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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 689.073

  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.

(1) OWNERSHIP VESTS IN TRUSTEE.Every conveyance, deed, mortgage, lease assignment, or other instrument heretofore or hereafter made, hereinafter referred to as the “recorded instrument,” transferring any interest in real property, including, but not limited to, a leasehold or mortgagee interest, to any person or any corporation, bank, trust company, or other entity duly formed under the laws of its state of qualification, which recorded instrument designates the person, corporation, bank, trust company, or other entity “trustee” or “as trustee” and confers on the trustee the power and authority to protect, to conserve, to sell, to lease, to encumber, or otherwise to manage and dispose of the real property described in the recorded instrument, is effective to vest, and is declared to have vested, in such trustee full power and authority as granted and provided in the recorded instrument to deal in and with such property, or interest therein or any part thereof, held in trust under the recorded instrument.
(2) NO DUTY TO INQUIRE.Any grantee, mortgagee, lessee, transferee, assignee, or person obtaining satisfactions or releases or otherwise in any way dealing with the trustee with respect to the real property or any interest in such property held in trust under the recorded instrument, as hereinabove provided for, is not obligated to inquire into the identification or status of any named or unnamed beneficiaries, or their heirs or assigns to whom a trustee may be accountable under the terms of the recorded instrument, or under any unrecorded separate declarations or agreements collateral to the recorded instrument, whether or not such declarations or agreements are referred to therein; or to inquire into or ascertain the authority of such trustee to act within and exercise the powers granted under the recorded instrument; or to inquire into the adequacy or disposition of any consideration, if any is paid or delivered to such trustee in connection with any interest so acquired from such trustee; or to inquire into any of the provisions of any such unrecorded declarations or agreements.
(3) BENEFICIARY CLAIMS.All persons dealing with the trustee under the recorded instrument as hereinabove provided take any interest transferred by the trustee thereunder, within the power and authority as granted and provided therein, free and clear of the claims of all the named or unnamed beneficiaries of such trust, and of any unrecorded declarations or agreements collateral thereto whether referred to in the recorded instrument or not, and of anyone claiming by, through, or under such beneficiaries. However, this section does not prevent a beneficiary of any such unrecorded collateral declarations or agreements from enforcing the terms thereof against the trustee.
(4) EXCLUSION.This section does not apply to any deed, mortgage, or other instrument to which s. 689.07 applies.
(5) APPLICABILITY.The section applies without regard to whether any reference is made in the recorded instrument to the beneficiaries of such trust or to any separate collateral unrecorded declarations or agreements, without regard to the provisions of any unrecorded trust agreement or declaration of trust, and without regard to whether the trust is governed by s. 689.071 or chapter 736. This section applies both to recorded instruments that are recorded after June 28, 2013, and to recorded instruments that were previously recorded and governed by similar provisions contained in s. 689.071(3), Florida Statutes 2012, and any such recorded instrument purporting to confer power and authority on a trustee under such provisions of s. 689.071(3), Florida Statutes 2012, is valid and has the effect of vesting full power and authority in such trustee as provided in this section.