District of Columbia: Certification of Trust Requirements

Requirements one by one

The District requires eight information groups

D.C. Code § 19-1310.13(a) lets a trustee furnish a certification instead of the
trust instrument to a person other than a beneficiary. The certification must state
the trust's existence and execution date, settlor identity, the current trustee's
identity and address, trustee powers, revocability and any revocation-power holder,
cotrustee authentication and exercise authority, the trust's taxpayer identification
number, and the manner of taking title to trust property.

Subsection (c) separately requires a statement that no revocation, modification, or
amendment makes the certification's representations incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate without an oath or universal notary ceremony

Section 19-1310.13(b) permits any trustee to sign or otherwise authenticate the
certification. It does not require every cotrustee to execute it merely because the
certification must report how many cotrustees are needed to exercise trust powers.

The certification section does not prescribe an oath, declaration under penalty of
perjury, acknowledgment, witness, or notarial act. A separate transaction or
recordability formality should not be presented as a universal execution condition
under § 19-1310.13.

The TIN and title fields are required, but a property schedule is not

Subsection (a)(7) calls for “the trust’s taxpayer identification number.” Unlike some
state variants, the District's text does not condition that item on the trust having a
separately issued number and does not authorize replacing the required number with
only its final four digits.

Subsection (a)(8) separately requires the manner of taking title to trust property.
That is a title-format statement, not a requirement to attach a property inventory,
legal description, parcel number, account list, or transaction schedule.

Dispositive terms may stay private, subject to narrow excerpts

Under § 19-1310.13(d), 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.

The recipient's express excerpt right focuses on trustee status and transaction
authority. It is not automatic access to every trust provision or the complete
instrument.

Reliance, enforcement, and demand remedies have separate tests

Section 19-1310.13(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 by itself impute knowledge of its
terms.

Subsection (g) requires good faith to enforce the transaction against trust property
as though the certification were correct. Subsection (h) makes a person liable for
damages when a court finds that a demand for the trust instrument in addition to the
certification or excerpts was not made in good faith. It does not expressly add costs
or attorney fees and does not cover a demand made only “in lieu of” the certification.
Subsection (i) preserves access in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust.

What trips people up

• The complete TIN is a listed field. The statute does not state a last-four-digits
  alternative.
• Any trustee may authenticate. That rule is separate from the reported number of
  cotrustees needed to exercise trust powers.
• Bad-faith damages have a specific trigger. The demand must seek the instrument
  in addition to the certification or excerpts.
• The section states no recording consequence. It does not require recording or
  state a notice, priority, conveyance, or other real-property effect.

Common questions

Does the certification have to state the trust's name?

No. The complete eight-item list in § 19-1310.13(a) does not include a trust-name
field, though it does require the trust's existence and instrument date.

May a beneficiary be given this statutory substitute?

Not under subsection (a)'s substitute-document route. It applies to a person other
than a beneficiary.

Can a litigant still obtain the full trust instrument?

Yes. Section 19-1310.13(i) preserves the right to obtain it in a judicial proceeding
concerning the trust.

Statutes and sources

• D.C. Code § 19-1310.13(a)-(i) — availability, eight required information
  groups, mandatory TIN, title manner, any-trustee authentication, no-inaccuracy
  statement, privacy and excerpts, reliance, enforcement, bad-faith-demand damages,
  and judicial access. D.C. Law
  Library
  (accessed 2026-07-31).