Defiance County Affidavit of Survivorship (Trustee Beneficiary) Form

When the survivor under an Ohio survivorship deed is a trustee, the affidavit that removes the deceased tenant from the record leaves a trust, acting through its trustee, holding the whole title. This Ohio Affidavit of Survivorship (Trustee Beneficiary) prepares that sworn statement under Section 5302.17 of the Ohio Revised Code for a trustee named as a grantee in the survivorship deed who now stands as the surviving survivorship tenant.

A trust in the survivor's position

Ohio's survivorship tenancy runs between persons, and Section 1.59(C) of the Revised Code reads the word person in any statute to include a trust. A survivorship deed can therefore convey to an individual and to a named trustee, for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them, and Section 5302.20 then works as it does for any two grantees: at the individual's death, that tenant's title vests in the remaining tenant as the sole title holder. Here the remaining tenant holds for a trust, so the record and the auditor's tax list need the trustee, identified by name and by the trust, as the person in whom the decedent's title vested. This affidavit supplies exactly that, with the trustee signing in the trustee capacity and the trust identified by name and by the date of its instrument.

What the trustee swears to

The form fixes the configuration as printed text. Section 1 states that the affiant makes the affidavit as trustee of the identified trust, was named as a grantee in the survivorship deed, and is the surviving survivorship tenant. Section 3 identifies the deed by date, recording date, recording reference, and county, and recites that it conveyed to the decedent and to the trustee for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor of them, with no other survivorship tenant under it. Section 5 recites the vesting Section 5302.20(B) gives the death and carries the surviving tenant's name and address, which Section 5302.17 requires. The names, dates, references, and property description are the blanks. The trustee signs once, under the heading AFFIANT, AS TRUSTEE, and the officer who administers the oath completes the jurat, with venue lines for the state and county where the oath is taken.

The memorandum of trust comes later

The affidavit is not a conveyance by the trustee, so the memorandum of trust that Section 5301.255 requires to be of record when a trustee conveys an interest in real property, in the form Senate Bill 101 of the 136th General Assembly gave it effective June 16, 2026, does not condition the filing of the affidavit. It governs the next step: when the trustee later sells, mortgages, or otherwise conveys the property, a memorandum stating the trustee's name and address, the trust's execution date, and the trustee's powers over real property is of record, prepared separately and not included in this package. The form describes the trustee named in the deed, still serving; where that trustee has died, resigned, or been replaced, Section 5302.171 provides a successor trustee affidavit, likewise prepared separately and not included in this package.

One trustee, one oath, two county offices

The form is the trustee-survivor configuration of this affidavit: exactly two survivorship tenants under the deed, one of them the trustee, with the individual tenant deceased; one affiant signing in a representative capacity; one jurat certificate; and a vesting recital naming the trustee, for the trust, as the sole title holder. A parent and the trustee of the parent's revocable trust on one survivorship deed, and a co-owner who held with the trustee of a sibling's trust, present the pattern this affidavit recites. The form is not set up as the affidavit for three or more survivorship tenants, for a successor trustee who was not named in the deed, for a transfer on death beneficiary under Section 5302.222, or for registered land under Chapter 5309, each a different recital. Section 5302.17 sends the completed affidavit, with a certified copy of the death certificate, to the county auditor and then to the county recorder where the property lies; the guide walks through the auditor's exemption statement, the transfer fee, and the recorder's per-page fees.

The package includes the fillable affidavit, a completed example filled in for a realistic Hamilton County fact pattern with a named family trust, and the guide that walks through every numbered section and the auditor and recorder steps. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms; they are not legal advice.