Where can my siblings and I find the original Family Trust that our grandfather created for his wife and children? Our dad’s siblings have passed and the only documents he has are expired leases, division orders and receipts paid to him as interest owner in Caddo county.
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The original trust should have been filed in the Caddo county courthouse.
Trust documents, (which do not require court proceedings for enforcement) do not have to be recorded. In this instance your best bet would be to contact your grandfather’s attorney for a copy.
Sam Wilhite
This is good advice Sam. Most trusts you will run across in title do not have the actual document creating the trust filed in the courthouse. As you mentioned, unless it has to do with a legal proceedings then it is usually not filed of record.
I am confused. County clerk office’s are filled with Memorandum of Trust documents. Why wouldn’t there be a copy there?
We have a revocable Family Trust but I am Not an attorney, so my comments should be weighed accordingly.
We have occasionally been asked to furnish a Memorandum of Trust, which is a very brief summary of the Trust essentials. The actual Trust agreement (in my case) is many pages in length. The summary is notarized and may be recorded.
My experience when leasing is that it is common practice for the Lease agent to request a copy of the notarized Trust agreement, not the original document. Of course, a copy of a notarized document may not be recorded.
So, a recorded copy of the full Trust agreement is not likely to be available at the county recorder.
Correct, you will see a lot of Memorandum of Trust documents filed of record, but not the original multi page document creating the trust, which I think is what the creator of this thread is looking for.
The Memorandum of Trust is required to be filed with the county clerk in the county in which the property is locate by statute. That is why you see them in the county records. The trust is not required to be filed. But… The trustees power are assumed by statute unless a trust instrument limiting the powers is also filed of record. So you do see some filed for various reasons.
Alva, are the payments, leases, and division order made in the trust name or your dad’s (and siblings)