Cuyahoga County Memorandum of Trust (Successor Trustee) Form

When the trustee of an Ohio trust dies, resigns, or is removed and a successor takes office, Ohio Revised Code Section 5302.171 calls for a recorded affidavit of successor trustee for the trust's real property, unless a memorandum of trust under Section 5301.255 that contains the relevant facts of the succession is already of record. This form prepares that memorandum, executed by one successor trustee, the sole trustee now serving, with a section built to carry the facts of the succession.

The memorandum that stands in for the successor trustee affidavit

Section 5302.171 directs a successor trustee to file with the county auditor and recorder an affidavit reciting the preceding trustee, the addresses of all trustees, the deed that vested title in the trustees, and the legal description. The same section states that the affidavit is not required where a memorandum of trust in compliance with Section 5301.255 that contains relevant facts pertaining to the succession of trustees is recorded. Section 3 of this form is that content. It names the preceding trustee, states the event that ended that trustee's service and its date, and sets out the substance or text of the trust provision under which the successor serves, material Section 5301.255(B) permits a memorandum to carry. A closing sentence states that those facts are set forth as facts pertaining to the succession of trustees within the meaning of Section 5302.171.

What every memorandum of trust carries, from the successor's chair

Section 5301.255(A)(2) requires three things of any memorandum, and this one supplies each from the successor trustee's position: the trustee's name and address in Section 2, Section 5801.01(X) defining trustee to include a successor trustee; the date the trust was executed in Section 1, with the settlor and the dates of any amendments; and in Section 4 the powers specified in the trust over acquiring, selling, encumbering, or conveying real property, with any restrictions. The memorandum conveys nothing and, under division (C), is notice only of the information it contains.

One successor trustee, one certificate

The form recites exactly one signer. Its opening paragraph states, as fixed text, that the undersigned is the successor trustee of the trust identified in Section 1, succeeded to the office upon the event stated in Section 3, and is the sole trustee of the trust now serving. The signature area carries a single SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE block followed by one acknowledgment certificate in the Ohio statutory short form for a trustee under Section 147.55(F), whose by-line holds the signer's name and title of position. A child named in the trust who took office at the settlor-trustee's death, a successor who followed a resignation under Section 5807.05, and a trustee appointed under Section 5807.04(C) each present the pattern this memorandum recites. The form is not set up as a memorandum of an original trustee still serving, of two cotrustees acting together, of a successor serving beside a continuing cotrustee, of a corporate trustee's officer, or of an attorney-in-fact. Because nothing is conveyed, no spouse signs and no dower release appears.

Describing the parcel decides where it is recorded

Section 5 is optional. A memorandum that describes specific real property, with the legal description, parcel number, and the deed into the trust, is recorded in the series Section 317.08(A)(17) names and indexed to that parcel; it also supplies the vesting-deed reference and legal description Section 5302.171 lists. A memorandum that describes no property is recorded in the Section 317.08(A)(23) series beside powers of attorney. Since June 16, 2026, under Senate Bill 101, a memorandum shall be of record whenever a trustee of a disclosed trust conveys an interest in real property.

Execution and recording in Ohio

The successor trustee signs and acknowledges the memorandum under Section 5301.01, before a notary public or another officer that section names, with no subscribing witnesses. The form follows the Section 317.114 standard format at 12 point type with the three-inch blank first-page margin, so the recorder's standardization surcharge does not apply, and the county auditor's conveyance stamps under Section 317.22 do not attach to an instrument that conveys nothing.

The package contains three pieces: the fillable memorandum of trust form, a completed example worked through a Hamilton County fact pattern in which a daughter succeeds her late father as trustee, and a guide covering each numbered section, the acknowledgment, and recording. Neither this description nor the guide is legal advice; both describe the form and the Ohio statutes in general terms.