Selling a car that is titled to a trust

What changes from an ordinary sale is who signs and what goes with the signature. Work that out before a buyer is standing in the driveway, because a title signed the wrong way can come back.

The trust is the owner, not you

California's DMV puts it plainly: the trust itself is the registered owner, not the individual trustee (California DMV). Its example of a trust name on a title is a family trust followed by the trustee's name. South Carolina says the same thing another way: a trust is not a person but a legal entity, usually set up to manage property, and a vehicle can be titled to it when the trust documents allow (SCDMV).

So the question is never "can I sell my car." It is "am I the trustee who can sign for this trust, and can I prove it."

Step one: read the owner line on the title

Check the exact wording of the trust's name on the title's front, and see if a trustee is listed next to it. That decides what the DMV will ask for.

• A trustee is listed and that's you. In California, when a trust is registered with a trustee listed, the trustee signs for the trust (California DMV).
• No trustee is listed. California still has the trustee sign, and a Statement of Facts (REG 256) certifies the trustee's appointment (California DMV).
• Someone else is listed. That's the successor trustee situation, covered below.

Copy the trust name exactly as the title shows it. Wisconsin requires the trust name on its trustee form to exactly match the name on the Wisconsin title (WisDOT).

Step two: count the trustees who must sign

A trust with co-trustees usually needs more than one signature. In California, moving a vehicle out of the trust name takes a countersignature from every trustee shown on the title (California DMV). South Carolina says all trustees required to act for the trust sign the transaction, both on the title and on the Title Application, Form 400 (SCDMV).

Sign as a trustee, too. South Carolina wants the word "Trustee" after the trustee's name and signature everywhere a trustee signs on the title (SCDMV checklist). Wisconsin has the principal trustee or trustees sign the title as sellers (WisDOT).

Step three: if you're the successor trustee

When the trustee on the title has died, resigned or can't act, the person signing is a successor. California DMV defines a successor trustee as one who follows an earlier trustee and generally holds that trustee's powers (California DMV).

The paperwork is what proves it:

• California: when the trustee signing isn't the one named on the title, a REG 256 must state that the trustor or the retiring trustee appointed that person successor trustee (California DMV).
• South Carolina: if a successor trustee signed, the DMV needs documentation of the earlier trustee's death, incapacity, resignation or unavailability (SCDMV checklist).

If the car came to you through an estate rather than a trust, the steps are different; see selling an inherited car.

Step four: have the trust paper ready

Some states want to see that the trust lets the trustee sell. South Carolina accepts either a certification of trust or a declaration of trust, and the document must specifically say the trustee has the power to buy, sell, title or transfer personal property (SCDMV). Its Form 400 also has to show the trust's name and date and the trustee's name.

Wisconsin uses its own form instead. A car sold from a trust there needs a Trustee Statement for Certificate of Title (MV2790), signed by the principal trustee or trustees as sellers, and a letter from a lawyer cannot replace it (WisDOT).

What these states ask for

Only these three states' trust pages are covered here. Everywhere else, the usual title steps still apply on top of whatever the trust needs: in Ohio, for example, the seller's title signature has to be notarized (Ohio BMV), and in California the seller signs the title and the buyer takes it to DMV with the transfer fee (California DMV). Check your state's DMV page for its own trust rule before signing.

Selling a trust car that no longer runs

A trust car is often one nobody has driven in a while. We buy whole non-running and junk cars, and you can sell the whole car as it sits, with free pickup anywhere in the US. Let us know up front that a trust owns the car, who the trustees are, and if you are the trustee printed on the title or a successor. That way the papers match the title before the truck comes.

If you'd like to go over the signatures first, call (877) 421-6008 and we'll walk through what your title shows.

After pickup, you still deal with the plates and file your state's notice of sale. See after you sell for the rule in each state.