The short answer to how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed is that the beneficiary records an appointment or substitution of trustee under Utah Code Section 57-1-22 in every county where the property sits. The document must identify the trust deed, carry the legal description, name and address the new trustee, and be executed and acknowledged by all beneficiaries.

Last updated: September 2026

Key Takeaways

What a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed actually is

A Utah trust deed conveys real property to a trustee in trust to secure an obligation. That is the definition in Section 57-1-19(3), and it is why the instrument has three parties instead of two. The trustor conveys, the beneficiary is owed the money, and the trustee holds bare legal title for one purpose: to reconvey when the debt is paid, or to sell if it is not.

A successor trustee is simply whoever holds that role after the original trustee named on the face of the trust deed, and how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed is a question about replacing that one party, not about amending the loan. Section 57-1-19(4) builds the concept into the definition itself, defining a trustee as the person to whom title is conveyed by trust deed “or that person’s successor in interest.” The trust deed does not have to be amended and the trustor does not have to agree. The beneficiary acts alone.

This is where a lot of otherwise careful lenders go wrong. They treat the trustee named at closing as fixed, discover months into a default that the trustee is a title company that dissolved in 2019 or an out-of-state entity that never had a Utah office, and assume they have a title problem. They do not. They have a paperwork problem with a one-page fix.

Trust deed successor trustee versus living trust successor trustee

Two completely different bodies of Utah law use the phrase “successor trustee,” and searching for one turns up the other constantly. Getting this straight first saves an hour of reading the wrong statute.

A living trust, sometimes called a revocable trust or family trust, is an estate planning instrument. Its successor trustee is the person who steps in to manage the trust when the original trustee dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated. That role is governed by the Utah Uniform Trust Code, which the Legislature recodified out of Title 75 Chapter 7 and into Title 75B Chapter 2 through S.B. 100 of the 2025 General Session. The old Chapter 7 now reads “Repealed 5/7/2025”, so anything citing 75-7 numbers is describing a chapter that no longer exists. Filling a vacancy in a living trust trusteeship is now Section 75B-2-704, renumbered without substantive change from the old 75-7-704.

A trust deed, by contrast, is a security instrument. Nobody is managing assets for a family. The trustee’s job is narrow, statutory, and adversarial in the end. It is governed by Title 57 Chapter 1, and the appointment happens by recording, not by a trust document or a court petition.

If you landed here because a family trust needs a new trustee, the estate planning side is a different read. Start with how to fund a trust in Utah or the Utah probate guide. Everything below is about the security instrument.

Why beneficiaries end up appointing a successor trustee

Beneficiaries rarely ask how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed out of curiosity. In practice there are five triggers, and four of them show up on private and seller-financed loans far more often than on bank paper.

The original trustee cannot foreclose. The escrow officer filled in the title company that closed the transaction, or the lender’s own name, or a friendly LLC. None of those necessarily holds the power of sale under Utah law.

The original trustee no longer exists. Title agencies merge, dissolve, and surrender licenses. A trustee that has stopped doing business in Utah has stopped satisfying the qualification test, which is written in the present tense.

The note was sold. The buyer of a note becomes the beneficiary by operation of Section 57-1-35, and it almost always wants its own foreclosure counsel in the trustee seat rather than the seller’s.

The trustee resigned. Section 57-1-22(5) lets a trustee walk away by recording a resignation, which leaves the trust deed with no trustee at all until the beneficiary acts.

The beneficiary wants different counsel. No reason is required. The statute says the beneficiary may appoint a successor trustee “at any time.”

Who may serve as trustee on a Utah trust deed

This is the gate, and it is the half of how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed that people get wrong. Section 57-1-21(1)(a) lists six categories of eligible trustee, and Section 57-1-21(3) then narrows the power of sale to two of them. Appointing someone from the wrong category produces a trustee who holds title and can reconvey but cannot conduct a trustee’s sale.

The bona fide office test is not a mailing address

Section 57-1-21(1)(b) defines a bona fide office as a physical office in Utah that is open to the public, staffed during regular business hours on regular business days, and at which a trustor may appear in person to request information about the trust deed or to deliver funds, including reinstatement or payoff funds. A registered agent address, a suite number at a mail center, and a shared receptionist that takes messages do not satisfy it.

The Utah Supreme Court applied that standard to a national bank’s foreclosure subsidiary and concluded the entity was, in the court’s words, “not a qualified trustee with the power of sale under Utah Code.” That case is Federal National Mortgage Ass’n v. Sundquist, 2013 UT 45, 311 P.3d 1004. The lesson for a beneficiary picking a successor is simple. Verify that the office exists, that a person is in it, and that a borrower could walk in and hand over a cashier’s check.

