The Elusive Trust Certification Form

I often see clients buying, selling, or refinancing a home within their revocable living trust, and some real estate professional ends up asking them for a Trust Certification Form. "Oh, you can just get that from your attorney." Unfortunately, just asking your estate planning attorney for a Trust Certification Form is like going to a hardware store and asking someone who works there to get you a box of screws. How long? What metal does it need to be made out of? Flat head or round head? Regular or Phillips head screws? How many to a box?

The real estate process is confusing enough, and being asked to generically get a Trust Certification Form can be very confusing and frustrating. This podcast reviews what trust certification forms are, the few items that are frequently included in them, and some of the stranger requests we've had to include in the past. For the free trust certification form we send, please go to our Linktree account at https://linktr.ee/plainenglishattorney in the Forms section. We also have included a copy of the standard letter we send to real estate professionals who have not been specific in their requests for what should be included in the Trust Certification Form their company wants.