From time to time you have real estate transactions that involve trusts. The main concern is determining who has the authority to sign on behalf of the trust when transferring ownership of the property. The first step is to look at the trust agreement to see who the trustees are and what their authority is. If the people who set up the trust are no longer alive or the trust agreement is missing, an attorney needs to be involved to sign a certificate of trust existence. This certificate sets forth the trustees' powers and who has the ability to sign. Trusts are separate legal entities, but there is no central database to determine how they were created or who set them up. This analysis requires up-to-date records to determine the current powers of authority.