Only two categories can actually foreclose

Section 57-1-21(3) limits the power of sale conferred by Section 57-1-23 to trustees qualified under subsection (1)(a)(i) or (1)(a)(iv). A Utah attorney or law firm, or a Utah title insurance company or agency. That is the whole list. A bank may be a trustee, but a bank trustee cannot conduct the sale.

There is a signing rule buried in the same section that catches law firms. Section 57-1-21(1)(e) provides that when an entity acts as trustee under (1)(a)(i), only a member attorney of that entity who is currently licensed in Utah may sign documents on the entity’s behalf. A paralegal signature on a notice of default is a defect at the source.

The consequences of getting this wrong are statutory, not theoretical. Section 57-1-23.5 makes an unauthorized person who conducts a sale liable to the trustor for actual damages or $2,000, whichever is greater, and requires the court to award a prevailing plaintiff costs and attorney fees.

You cannot be your own trustee

Section 57-1-21(2) says the trustee of a trust deed may not be the beneficiary unless the beneficiary is qualified under (1)(a)(ii), (iii), (v), or (vi). Read that list again and notice what is missing: the two categories that hold the power of sale. A depository institution, a trust company, a federal agency, or a Farm Credit entity may be its own trustee. A private lender, a fund, a family LLC, or a seller carrying back a note may not.

Combine (2) and (3) and you get the rule that drives most substitutions in this state. Private money loans have to hand the foreclosure to a Utah attorney or a Utah title company, and that handoff happens by recording a substitution of trustee. It is not optional and it is not a formality.

What happens if the trust deed names an unqualified trustee

Nothing catastrophic, which surprises people who expect the lien to be void. Section 57-1-21(4) is explicit: a trust deed with an unqualified trustee, or with no trustee at all, is still effective to create a lien on the trust property. What it loses is the machinery. The power of sale and the other trustee powers may be exercised only if the beneficiary has appointed a qualified successor trustee under Section 57-1-22.

A trust deed with an unqualified trustee or without a trustee shall be effective to create a lien on the trust property, but the power of sale and other trustee powers under the trust deed may be exercised only if the beneficiary has appointed a qualified successor trustee under Section 57-1-22.

Utah Code Section 57-1-21(4)

So the lien keeps its priority date, the debt is still secured, and the recorded instrument still gives constructive notice under Section 57-3-102(1). The power of sale is asleep, not dead, and the substitution wakes it up. That distinction matters when a borrower’s counsel argues that a defective trustee designation clouds title. It does not.

Two related timing points. First, Section 57-1-21(1)(c) exempts trustees of trust deeds existing before May 14, 1963, and (1)(d) provides that the 2002 amendments apply only to a trustee appointed on or after May 6, 2002. Second, the power of sale does not last forever regardless of who holds it. Section 57-1-34 ties foreclosure to the limitations period on the underlying obligation, which for a written instrument is generally six years under Section 78B-2-309(1)(b). Discovering a trustee defect in year six is a different problem than discovering it in year two.

How to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed, step by step

The statute governing how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed is short enough to read in five minutes and specific enough that most defects are self-inflicted. Here is the sequence I use on a Utah file, in order.

Step 1: confirm you are actually the beneficiary

Section 57-1-22(2)(d) requires execution by “all of the beneficiaries under the trust deed or their successors in interest.” Before drafting anything, pull the recorded chain: the trust deed itself, every recorded assignment of the beneficial interest, and any recorded notice of assignment. If the note has changed hands twice and only one assignment was recorded, fix the record first. A substitution signed by someone the record does not show as beneficiary is the single most common attack on a Utah foreclosure.

Step 2: pick a trustee that holds the power of sale

If foreclosure is even a possibility, appoint a Utah attorney, a Utah law firm that employs one, or a Utah title insurance company or agency. Do not appoint a servicer, an affiliate, a manager, or yourself. Verify current standing rather than assuming it. Bar membership is searchable through the Utah State Bar member directory, and title agency licensing through the Utah Insurance Department.

Step 3: get the new trustee’s consent and exact legal name

Utah does not require a recorded acceptance, but the appointment is worthless if the appointee will not act. Confirm engagement in writing, then get the entity’s exact legal name and the street address of the office that satisfies the bona fide office test. Section 57-1-22(2)(c) requires the name and address of the new trustee on the face of the instrument, and that address is the one a borrower will use to deliver reinstatement funds.

Step 4: draft to the statutory form

Section 57-1-22(4) supplies a form and says the instrument “shall be in substantially the following form.” Substantially is a real word with real latitude, but there is no upside in departing from it. Use the form, add the legal description, and stop.

