Ohio Affidavit of Confirmation (Successor Trustee Beneficiary)

When an Ohio property owner names a trust as the beneficiary of a transfer on death designation affidavit, the designation runs to a trustee, and trustees change. This Ohio Affidavit of Confirmation (Successor Trustee Beneficiary) is the Revised Code Section 5302.222 instrument for that situation: the owner has died, the trustee named in the recorded designation affidavit has died, resigned, or otherwise been replaced, and the current successor trustee records the transfer of the property to the trust.

A beneficiary the designation affidavit never named

The mechanism comes from Section 5302.22(G). A person designated as a transfer on death beneficiary solely in that person's capacity as trustee of a trust may no longer be the trustee on the date of the owner's death. The statute treats the successor trustee as the beneficiary in existence on that date even though the successor is not named in the owner's affidavit. Section 5302.222(A)(1) then states what the affidavit of confirmation adds: the successor trustee's own name and address, and a copy of the recorded successor trustee affidavit described in Section 5302.171. This form prints both requirements as fixed text, so the affidavit explains on its face why the person signing it is not the person the owner named.

What the affidavit confirms

Under Section 5302.22(C)(1), title to the designated interest vests in the transfer on death beneficiary at the owner's death. The affidavit of confirmation does not create that vesting; it records it. Section 5302.222 makes the affidavit the instrument by which the transfer is recorded, presented to the county auditor and filed with the county recorder where the property sits, verified under oath, and accompanied by a certified copy of the deceased owner's death certificate. The form's confirmation section states that the affiant, as successor trustee, is the beneficiary in existence at the owner's death under Section 5302.22(G), and confirms that title vested under Sections 5302.22 and 5302.23, subject to all encumbrances, reservations, and exceptions. Sometimes called a TOD affidavit of confirmation, it is the post-death companion to the designation affidavit that replaced Ohio's transfer on death deed in 2009.

One affiant, one jurat, and the statute's inventory

The form identifies a single affiant, the successor trustee, and states in Section 1 that the affiant executes the affidavit solely in that capacity as a transfer on death beneficiary. Sections 2 and 3 identify the deceased owner, the date of death, the recorded designation affidavit, the trustee the owner designated, and the recorded successor trustee affidavit. Section 4 carries the legal description and the interest the designation transferred. Section 5 carries the two listings Section 5302.222 requires: each other beneficiary who survived the owner or was in existence at death, and each designated beneficiary who did not survive. The successor trustee signs once, and the certificate that follows is a jurat, because the statute requires the affidavit to be verified before a person authorized to administer oaths.

The configuration is the trust beneficiary whose trustee changed. A revocable living trust whose settlor served as trustee and named a child as successor presents it, as does a bank trustee replaced by another institution. Where the trustee the owner named is still serving, where the beneficiary is a person named in that person's own right, or where the owner held title as a survivorship tenant and the transfer waits for the last surviving tenant's death, the affidavit follows a different pattern that this form is not set up to state. Section 5302.222(A) provides for execution by any transfer on death beneficiary, so the successor trustee alone signs and names any other beneficiaries in Section 5.

Built for the Ohio auditor and recorder

The document is letter size, renders its body at twelve point over the ten point floor of Section 317.114, and reserves the full three inch blank margin at the top of its first page for the auditor's and recorder's endorsements. The preparer's name appears as Section 317.111 requires, and the successor trustee's address doubles as the grantee address Section 319.20 contemplates for the auditor's transfer.

The package includes the fillable affidavit, a completed example filled in for a realistic Franklin County fact pattern, and the guide that describes every section, the accompanying documents, and the recording path; the successor trustee affidavit and the death certificates the statute names are prepared or obtained separately and are not included in this package. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.