Delaware: Certification of Trust Requirements
The short answer
Delaware lets a trustee provide a person other than a beneficiary an acknowledged written certification instead of the trust instrument. Its nonexclusive content list covers seven matters, including the trust's taxpayer identification number and manner of taking title, and any trustee may sign. Dispositive terms may be omitted, targeted trustee-and-power excerpts may be demanded, good-faith reliance can bind trust property, and a bad-faith full-instrument demand can produce damages including attorney fees.
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This is the general rule in Delaware. Ezel applies current Delaware law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and availability | 12 Del. C. § 3591; general certification of trust authorized |
|---|---|
| Permitted use and recipient | Trustee may provide a person other than a beneficiary a certification instead of the trust instrument (§ 3591(a)) |
| Trust identity and party contents | Must address trust existence/execution date and identities of trustor(s) and current trustee(s); list is nonexclusive and requires no trustee address (§ 3591(a)(1)-(2)) |
| Authority, status, and title contents | Must address powers, revocability/revoker, cotrustee signing authority, title manner, and no change making representations incorrect (§ 3591(a)(3)-(5), (7), (c)) |
| State-specific required contents | Trust taxpayer identification number is listed; additional matters may be included; no universal situs, governing-law, successor, or property-description field (§ 3591(a)(6)) |
| Signer, authentication, and acknowledgment | Acknowledged writing signed by any trustee; no all-trustee, witness, oath, or separate attorney requirement (§ 3591(b)) |
| Dispositive terms and permitted excerpts | Dispositive terms may be omitted; recipient may require excerpts designating trustee and conferring pending-transaction power (§ 3591(d)-(e)) |
| Reliance, enforcement, and improper demands | No-knowledge reliance + fact assumption; good-faith transaction enforceable; bad-faith full demand yields damages including attorney fees; judicial access preserved (§ 3591(f)-(i)) |
| Recording and real-property effect | No certification-specific recording permission, requirement, recorder, notice rule, or real-property effect in § 3591 |
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Requirements one by one
Delaware uses a nonexclusive seven-matter list
Under 12 Del. C. § 3591(a), a trustee may provide a person other than a
beneficiary a certification instead of the trust instrument. The certification
contains statements concerning seven listed matters, and “but not limited to” makes
the list nonexclusive rather than a ceiling.
The matters are trust existence and execution date; the identities of the trustor or
trustors and currently acting trustee or trustees; trustee powers; revocability and any
revocation-power holder; cotrustee signing authority; the trust's taxpayer
identification number; and the manner in which title may be taken.
Section 3591(c) separately requires a statement that no revocation, modification, or
amendment makes the certification's representations incorrect.
Any trustee signs an acknowledged writing
Section 3591(b) requires the certification to be an acknowledged writing and permits
any trustee to sign. It does not require every cotrustee's signature even though
subsection (a)(5) calls for the certification to describe how many cotrustees must sign
to exercise trust powers.
The section states no additional witness, oath, or attorney-signature requirement.
Dispositive terms may stay private
Section 3591(d) says the certification need not contain dispositive terms. Subsection
(e) permits the recipient to require excerpts from the original instrument and later
amendments that designate the trustee and confer power for the pending transaction.
That targeted excerpt right is not automatic access to every trust term.
Reliance can bind trust property
Section 3591(f) protects a person who relies without knowledge that the certification
is wrong and permits assumption of the certified facts without inquiry. Holding all or
part of the trust instrument does not alone establish knowledge of its terms.
Subsection (g) separately lets a person who enters the transaction in good faith
enforce it against trust property as though the certification's representations were
correct. Under subsection (h), a court-determined bad-faith demand for the trust
instrument in addition to the certification or excerpts produces damages, expressly
including attorney fees. Subsection (i) preserves access in a judicial proceeding
concerning the trust.
The section states no recording effect
Section 3591 requires an acknowledged writing but does not name a recorder, authorize
or require recording, or assign the certification any notice, priority, public-record,
conveyance, or other real-property effect. Separate transaction documents may follow
their own recording rules.
What trips people up
- The content list is nonexclusive. Additional statements may be included, but
the seven listed matters—including TIN and title manner—remain the statutory core. - One trustee may sign. Cotrustee transaction authority and certification
execution are separate questions. - Acknowledgment is mandatory even though recording is not addressed. The formality
comes directly from § 3591(b), not from a certification-recording rule. - The bad-faith-demand remedy includes attorney fees. Delaware expressly adds them
to damages.
Common questions
Must the certification give each trustee's address?
Not under § 3591(a)(2). Delaware requires the identities of the currently acting
trustees but does not list their addresses in this section.
Does possessing the trust instrument defeat reliance?
No. Section 3591(f) says knowledge may not be inferred solely because the recipient
holds all or part of the instrument.
Can the full instrument be obtained in a trust lawsuit?
Section 3591(i) preserves the right to obtain a copy in a judicial proceeding
concerning the trust.
Statutes and sources
- 12 Del. C. § 3591(a)-(i) — availability, nonexclusive seven-matter list,
TIN, title manner, any-trustee acknowledged writing, no-change statement, omitted
dispositive terms, limited excerpts, reliance, enforcement, attorney-fee-inclusive
damages, and judicial access. Delaware Code
Online (accessed
2026-07-31).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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