Step 5: sign and acknowledge, with every beneficiary on the page

Execution and acknowledgment are both required by Section 57-1-22(2)(d). An unacknowledged substitution is not entitled to record at all under Section 57-3-101 and Section 57-1-36. If there are four beneficiaries on a participation loan, four signatures and four acknowledgments.

Step 6: record in every county the property touches

Section 57-1-22(1)(a) requires recording “in the office of the county recorder of each county in which the trust property or a part of the trust property is located.” A ranch that straddles a county line needs two recordings, and a missed county is a missed foreclosure in that county.

Step 7: mail the copies the statute requires

Section 57-1-22(3)(b) requires a copy of the appointment or substitution to go out in the manner set by Section 57-1-26(2), which means certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, postage prepaid. More on who gets it below.

Step 8: send the written instruction

The appointment gives the trustee authority. It does not give the trustee a job. Section 57-1-21.5(1) is unambiguous, and skipping this step is why files sit still for months while everyone waits on someone else.

What the substitution of trustee must contain

Section 57-1-22(2) is the drafting half of how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed, and it lists four mandatory elements. Every one of them exists to let a title examiner, a junior lienholder, and a borrower connect this page to a specific recorded trust deed on a specific parcel.

Notice what is not on the list. No consideration, no consent from the trustor, no recital of default, no reason for the change, and no signature from the outgoing trustee. Utah made this a unilateral beneficiary act on purpose.

The statutory form, and why to use it

The form in Section 57-1-22(4) is titled “Appointment or Substitution of Trustee.” It names and addresses the new trustee, recites that the trustee “is hereby appointed trustee under the trust deed executed by” the trustor, names the beneficiary and the original trustee, gives the recording date and either the book and page or the entry number and county, inserts the legal description, and ends with a signature line and a certificate of acknowledgment.

Two practical notes on the form. First, it is a single instrument that works for both an appointment where no trustee currently serves and a substitution replacing a serving trustee, which is why the statute uses both words throughout. Second, the form has no place to explain anything, and that is a feature. A substitution that recites the borrower’s default, describes a servicing transfer, or attaches an assignment as an exhibit gives opposing counsel three more paragraphs to litigate.

Anyone learning how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed for the first time should draft the instrument from the statutory text rather than from a form book written for another state. California, Nevada, and Arizona all use deeds of trust, and none of their substitution forms satisfies Section 57-1-22(2).

Acknowledgment: the notary rules that quietly break a substitution

Section 57-3-101(1) makes a certificate of acknowledgment the ticket to recording, and (2) adds that notarial acts affecting Utah real property must also conform to Title 46 Chapter 1, the Notaries Public Reform Act. Most substitutions are notarized correctly. The ones that are not tend to fail in the same three ways.

The notary cannot be named in the document

Section 46-1-7 disqualifies a notary who is a signer of the document, who is named in the document, or who will receive direct compensation from a real property transaction in which the notary is named individually as a grantor, grantee, mortgagor, mortgagee, trustor, trustee, beneficiary, vendor, vendee, lessor, lessee, buyer, or seller. On a small private loan where one person is the lender, the manager, and the office notary, this is a live problem. There is a narrow carve-out in (2)(c) for a licensed attorney listed only as representing a signer, and in (2)(d) for a licensed escrow agent acting as title insurance producer who is not named individually.

Use the statutory certificate language

Section 46-1-6.5(3) gives the acknowledgment certificate in substantially this form: state and county, the date, the notary’s name, the appearance of the signer “proved on the basis of satisfactory evidence,” the acknowledgment that the signer executed the document, the notary’s official seal, and the notary signature. A jurat is a different animal under (2) and is the wrong certificate for a substitution. So is a bare signature witnessing under (5).

Remote notarization works, with conditions

Section 46-1-3.6 permits a commissioned remote notary to perform a remote notarization while physically located in Utah, using simultaneous sight and sound communication plus an image of an approved form of identification, and requires an electronic recording of the session. Subsection (4) then provides that a lawful remote notarization satisfies any state law requiring personal appearance. For an out-of-state note buyer signing a Utah substitution, that provision is the practical answer. Remote notary certification is handled through the Utah notary program under Section 46-1-3.5.

If a signer uses an out-of-state notary instead, the certificate still has to satisfy Utah recording requirements. Utah also allows proof of execution by a subscribing witness under Section 57-2-10, but that route is slow and rarely worth it when a remote notarization is available.

Recording: where, when, and what a Utah recorder will reject

Section 57-1-36 lists a substitution of trustee among the instruments entitled to be recorded “if acknowledged as provided by law.” Entitled to be recorded is not the same as accepted at the counter. Two sections of the recording chapter give recorders the authority to reject.

