The bank wants proof of your trust — without reading the whole thing.
A Nevada certificate of trust proves your trust exists and who can act for it, so a bank or title company does not need to read the whole trust.
A Certificate of Trust proves the trust exists and that you have authority to act, without disclosing who inherits what. It is what a bank, credit union or brokerage asks for before retitling an account into your trust. Made your trust online and never received one? TruPoint prepares it for $200, usually the same day.
What it costs
- Certificate of Trust — $200
- Trust-funding deed, to move a home into the trust — $250
- Affidavit of Successor Trustee — $250
- Living trust, if you need one drafted — from $950
- Notarization through our Las Vegas partner — $15 first, $7 each additional in Clark County
- Sign from home by video with our partner’s registered Nevada online notary — $25 per signature
What a Certificate of Trust is, and why institutions insist on one.
A Certificate of Trust is a short signed document that confirms a trust exists, states who the trustee is, and sets out the powers that trustee holds — without disclosing the full terms of the trust or naming who inherits what. Banks, credit unions, brokerages and title companies ask for it before they will retitle an account or deal with a trustee. TruPoint prepares one for $200, whether or not we drafted the trust.
The reason it exists is privacy. A trust document says what everybody gets. Handing that to a teller so they can change the name on a savings account means putting your family’s inheritance, your children’s shares and any unequal treatment between them into a stranger’s file. The certificate gives the institution exactly what it needs to act — that the trust is real, that you are the trustee, and that you have power to do the thing you are asking to do — and nothing else.
It is also the document that turns a signed trust into a working one. People sign a trust and assume the job is done. It is not. Accounts have to be retitled into the trust, and property has to be deeded into it. The certificate is what the bank wants for the first of those. A funding deed is what the county needs for the second.
Usually somebody standing at a bank counter, being told no.
You made the trust online
Software and template services often produce the trust and nothing else. No certificate, no funding deed, and no one to call when the bank asks for paperwork you have never heard of.
The bank will not retitle the account
The most common reason people find this page. The institution needs proof of the trust and of your authority before it will change the name on an account.
You do not want to hand over the trust
Perfectly reasonable. The certificate lets you prove what needs proving while your beneficiaries and their shares stay private.
You have become the successor trustee
Institutions will usually want the certificate alongside the Affidavit of Successor Trustee that puts you on the record.
You are refinancing or selling
Where property is held in the trust, a lender or title company will ask for the certificate before they will proceed.
Your old certificate is out of date
Trustees change, trusts get restated, and an institution will reject a certificate that no longer matches the trust as it stands.
A bonded Nevada preparer, and a team you can reach.
Meet Quinnie Do
Quinnie founded TruPoint and leads a small team of document preparers working under the firm’s Nevada Document Preparation Service registration, issued by the Nevada Secretary of State and backed by a bond. We prepare the certificate from your existing trust, whoever drafted it, and we will tell you if what the institution is asking for is something else entirely.
Quinnie is a native English and Vietnamese speaker, an IRS-registered tax return preparer and Certifying Acceptance Agent. You can sign from home by video with our partner’s registered Nevada online notary or, if you live in South Las Vegas, in our office, so in most cases you can sign the same day it is prepared.
Every element Nevada lists, signed the way the statute requires.
Nevada lists these elements in NRS 164.410 and requires the certificate to be an affidavit signed and acknowledged by every currently acting trustee (NRS 164.400). The notarial wording matters too: a trustee signs on behalf of the trust, and Nevada has a separate acknowledgment form for a person signing in a representative capacity, such as a trustee (NRS 240.1665). We prepare the certificate with that wording in place. Moving a home into the trust? A transfer to or from a trust without payment is exempt from transfer tax only if a certificate of trust is presented at the time of transfer (NRS 375.090(7)). See the trust-funding deed.
$200, whoever drafted your trust.
What people ask at the bank counter, answered plainly.
Yes. A certificate of trust is a short signed document confirming that a trust exists, who the trustee is, and what powers that trustee holds, without disclosing the full terms or naming who inherits what. Banks, credit unions, brokerages and title companies ask for it before dealing with a trustee. TruPoint prepares one for $200.
