Indiana: Certification of Trust Requirements

Requirements one by one

The recipient must be someone other than a beneficiary

Indiana Code § 30-4-4-5(a) allows a trustee to furnish a certification instead
of the trust instrument to “a person other than a beneficiary.” The mandatory core is
the trust's existence and execution date, settlor identity, the acting trustee's identity
and address, trustee powers, revocability and the revocation-power holder, cotrustee
authentication authority, and the manner of taking title.

Section 30-4-4-5(c) adds a required statement that the trust has not been revoked,
modified, or amended in a way that makes the certification's representations
incorrect.

Any trustee may authenticate the certification

Section 30-4-4-5(b) says the certification “may be signed or authenticated by any
trustee.” The certification must describe whether all or fewer cotrustees are needed to
exercise trustee powers, but the statute does not convert that transaction-authority
description into an all-trustee signature rule for the certification itself.

The section does not prescribe an oath, acknowledgment, witness, or notarial act for
the certification. Those formalities should not be presented as statutory certification
requirements merely because a separate transaction or recipient may request them.

Dispositive terms may be included, and targeted excerpts may be required

Indiana is explicit that a certification may contain the trust's dispositive terms
under § 30-4-4-5(d). Their inclusion is permitted, not mandatory.

Subsection (e) lets the recipient require excerpts from the original trust and later
amendments that designate the trustee and confer the power needed for a pending
transaction in which the recipient has an interest. That is a targeted excerpt right,
not an automatic right to every term of the trust.

Reliance and enforcement use different standards

Under § 30-4-4-5(f), a person who relies without knowledge that the certification is
wrong is not liable and may assume the stated facts without inquiry. Holding some or
all of the trust instrument does not by itself impute knowledge of its terms.

Section 30-4-4-5(g) separately requires good faith for enforcement: a person who in
good faith enters a transaction in reliance on the certification may enforce the
transaction against trust property as though the representations were correct.

A bad-faith full-instrument demand can produce damages

Section 30-4-4-5(h) makes a person liable for damages when a court determines that the
person did not act in good faith in demanding the trust instrument in addition to the
certification or permitted excerpts. The subsection says “damages”; it does not add an
express attorney-fee or cost award. Subsection (i) preserves access to the instrument
in a judicial proceeding concerning the trust.

What trips people up

• The acting trustee's address is mandatory, but a TIN is not. The seven-item list
  contains no trust-taxpayer-number, situs, governing-law, or legal-description field.
• One trustee may authenticate the certification. The separate cotrustee content
  rule reports who must exercise trust powers; it does not require every cotrustee to
  sign this substitute document.
• Dispositive terms are permitted. Indiana does not require their omission, even
  though a trustee may choose not to include them.
• The statute supplies no certification-specific recording rule. Section
  30-4-4-5 does not require or authorize recording or state a real-property notice
  effect for the certification itself.

Common questions

Does the certification have to be notarized?

Not under § 30-4-4-5. Subsection (b) allows any trustee to sign or otherwise
authenticate the certification without prescribing a notarial act.

Can a beneficiary demand this certification under the statute?

Section 30-4-4-5(a) describes the substitute-document route as one furnished to “a
person other than a beneficiary.” Beneficiary information rights arise under different
trust-law provisions outside this certification rule.

May the recipient require trust excerpts?

Yes, but only the excerpts identified in § 30-4-4-5(e): provisions designating the
trustee and conferring the power needed for the recipient's pending transaction.

What happens if the recipient demands the full instrument in bad faith?

Section 30-4-4-5(h) permits damages if a court determines that the demand, made in
addition to the certification or permitted excerpts, was not made in good faith.

Statutes and sources

• Ind. Code § 30-4-4-5(a)-(i) — availability, mandatory contents,
  any-trustee authentication, optional dispositive terms, limited excerpts, reliance,
  enforcement, bad-faith-demand damages, and judicial access. Official 2026 Indiana
  Code chapter PDF
  (accessed 2026-07-31).