The legal description

Section 57-3-105(1) says that if a document does not conform to that section, a person may not present it for recording. Subsection (4) then defines an acceptable legal description as metes and bounds; a government survey referencing the Public Land Survey System with township, range, base and meridian, and section, with aliquot part or government lot; a mining claim name with a serial number where available; or a lot, block, tract, parcel, or unit within a previously recorded plat or map. A tax serial number alone is not a legal description, even though every Utah recorder indexes by it.

Caption, originals, legibility, and eRecording

Section 57-3-106 requires a document to be an original or an electronic document satisfying the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act in Title 17 Chapter 71 Part 6, to carry a brief caption on the first page stating the nature of the document, and to contain a conforming legal description. Subsection (7) adds that the document must be legible enough for the recorder to make certified copies. Practically, that means the caption should read “Substitution of Trustee” and nothing more creative.

Fixing a substitution that recorded with an error

Section 57-3-106(9) allows minor typographical or clerical errors in a recorded document to be corrected by recording an affidavit or other appropriate instrument. Subsection (8) governs rerecording: a document already of record may not be recorded again in the same county unless it has been reexecuted by all parties who executed it, with fresh acknowledgments, and the rerecorded document must contain a brief statement explaining the reason. Subsection (10) then confirms that neither a correction affidavit nor a rerecording divests anyone of a real property interest.

My preference on a substitution with a bad book and page or a scrambled legal description is to record a new, correct substitution rather than to patch the old one. It costs another recording fee, it is unambiguous to a title examiner, and it moots the argument about whether the error was clerical.

The deadline: recorded no later than the notice of default

Section 57-1-22(3)(a) sets the outside limit. If the appointment or substitution has not previously been recorded at the time a notice of default is recorded, the successor trustee shall file it for record in each county where the trust property sits. Read the subject of that sentence carefully. The filing duty rests on the successor trustee, not on the beneficiary who signed it.

The clean sequence is to record the substitution first, then have the new trustee record the notice of default under Section 57-1-24, then let the three-month period run. Recording both instruments in the same batch on the same day is common and works. What does not work is a notice of default signed by a trustee whose authority appears nowhere in the record, discovered by a borrower’s lawyer in month three.

The mailing step almost nobody does

Section 57-1-22(3)(b) is one sentence and it is skipped constantly. A copy of the appointment or substitution has to be sent, in the manner provided in Section 57-1-26(2), to two groups.

The first is anyone who filed a recorded request for a copy of any notice of default and notice of sale under Section 57-1-26(1)(a). That is the mechanism junior lienholders, subordinate trust deed beneficiaries, and sophisticated borrowers use to make sure they see a default coming. The request is a recorded, acknowledged instrument in its own right, indexed by the recorder in the mortgagor’s index, the mortgagee’s index, and the abstract record.

The second is anyone who is a party to the trust deed to whom a copy of a notice of default would have to be mailed under Section 57-1-26(3). Subsection (3)(a) allows the trust deed itself to contain a request that notices go to a party at the address stated in the trust deed, which means the request can be embedded in the security instrument rather than recorded separately. Most institutional Utah trust deeds include exactly that clause.

The manner is set by Section 57-1-26(2): certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, with postage prepaid, addressed to each person whose name and address appear in the request and directed to the address designated there. Regular first class mail does not satisfy it. Email does not satisfy it.

A copy of the appointment of trustee or the substitution of trustee shall be sent in the manner provided in Subsection 57-1-26(2) to any person who requests a copy of any notice of default or notice of sale under Subsection 57-1-26(1)(a).

Utah Code Section 57-1-22(3)(b)

Keep the green cards and the certified mail receipts in the file with the recorded substitution. On a contested file, the mailing proof is what separates a clean record from a fight about whether a junior lienholder had a fair chance to cure under Section 57-1-31.

Ratifying what the new trustee already did

This provision saves files, and almost nobody uses it. Section 57-1-22(1)(c) allows the beneficiary, by express provision in the appointment or substitution, to “ratify and confirm an action taken on the beneficiary’s behalf by the new trustee prior to the recording of the substitution of trustee.”

Think about what that fixes. A lender’s foreclosure counsel opens the file, orders a title report, sends a demand, and prepares the notice of default before anyone notices the substitution was never signed. Instead of unwinding the work, the beneficiary adds a ratification clause to the substitution and confirms those acts as its own.

