Smith County Warranty Deed (Trustee Grantor) Form

When Texas real property sits in a trust, the seller on the deed is not the trust; it is the trustee. Texas law places legal title to trust property in the trustee, and Property Code Section 114.087 treats the trustee as the named party even where an instrument names the trust itself. This warranty deed is built for that moment: the trustee of a trust conveys real property out of the trust with a covenant of general warranty, the broadest title promise Texas deed practice recognizes.

A general warranty in a fiduciary frame

The deed follows the statutory pattern of Property Code Section 5.022, which builds a general warranty conveyance on the granting words grant, sell, and convey and on the covenant to warrant and forever defend the property against every person lawfully claiming it. What the trustee version adds is the frame around that promise. The deed recites that the grantor holds title as trustee of an identified trust, conveys under the trust instrument and the statutory power of sale in Trust Code Section 113.010, and makes every covenant solely in the trustee capacity, binding that capacity and successors in it, and states expressly that no covenant is made by the trustee individually. A reservations and exceptions section tailors the warranty to the matters actually of record.

What the record shows, and what stays private

Trust instruments are rarely recorded, and Texas law respects that privacy while protecting the people who deal with a trustee. The deed identifies the trust by name and by the date of the trust instrument. The trustee's authority is commonly documented alongside the closing with a certification of trust under Property Code Section 114.086, a signed summary of the trust's existence, date, trustee, and powers that stands in for the trust agreement, with statutory protection for a person who relies on it in good faith. Where the deed into the trustee never identified the trust, Sections 101.001 and 114.082 let the trustee convey without subsequent question by a person claiming under an undisclosed beneficiary.

Homestead and the qualifying trust

A married grantor's homestead conveyance ordinarily requires both spouses to join under Family Code Section 5.001. For trust property, Texas answers through Property Code Section 41.0021: the joinder requirement applies when a married person transfers the homestead into a qualifying trust, and once the property is in the trust, subsection (d) permits the trustee to sell, convey, or encumber it without the joinder of either spouse unless the trust instrument expressly prohibits the conveyance. The form therefore carries a single trustee signature block, and the guide sets out the statutory analysis with citations, including the surviving-spouse protections the statute leaves untouched.

Inside the package

The blank deed is a fillable PDF with numbered sections for the parties, the trust, the consideration, the property, and the exceptions, followed by the operative conveyance and warranty, a trustee signature block, and a notary acknowledgment sized for a full fiduciary capacity. A completed example shows the entire deed filled in for a realistic Williamson County sale, and the guide documents every entry, the signing formalities, and recording with the county clerk, including the confidentiality notice Property Code Section 11.008 places at the top of page one. The materials describe Texas law in general terms and are not legal advice.