actual knowledge, a limitation binds only where it appears in the recorded conveyance to the trustee or in a trust instrument, portion, or abstract recorded in the same county, so a restriction living in an unrecorded trust document, even one the deed incorporates by reference, never reaches that person. A deed carrying no limitation leaves the entry reading None, and the conveyance section then states that the instrument imposes none.

A release rather than a promise

Montana hangs its implied deed covenants on one word. Under Section 70-20-304, a conveyance using the word grant implies that the grantor has passed the same estate to no one else and that the estate carries no encumbrance the grantor made or suffered. This quit claim deed stays off that hook: it remises, releases, and forever quitclaims, it says outright that grant serves as no word of conveyance here, and it disclaims covenant and warranty of title. The trustee takes the parcel exactly as it stands.

One grantor signs, and the trustee does not

The form recites a single grantor in Section 1, one signature line in Section 11, and one acknowledgment certificate built on the individual short form at Section 1-5-610. The grantee trustee signs nothing; the grantee section exists to identify the taker and to supply the post-office address that Section 7-4-2618 makes a condition of the clerk and recorder receiving a deed at all. Arrangements putting this configuration in Montana records include a parcel contributed to a trust another person settled, an undivided share released to the trustee who already holds the balance, a deed naming the trustee where an earlier recorded conveyance named only the trust, and a conveyance running to the successor trustee then serving. The form is not set up for a grantor signing in a representative capacity, and it is a deed into a trust rather than a conveyance out of one by its trustee.

Two documents at the counter, sometimes three

The deed reaches the clerk and recorder of the county holding the land with a Realty Transfer Certificate, Department of Revenue Form RTC, which keeps price information off the deed and confidential. The Department of Revenue lists a transfer to a revocable living trust among the categories for which that certificate need not state an amount paid, and it asks for the last four digits of the federal identification number of a trust named in the transferring document. A certification of trust under Section 72-38-1013, acknowledged so that it may be recorded, is how the record answers what the trustee may do; it is prepared and recorded separately and is not included here.

What the download includes

The package delivers the trustee grantee quitclaim deed as a fillable PDF, a completed example worked out on a Lewis and Clark County fact pattern, and a plain language guide covering each numbered section, the trust statutes behind them, notarization, and recording. The materials are informational and are not legal advice.