Certification of Trust

Certification of Trust
This document is a summary of the pertinent facts about your trust that financial institutions or others having dealings with the trust need to know, namely, the Grantor, the Trustee, the Tax Payer Identification number of the trust (which is usually your social security number) and whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable.

A certification of trust is designed to protect your privacy.  California law provides that someone MUST accept a certification of trust in lieu of a copy of your trust.  Of course, an institution can require that you use the form they provide, rather than the one drafted by your lawyer, but many institutions do not have a standardized form and thus having one as part of your estate plan makes funding assets into your trust easier.