Almost always a Certificate of Trust. The institution needs proof that the trust is real and that you have authority to act for it before it will change the name on an account. We prepare it for $200, usually the same day, and you take it to the bank.
Yes, and it is the most common reason people call us about this. Software and template services often produce the trust document alone, with no certificate and no funding deed. We prepare the certificate from your existing trust whether or not we drafted it.
That is exactly what the certificate is designed to avoid. Your trust says what everyone inherits. The certificate gives the institution only what it needs to act, so your beneficiaries and their shares stay private.
$200. Most are prepared the same day we receive your trust. South Las Vegas residents who sign in person with our partner notary at our South Las Vegas office pay $15 for the first signature and $7 for each additional signature by the same signer. Signing from home by video with a registered Nevada online notary through our partner is $25 per signature.
Usually not. A certificate is normally handed to the bank or brokerage rather than recorded, so there is generally no county recording fee. Where a lender or title company asks for it to be recorded, recording is $50 plus the estimated $50 county recording fee.
No, and people need both for different assets. The certificate is what a bank wants before retitling an account. A funding deed is what moves your house into the trust and is recorded with the county. Accounts and real property are funded separately.
Usually yes, and institutions typically want it alongside an Affidavit of Successor Trustee, which puts you on the record as trustee. The affidavit is $250 and the certificate is $200. We prepare both together.
Some institutions insist on their own form, and that decision is theirs. Ours is a Nevada certificate of trust in the affidavit form NRS 164.400 requires, with the elements NRS 164.410 lists, for $200. We do not complete or review forms prepared by others.
Usually because it no longer matches the trust as it stands. Trustees change, trusts get amended or restated, and a certificate naming a trustee who has resigned or died will be refused. We prepare a current one from your trust as it reads today.
A copy of the trust, including any amendments or restatements, and the name of the institution asking for the certificate. If the trust has been amended more than once, send everything, because the certificate has to reflect the trust as it currently reads.
Nevada does not require one to prepare a certificate. A registered Document Preparation Service prepares it at your direction from the trust you already have. If your trust is unclear about who may act or what powers they hold, that is a question for an attorney and we will say so.
Yes. Intake and preparation are handled without you travelling, you sign from home by video with a registered Nevada online notary through our partner ($25 per signature), and the certificate is emailed to you to take or send to your institution.
Yes. A revocable living trust starts at $950, the funding deed that moves a home into it is $250, and the certificate is $200. We quote the whole thing in writing before any drafting begins.
Most institutions accept the same certificate, and you can present copies at several. Some have internal requirements or their own form, which is worth checking before you make the trip.
Nevada requires two statements in every certificate: that the trust has not been revoked or amended in any way that makes the certificate incorrect, and that the signatures are those of all the currently acting trustees. It must be an affidavit, signed and acknowledged by every currently acting trustee (NRS 164.400). The law also lists what it may confirm: the trust and its date, the settlor, each acting trustee, the trustee’s powers, whether the trust is revocable and who can revoke it, co-trustee signing authority, governing law, how title is taken, and how a successor trustee took over (NRS 164.410). We prepare the certificate with all of these for $200.
A transfer into or out of a trust without payment is exempt from Nevada’s real property transfer tax only if a certificate of trust is presented at the time of transfer (NRS 375.090(7)). In Clark County, where the tax is $2.55 per $500 of value, a $500,000 home without the exemption would owe about $2,550. The certificate is $200 and the funding deed is $250.
Yes. Quinnie is a native English and Vietnamese speaker and handles the entire matter in either language.
The certificate handles accounts. Property needs a deed.
Send us the trust. We will send back the certificate.
Most are ready the same day. $200, prepared from your existing trust whoever drafted it, in English or Vietnamese, signed from home by video with our partner’s registered Nevada online notary or, for South Las Vegas residents, in our office. We also prepare and record deeds in all 17 Nevada counties.