Geauga County Memorandum of Trust (Corporate Trustee) Form

When a bank trust department or an Ohio trust company holds real property as trustee, the memorandum of trust it records has to be signed by a corporation, and a corporation signs only through an officer. This form prepares an Ohio memorandum of trust under Ohio Revised Code Section 5301.255 for exactly that trustee: one corporation, acting through one authorized officer, acknowledged in the corporate short form of Section 147.55(B).

A corporation signs as trustee, through one officer

Section 2 of the form recites, as fixed text, that the trustee of the trust identified in Section 1 is the corporation named below, which executes the memorandum through its authorized officer. The blanks collect the corporation's name, its state or place of incorporation, and its mailing address. The signature block names the corporation again, followed by the words as Trustee, by, and the officer signs beneath with a printed name, a date, and a title line, so the signature reads as the corporation's act. The officer's authority comes from the corporation's own governance, which is not recorded, and there is no seal line: under Section 1701.13(B), failure to affix a corporate seal does not affect the validity of an instrument.

The corporate certificate under Section 147.55(B)

Ohio prints its short-form acknowledgments by capacity. Section 147.55(B) names the officer and that person's title, the corporation, its state or place of incorporation, and closes with the words on behalf of the corporation. The certificate on this form is that form: the by-line holds the officer's name and title together, and two further blanks hold the corporation's name and its state or place of incorporation, matching Section 2. For a national banking association, chartered under federal law rather than by a state, the place of incorporation is the United States.

What a trust company puts of record

The memorandum carries the content Section 5301.255(A)(2) requires: the trustee's name and address, the date the trust was executed, and the trustee's powers to acquire, sell, encumber, or convey real property, together with any restrictions on those powers. Section 3 receives the powers and restrictions as the trust instrument states them, identified by article and section. Section 4 is the optional space Section 5301.255(B) allows for the substance or text of further trust provisions, where a corporate trustee most often sets out the designation of a successor institution. Section 5, also optional, describes a specific parcel, and under Section 5301.255(D) a memorandum that describes a parcel is recorded with the instruments affecting it.

Who serves as a corporate trustee in Ohio

Chapter 1111 of the Revised Code limits trust business in Ohio to corporations: a trust company licensed under Section 1111.06, and a national bank or federal savings association exercising fiduciary powers granted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which Section 1111.03 permits to act in Ohio as trustee. Since June 16, 2026, Section 5301.255(A) requires a memorandum with this content to be of record when the trustee of a disclosed trust conveys any interest in real property.

One corporate trustee, one officer, one certificate

The form recites exactly one corporate trustee and carries one signature block and one acknowledgment certificate. A bank trust department administering an irrevocable trust funded with a settlor's former residence, and a corporate successor trustee that took over from a family member, present the pattern this memorandum recites. The form is not set up as a memorandum for an individual trustee, for two cotrustees, or for a limited liability company serving as trustee, each of which takes a different Section 147.55 certificate, nor for a corporation executing through an attorney in fact or through two signing officers. Because a corporation has no spouse and the memorandum transfers no interest, the instrument carries nothing about dower.

The package includes the fillable memorandum of trust form, a completed example filled in for a realistic Hamilton County fact pattern with an Ohio trust company as trustee, and the guide that walks through every numbered section, the corporate certificate, and the recording process. This description and the guide describe the form and the governing Ohio statutes in general terms and are not legal advice.