How Do I Find Out if There Is a Trust?

1. How Do I Find Out if There Is a Trust?

You look for the paper a trust leaves behind. A trust is a private document and Florida keeps no registry of trusts, but a funded trust touches public records and financial statements in ways a family can follow. Our page on whether a trust is public record in Florida explains what stays private.

Five kinds of paper point to a trust.

1. A will that leaves the estate to a trust. A will that gives everything to the trustee of a named trust, called a pour-over will, means a trust exists.
2. Account statements with the word trustee. A bank or brokerage statement addressed to the parent as trustee of a named trust is the most common clue, and families often have it in a drawer without noticing the title.
3. A deed naming a trustee. A house held in a trust was deeded to the trustee, and the deed is in the county’s official records.
4. Tax papers. An irrevocable trust files its own return and sends each beneficiary a Schedule K-1. A K-1 in a parent’s papers, or a trust return on the accountant’s list, shows a trust.
5. A court filing. After a death the trustee files a notice of trust with the court, covered next.

2. Is a Notice of Trust Filed With the Court?

Yes, for a revocable trust once the grantor dies. Florida requires the trustee to file a notice of trust with the court of the county where the grantor was domiciled and with the court handling the grantor’s estate. The notice must state the grantor’s name and date of death, the title of the trust if it has one, the date of the trust, and the trustee’s name and address.

The clerk files and indexes the notice the same way it indexes a caveat, unless a probate case is already open, in which case the notice goes into the probate file and the clerk sends a copy to the personal representative. The indexing makes the notice searchable in the clerk’s probate records under the grantor’s name. Many Florida clerks offer an online search of probate records, and the probate counter can run the search in person. Our page on the notice of trust covers the statute.

The notice has two limits. The notice names the trustee but not the beneficiaries, and a trustee who fails to file one does not undo the trust, so a missing notice does not prove there is no trust.

3. Will the Trustee Tell Me About the Trust?

If you are a qualified beneficiary, yes, and on a deadline. Within 60 days after learning that a trust has become irrevocable, whether by the grantor’s death or otherwise, the trustee must notify the qualified beneficiaries of the trust’s existence, the identity of the grantor, the right to request a copy of the trust instrument, and the right to accountings. A trustee newly accepting the job must also send, within 60 days, the trustee’s full name and address. After that, the trustee must give a qualified beneficiary a complete copy of the trust on reasonable request. Our pages on the trustee’s duty to account and on how to get a copy of a trust in Florida cover the request.

A qualified beneficiary is, roughly, a living person who can receive income or principal now, or who would receive it if the current interests ended or the trust ended today. A child named to inherit at a parent’s death qualifies. A person left out of the trust does not, and has no right to see it, although a will contest or a trust contest can put the document in front of a court.

Nobody is owed notice while the grantor is alive and the trust is revocable. Florida says the trustee’s duties during that period are owed only to the grantor, so adult children cannot demand to see a living parent’s trust.

4. Can Recorded Deeds Show a Trust?

Yes. A deed moving a house into a trust is recorded in the county’s official records, and the clerk indexes it under the names of the people who signed it and the trustee who received it. Searching the grantor’s name in the county where the property sits will show a deed to, for example, the parent as trustee of the parent’s living trust dated a particular day. The county property appraiser’s website often shows the same trustee as the owner of record.

A Florida deed that designates a person as trustee and gives the trustee power to sell and manage the property vests that power in the trustee, and people dealing with the trustee need not ask who the beneficiaries are. The deed therefore tells you the trust exists, its name and date, and who the trustee is. The deed does not tell you who inherits.

A Florida deed also has to show the name and address of the person who prepared it before a clerk will record it. The preparer line, usually at the top of the first page, often names the lawyer who drafted the trust as well.

5. How Do I Find the Trust Document Itself?

You find the document through the people who handled it. The usual routes, in the order families try them, are these.

• The drafting lawyer. Found through the deed’s preparer line, the will, or the parent’s checkbook. Lawyers commonly keep a copy and sometimes the original. A lawyer will give it to the trustee, and will tell a beneficiary whether the office has it.
• The will. A person holding a will must deposit it with the clerk of court within 10 days after learning of the death, and a court can compel a custodian who does not. A pour-over will names the trust and its date.
• Home files and the safe deposit box. Look for a binder from a law office. A copy is useful, but the signed original is what a court will want if the terms are ever disputed.
• The accountant and the financial advisor. Both usually keep the pages that name the trustee, and a brokerage firm may hold a certification of trust naming the trustee and stating whether the trust is revocable.

When a trustee refuses to confirm the trust or to send a copy, a qualified beneficiary can ask the court to order the trustee to comply, and a trustee who ignores the 60-day notice is in breach of a duty Florida will not let the trust waive. Our guide to Florida trust beneficiary rights covers the next steps, and our page on how to remove a trustee in Florida covers the last resort.

