Defiance County Gift Deed (Trustee Grantor) Form

When Ohio real property sits in a trust, the person who gives it away is the trustee, signing once, in that capacity alone, under a deed that names the trust and rests on a memorandum of trust of record. This Ohio Gift Deed (Trustee Grantor) prepares that conveyance: an individual serving as trustee grants trust-held property to one or two grantees for no consideration, under Ohio Revised Code Chapters 5301 and 5302, with the trustee's capacity recited as fixed deed text and the Section 147.55(F) trustee acknowledgment built in.

A trustee signs as trustee, and only as trustee

Ohio title to trust real estate rests in the trustee, not the trust, so the deed names the grantor as the trustee of a named trust under an instrument of a stated date and recites that the grantor conveys solely as trustee and not individually. The shape comes from the statutory fiduciary deed of Section 5302.09, which identifies a trustee by office and conveys by the power conferred by a named source and every other power. The alteration Section 5302.01 permits removes the dollars-paid clause and the fiduciary covenants, leaving a grant under Section 5302.03, which implies no covenant, and an express statement that the deed is made without covenants of any kind on the part of the grantor, individually or as trustee.

The memorandum of trust the recorder expects

Since June 16, 2026, Section 5301.255 has provided that a memorandum of trust, or another instrument meeting the section, shall be of record whenever the trustee of a disclosed trust conveys any interest in real property. The memorandum, signed and acknowledged by the trustee, states the trustee's name and address, the trust's date, and the trustee's powers over real property. The deed carries a box for the memorandum's recording reference; the memorandum itself is a separate instrument, recorded with or before the deed and not included in this package.

A gift out of a trust and the auditor's exemptions

The deed states that the conveyance is a gift and that no money or other consideration has been paid or is to be paid. Under Section 319.202 the grantee submits form DTE 100, or the exemption form DTE 100EX, before the auditor indorses the deed, and the grantor pays the Section 319.54(G)(3) fee where no exemption applies, on the price a gift would bring on the open market. Three exemptions in that section speak to trusts: division (d), a gift in trust or otherwise between spouses or between parent and child or the spouse of either; division (u), a transfer back to the grantor of a trust under a power to revoke or withdraw; and division (v), a transfer to the beneficiaries of a trust where the fee was paid on the way in or the trust became irrevocable at the grantor's death.

No dower line

The deed carries no dower release and no spousal signature. Section 2103.02 endows a spouse with dower in real property of which the other spouse was seized as an estate of inheritance, and the statutory fiduciary deed form prints no release, because the trustee holds title for the beneficiaries of the trust. The guide sets out the statutory text and the limits of what the deed reaches.

What the form recites

The form recites exactly one trustee, a natural person, signing once, with one acknowledgment certificate in the Section 147.55(F) short form, whose by-line takes the trustee's name and title of position. The grantee block is open to one grantee or two, with room for the words that fix how two grantees hold under Section 5302.19 or Section 5302.17. A settlor serving as trustee of a revocable living trust who passes a trust-held house to an adult child, and a successor trustee distributing a lot to the beneficiaries entitled to it under the trust terms, present the patterns this deed recites. The form is not set up as a conveyance by co-trustees, by a bank or trust company serving as trustee, by an owner holding title in the owner's own name, or by an attorney in fact, and it recites no sale.

The package includes the fillable deed, a completed example for a Hamilton County gift from the trustee of a family trust to the trust's two beneficiaries as tenants in common, and the guide that walks through every section, the memorandum of trust, and recording. This description and the guide state what Ohio law provides in general terms and are not legal advice.