Vermont Certificate of Trust (Two Individual Cotrustees)

Two Vermont cotrustees can place sworn proof of their authority in the town land records without putting the trust instrument itself on public file. This form prepares a Vermont Certificate of Trust under 14A V.S.A. § 1013 for a trust with exactly two individual cotrustees, each signing under oath before a notary. The certificate, also searched as a certification of trust or trustee certificate, stands in for the trust instrument when the trustees deal with buyers, lenders, title companies, and town clerks.

Two Cotrustees, Two Sworn Signatures

The configuration is the product. The form recites the name and address of each of the two individual cotrustees empowered to act under the trust instrument at the time the certificate is executed, and it carries a signature block and a separate notary certificate for each of them, so the pair may swear on different dates, before different notaries, or in different states. Section 1013(e) provides that a certification of trust may be signed or otherwise authenticated by any trustee; what this layout adds is a recorded certificate carrying both cotrustees' sworn statements, matching how a two-cotrustee trust ordinarily acts, since under 14A V.S.A. § 703(a) cotrustees act by majority and a majority of two is both. Married settlors serving together as trustees of a family revocable trust, and a pair of successor cotrustees who took office under the trust instrument, present the two-cotrustee pattern this certificate recites. A trust with a sole trustee, three or more cotrustees, or a bank as trustee presents a different signing pattern than the two individual blocks this form carries.

What the Certificate States Instead of the Trust

Vermont wrote its certification statute with recording in mind, and the statute lists what the document must include: the trust's name, the date of the trust instrument and of each amendment, each settlor, each original trustee, the name and address of each trustee currently empowered to act, an abstract of the provisions authorizing the trustees to act, statements that the trust exists and has not been revoked or amended as to those provisions and that nothing in the trust instrument limits the authority, and a statement as to court supervision. The signature of the trustee must be under oath before a notary public, so the notary blocks on this form are sworn verifications in the short form 26 V.S.A. § 5368 provides, not the acknowledgment found on a deed. What stays private is the substance: under § 1013(f) the certificate need not contain the dispositive terms of the trust, so who inherits, in what shares, and on what conditions never enters the public record.

Conclusive Proof in the Land Records

Once recorded in the municipal land records where the land identified in it is located, the certificate documents the existence of the trust, the identity of the trustees, and the powers of the trustees and any limitations on those powers, as though the full trust instrument had been recorded. Under § 1013(c) the certificate is conclusive proof as to the matters contained in it, and any party may rely on its continued effectiveness unless that party has actual knowledge of facts to the contrary, the certificate is amended or revoked by a recorded written instrument, or the full trust instrument is placed of record. A person who in good faith enters into a transaction in reliance on the certification may enforce the transaction against the trust property as if its representations were correct.

Recording With the Town Clerk

Vermont records land documents by town and city, not by county, so the certificate goes to the clerk of the municipality where the land it identifies is located, at the statutory fee of 15 dollars per page under 32 V.S.A. § 1671(a). The certificate transfers nothing itself, so the property transfer tax return that accompanies a deed is a matter for the trustees' deed in the underlying transaction, prepared separately and not included in this package.

This package contains the certificate as a fillable PDF form, a plain language guide that walks through each of its ten sections, and a completed example showing the entire document filled in for a realistic Vermont trust. The materials are informational and are not legal advice; a Vermont attorney can apply 14A V.S.A. § 1013 to a particular trust and transaction.