What Does Help Finding a Trust Cost?

The first consult is free, and many families leave it with a search plan and a draft letter to the trustee. Administering a trust once it is found, including the notices, the accountings and the deeds, is a flat fee quoted at consult. A petition asking the court to compel a trustee to produce the trust or account is litigation, which we quote per matter rather than as a flat fee. Recording and other government costs are additional and passed through at cost. Advertised fees are honored for 90 days from the posted date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The daughter in another state. A father in Sarasota dies and his daughter in Ohio hears only that his friend is handling things. She searches the county’s official records, finds a deed to the friend as trustee of the father’s trust, and writes to the address on the deed asking for the 60-day notice and a copy of the trust.

The statement in the kitchen drawer. A son sorting his mother’s mail finds a brokerage statement addressed to her as trustee. The statement leads to the advisor, the advisor to the lawyer, and the lawyer to the original trust and a pour-over will.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §736.05055(1)-(7) (notice of trust filed at the settlor’s death in the county of domicile and the court with jurisdiction of the estate; contents; indexed like a caveat or filed in the probate case; failure to file does not affect the trustee’s obligations).
• Fla. Stat. §736.0813(1)(a)-(c),(4) (60-day notices; complete copy on reasonable request; duties run only to the settlor while revocable); §736.0103 (annotated)(19) (qualified beneficiary); §736.0603 (annotated)(1) (duties owed exclusively to the settlor while revocable); §736.0602 (annotated)(1) (revocable unless expressly irrevocable); §736.0105 (annotated)(2) (notice and accounting duties the trust cannot waive).
• Fla. Stat. §736.1017 (annotated)(1),(4) (certification of trust states the settlor, trustee, powers and revocability, not the dispositive terms).
• Fla. Stat. §689.073(1)-(2) (recorded instrument naming a trustee vests the trustee’s powers; no duty to inquire into beneficiaries); §695.26(1)(b) (recorded instrument must show the name and address of its preparer); §732.901(1)-(2) (custodian deposits a will with the clerk within 10 days after learning of the death).
• Case retold below: McLemore v. McLemore, 675 So. 2d 202 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). Opinion read in full; retrieved September 30, 2026.

The Father Who Signed Two Trusts on the Same Day

I went through the Florida case law on finding a trust myself rather than relying on a summary of it, and the hardest case I read was not about a missing trust. The case was about a trust with two versions.

On June 15, 1978, a Gulf County man signed two trust agreements prepared by the same lawyer on the same day. One named four of his seven children as beneficiaries, and the other named all seven. Over the next year he deeded five parcels of land, including two subdivisions and a store building, to the trust by its name rather than to its trustees. His mother and his brother served with him as trustees. The trust sold lots, paid its taxes through an arrangement with the store, and filed tax returns, and its accountant testified that every year since 1978 he had prepared seven K-1s because there were seven beneficiaries. In 1990 one of the sons became trustee and recorded a designation of successor trustee with a copy of the seven-beneficiary version attached. Meanwhile his third wife testified she first learned of the trust in 1980, when she found the document in her house as their marriage was ending. In that divorce the father identified the four-beneficiary original as the operative trust, and at a later hearing said that version was wrong because it left out some of his children. The original of the seven-beneficiary version was never produced, and no witness knew where it was.

The trial court declared the trust void. The First District held in 1996 that the father did intend to create a trust, but that the evidence did not show which of the two documents named the beneficiaries, and sent the case back to decide that. One judge would have held that the seven-beneficiary version governed, since it had driven the accounting and the distributions from the start.

My reading of that case is that the family had more paper than most, and the one piece missing was the original. In reviewing the Florida cases on finding and proving a trust, I have a few take-home points.

The first is that the signed original is the trust. Copies attached to recorded documents and years of tax returns are evidence of what the trust says, and in that case they were not enough to settle it. Avoid signing more than one version of a trust document on the same day, and keep one original in one known place.

The second is that tax papers find trusts. The accountant’s seven K-1s were the clearest record of what the family had actually done year after year, and a K-1 in a parent’s papers is often the first sign of a trust today.

The third is how the deed names the buyer. The deeds ran to the trust by name, and the trustees recorded corrective deeds to their own names about a decade later. A deed into a trust should name the trustee, as trustee of the trust by its full title and date.

Every trust I prepare, flat fee from $2,400, is signed in one original, and the deed funding it names the trustee. One limit is worth stating plainly. The appeals court sent the case back without deciding which version governed, so the opinion does not say whether four children or seven inherited the land.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The case described above is a decision of a Florida court rather than a matter handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on September 30, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.