What a trustee gives MVD instead of the trust deed. A vehicle held in a family trust cannot be sold by whoever happens to drive it, and Arizona does not want to read forty pages of trust instrument at a counter - so the trustee certifies the handful of facts that matter: that the trust exists, who created it, who is acting as trustee now, and whose signature is needed.
Written against 96-2002 (R07/25), issued under A.R.S. 14-11013.
The name on the title has to be the trust, not the trustee personally. If the vehicle was never re-titled into the trust after it was set up, this form does not help - the car is owned by whoever is named on the certificate, and if that person has died it is an estate matter instead.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 96-2002 from the apps.azdot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 96-2002, rendered from the PDF the Arizona Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Only one trustee has to sign this certificate, and the form says so above the signature line. The Signature Requirements box beside each trustee is about a different question entirely - who has to sign when the trust sells the car.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
The initial box
Initials confirming you have read the statement above it.
Watch out: The statement is the certification. You are saying the trust has not been amended in any way that makes what follows untrue.
2
You fill this in
Trust Description: Title
The trust's full name as it appears on the trust document.
Watch out: It has to match the name on the vehicle title. If the title carries an abbreviated version, ADOT's Trust Name Abbreviation sheet explains how it got there.
3
You fill this in
Date of Trust
The date on the trust instrument, not the date the car was bought.
Watch out: Trusts are often restated years after they are created. The date MVD wants is the one printed on the document you are certifying.
4
You fill this in
Revocable, and who can revoke
Yes or No, and if yes, the person holding that power.
Watch out: Most family trusts are revocable while their creators are alive. Answering yes is not a problem; leaving it blank is.
5
You fill this in
Trustor(s)
Who created the trust - up to two names.
Watch out: Settlor and trustor are the same role under different words. The form gives both, and the trust document will use one of them.
6
You fill this in
The trustee blocks
Each currently acting trustee, with an address and a Signature Requirements box.
Watch out: Name the trustees who are acting now, not everybody the deed ever mentioned. A trustee who has resigned complicates the record for no benefit.
7
You fill this in
Signature Requirements (Legal Status)
Or, And or And/Or, once for each trustee named.
Watch out: This is the setting that decides whether a single trustee can sell the vehicle later. It is worth a moment's thought rather than a default tick.
8
You fill this in
Trustee Printed Name, Signature and Date
One trustee signs for the trust.
Watch out: The indemnity above the line is real: the trustee is holding MVD harmless against any challenge to the trustee designation being certified.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
I have read the above statement, with an initial box
The paragraph above it explains that by completing the certificate the trustee is stating the trust has not been revoked, modified, or amended in any manner that would cause the representations to be incorrect.
Trust Description: Title
The trust's name as it appears on the trust document.
Date of Trust
Again, as it appears on the trust document.
Revocable: Yes / No, and if yes, who is authorized to revoke
Three fields in one row.
Trustor(s) (Settlor)
Two lines for the people who created the trust.
Trustee blocks, three of them
Each with a name, a Signature Requirements (Legal Status) box offering Or, And and And/Or, and a street address, city, state and ZIP.
The additional-trustees tick box
For a trust with more than three trustees: complete an additional form and submit them together.
The trustees' representation and indemnity
The undersigned trustee represents that they are authorised to conduct any and all transactions on behalf of the trust, and releases and holds MVD harmless from any contest to the trustee designation.
Trustee Printed Name, Trustee Signature, Date
Under a printed note: only one Trustee signature is required.
What gets this one rejected
•A stale certificate. A new Certification of Trust form must be completed if there have been changes or amendments to the trust.
•A missing legal status where two or more trustees are named. The box decides whose signatures are needed to transfer the vehicle later.
•A fourth trustee squeezed onto the sheet. There are three blocks and a tick box that sends you to a second form.
•An unread statement. The initial box at the top is part of the certificate, not decoration.
•Assuming it ends the enquiry. MVD may require the trustee to furnish excerpts from the original trust and later amendments that designate the trustee and authorise them to act.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•One signature is enough on this form. The printed note is unambiguous: only one Trustee signature is required. The legal status box governs later transactions, not this certificate.
•Abbreviating the trust name has its own rules. ADOT publishes a separate information sheet, Trust Name Abbreviation, for how a long trust name is entered on the title and registration record.
•The legal status words mean what they mean everywhere else. Or lets either trustee act alone; And needs all of them; And/Or needs all of them while all are living, and lets the survivor sign alone on proof of death.
