Otoe County Certificate of Trust Form (Nebraska)
All Otoe County specific forms and documents listed below are included in your immediate download package:
Certificate of Trust Form

Fill in the blank form formatted to comply with all recording and content requirements.
Included Otoe County compliant document last validated/updated 6/9/2025
Certificate of Trust Guide

Line by line guide explaining every blank on the form.
Included Otoe County compliant document last validated/updated 7/8/2025
Completed Example of the Certificate of Trust Document

Example of a properly completed form for reference.
Included Otoe County compliant document last validated/updated 6/5/2025
The following Nebraska and Otoe County supplemental forms are included as a courtesy with your order:
When using these Certificate of Trust forms, the subject real estate must be physically located in Otoe County. The executed documents should then be recorded in the following office:
Otoe County Register of Deeds
1021 Central Ave, Rm 203, Nebraska City, Nebraska 68410
Hours: 8:00am to 4:30pm M-F
Phone: (402) 873-9530
Local jurisdictions located in Otoe County include:
- Burr
- Douglas
- Dunbar
- Lorton
- Nebraska City
- Otoe
- Palmyra
- Syracuse
- Talmage
- Unadilla
How long does it take to get my forms?
Forms are available immediately after submitting payment.
How do I get my forms, are they emailed?
Immediately after you submit payment, the Otoe County forms you order will be available for download directly from your account. You can then download the forms to your computer. If you do not already have an account, one will be created for you as part of the order process, and your login details will be provided to you. If you encounter any issues accessing your forms, please reach out to our support team for assistance. Forms are NOT emailed to you.
What does "validated/updated" mean?
This indicates the most recent date when at least one of the following occurred:
- Updated: The document was updated or changed to remain compliant.
- Validated: The document was examined by an attorney or staff, or it was successfully recorded in Otoe County using our eRecording service.
Are these forms guaranteed to be recordable in Otoe County?
Yes. Our form blanks are guaranteed to meet or exceed all formatting requirements set forth by Otoe County including margin requirements, content requirements, font and font size requirements.
Can the Certificate of Trust forms be re-used?
Yes. You can re-use the forms for your personal use. For example, if you have more than one property in Otoe County that you need to transfer you would only need to order our forms once for all of your properties in Otoe County.
What are supplemental forms?
Often when a deed is recorded, additional documents are required by Nebraska or Otoe County. These could be tax related, informational, or even as simple as a coversheet. Supplemental forms are provided for free with your order where available.
What type of files are the forms?
All of our Otoe County Certificate of Trust forms are PDFs. You will need to have or get Adobe Reader to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.
Do I need any special software to use these forms?
You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.
Do I have to enter all of my property information online?
No. The blank forms are downloaded to your computer and you fill them out there, at your convenience.
Can I save the completed form, email it to someone?
Yes, you can save your deed form at any point with your information in it. The forms can also be emailed, blank or complete, as attachments.
Are there any recurring fees involved?
No. Nothing to cancel, no memberships, no recurring fees.
The Nebraska certification of trust is codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. Ann. 30-38, 103 and falls under the Nebraska Uniform Trust Code, a collection of statutes adopted from the Uniform Trust Code to govern trusts in the State of Nebraska.
In Nebraska, the certification of trust is an affidavit signed by each acting trustee of the trust, containing sworn statements made in the presence of a notary public. The certificate verifies the existence of the trust and is an abstract of relevant provisions of the trust in lieu of the entire trust instrument.
The document may be presented by a trustee or requested by any person doing business with a trustee, particularly in transactions involving real property (though failure to request a certificate of trust is not considered an "improper act" under 30-38,106). As the trust itself cannot hold title, the trustee acts as a representative of the trust. When the transaction for which the certificate of trust is presented or requested involves real property, the legal description of the parcel subject to the transaction should be included.
The certificate of trust may be used by trustees of both living trusts and testamentary trusts. For a living trust, the certificate requires the date of the trust instrument's execution and the identity of the trust's settlor. For a testamentary trust, the certificate gives the death date of the decedent and the testator's identity. In Nebraska, a certificate of trust requires the identity of the beneficiary or beneficiaries of the trust and their relationship to the settlor or testator, as well.
Essential information contained in the certificate includes the name of the currently acting trustee and a description of the trustee's relevant powers, and any restrictions on those powers in dealing with the trust's assets. In addition, the certificate identifies any successor trustee named by the trust instrument (or will, in the case of a testamentary trust), or the procedure given for choosing a successor trustee, if any exists.
If more than one person is an appointed trustee, the document requires details regarding co-trustees' authority to exercise powers. For example, a trust's provisions might specify a single trustee in charge of certain duties, and require that trustee to handle those duties solely. Or, the trust may stipulate that trustees are to act and sign documents jointly.
Additional requirements for the document include the name under which the trust will take and hold assets, the trust's identification number, and the name of the state or other jurisdiction under which the trust was formed. Trusts can further be categorized into revocable or irrevocable trusts, so the certificate should identify whether or not the trust can be revoked, and by whom it is revocable.
Finally, the document requires a notice that the trust has not been revoked or amended so as to cause the statements contained within to be incorrect, and that all the acting trustees have signed the certificate. Recipients of a certificate may rely upon the statements contained within as factual (Neb. Rev. Stat. Ann. 30-38,105). The presentation of a certificate of trust, however, does not prevent the recipient from requesting the excerpts from the trust instrument conferring the relevant powers to act in the pending transaction unto the trustee ( 30-38,104).
Aside from the above requirements, the certificate should meet all prerequisites for recording documents affecting real property in the State of Nebraska. Consult a lawyer with any questions about certifications and trusts in Nebraska, as each situation is unique.
(Nebraska COT Package includes form, guidelines, and completed example)
Our Promise
The documents you receive here will meet, or exceed, the Otoe County recording requirements for formatting. If there's an issue caused by our formatting, we'll make it right and refund your payment.
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Get your Otoe County Certificate of Trust form done right the first time with Deeds.com Uniform Conveyancing Blanks. At Deeds.com, we understand that your time and money are valuable resources, and we don't want you to face a penalty fee or rejection imposed by a county recorder for submitting nonstandard documents. We constantly review and update our forms to meet rapidly changing state and county recording requirements for roughly 3,500 counties and local jurisdictions.
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September 27th, 2023
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Thomas D.
April 30th, 2020
The documents themselves are fine and the information provided with them is helpful. I find the actual processing of the documents, however, to be difficult particularly once the document has been saved. First, I note that the box for the date only allows entry of the last 2 digits of the year. Unfortunately, my download only allows me to enter one of the 2 digits required. When I delete it repeatedly, it eventually allows both digits to be entered but puts them in extremely small text and in superscrypt. I have not found a solution to this problem and am not sure the deed can even be recorded with this problem.
Another problem is that if you try to revise the document after you have saved it the curser goes to the end of the line after each key entry. This means that there basically is no way to efficiently save the document for reworking later since you will have to delete everything you have entered in the text box unless you only need to make a single keystroke change or are willing to replace the curser after each entry. Try that with a long property description!
Please note that I am using a Mac to prepare my documents and perhaps this is part of an "incompatibility problem". However, I didn't see a disclaimer regarding Mac use and so would expect the documents to perform correctly. Overall, I give the program a "2 star" rating because I am experiencing significant difficulties in entering dates in the documents even before saving them and because saving your work for later revision appears to be basically unworkable.
Thank you for your feedback Thomas, we appreciate you being specific about the issues you encountered. Adobe and Mac have a fairly long history of issues working together.