Two limits worth stating plainly. Ratification reaches acts taken on the beneficiary’s behalf by the new trustee, so it does not launder an act by a stranger to the file. And it is not a cure for a trustee who was never qualified in the first place, because Section 57-1-21(3) is about capacity, not authority. Ratifying an unqualified person’s sale does not make that person a qualified trustee. Where the new trustee is qualified and the only gap is timing, the clause is a clean fix, and I include it as standard language whenever any pre-recording work has occurred.

Signing authority when the beneficiary is not one individual

Section 57-1-22(2)(d) requires execution and acknowledgment by all of the beneficiaries or their successors in interest. Applying that to real capital structures is where most drafting time goes.

Entity beneficiaries

An LLC signs through a manager or a member with authority, a corporation through an authorized officer, a partnership through a general partner, and a trust through its trustee. The signature block should state the entity’s exact legal name, the signer’s name, and the signer’s title, and the acknowledgment should reflect representative capacity. Confirm current good standing and current management before signing. A substitution signed by a manager who was removed two years ago is an invitation to litigate.

Multiple beneficiaries and participation loans

On a fractionalized private loan with eight investors on title, all eight are beneficiaries and all eight sign, unless the recorded documents genuinely vested the beneficial interest in a single nominee or agent whose authority appears in the record. A servicing agreement in a drawer does not appear in the record. The two workable structures are to record the beneficial interest in one entity from the outset, or to collect all the signatures. Counting on “substantially all” of them is not a structure.

A beneficiary who has died

When an individual private lender dies, the beneficial interest passes through the estate or through a trust, and the person who signs is the successor in interest that Section 57-1-22(2)(d) contemplates. A personal representative signs on letters, a successor trustee of a living trust signs on the trust instrument, and either way the authority should be recorded or attached so that the record shows the chain. This is the one place where the two meanings of successor trustee actually meet on the same page. If the estate has not been opened, that comes first. The Utah probate process and how real estate moves through Utah probate both matter here, and a well-drafted estate plan can keep the note out of probate entirely, which is one reason holding real property interests in a trust is worth doing before there is a default to manage.

When the note has been assigned: proving you are the beneficiary

Section 57-1-19(1) defines beneficiary to include “that person’s successor in interest,” and Section 57-1-35 provides that the transfer of a debt secured by a trust deed operates as a transfer of the security. Together they mean the note buyer is the beneficiary as a matter of law the moment the debt transfers, whether or not anything is recorded.

The record does not know that. Section 57-1-22.5(1) is the fix: a recorded notice of assignment of a beneficial interest, executed by the assigning beneficiary, is prima facie evidence of the assignment. Subsection (2) sets out the required contents, which mirror the substitution: names of the original parties, the recording date, the book and page or entry number, the legal description, and the name and address of the new beneficiary.

Section 57-1-36 adds a nuance people misread. Recording an assignment of a beneficial interest, or a notice of assignment, does not by itself give the trustor notice sufficient to invalidate a payment the trustor makes to whoever holds the note. Recording protects the record chain. Telling the borrower where to send the payment is a separate task.

The clean order on a purchased note is to record the assignment or notice of assignment first, then record the substitution of trustee signed by the new beneficiary. Reversing them produces a substitution signed by an entity the record does not yet show as the beneficiary, which is the same defect discussed above, dressed differently. Note buyers who inherited a thin chain, including files that ran through the mortgage electronic registration system, should reconstruct the chain before touching the trustee.

Appointing a successor trustee in the middle of a foreclosure

Nothing in Section 57-1-22 prevents a mid-foreclosure substitution. The beneficiary may appoint at any time. What changes is the coordination cost, because the outgoing trustee is holding a running statutory clock.

The three-month period in Section 57-1-24(2) runs from the recording of the notice of default, and it is not restarted by a change of trustee. The incoming trustee inherits that date. What the incoming trustee also inherits is the pending obligations: reinstatement and payoff statements under Section 57-1-31.5, the publication, posting, and mailing sequence in Section 57-1-25 and Section 57-1-26, and any sale postponement declared under Section 57-1-27.

Three practical rules. Get the outgoing trustee’s file, including proof of mailing and publication affidavits, before the substitution records. Confirm in writing which trustee will answer a reinstatement request that arrives during the handoff, because Section 57-1-31.5 tolls the cure period against the beneficiary when a reinstatement statement is more than five business days late. And if a notice of sale has already published, weigh whether to complete the sale with the current trustee and substitute afterward. A substitution recorded eight days before a sale date is legal and still a bad idea.

Trustee resignation, and the vacancy it creates

Section 57-1-22(5) was added in 2016 and gives a trustee a clean exit that did not clearly exist before. It also creates a trap for a beneficiary who is not watching the record.

How a resignation takes effect

The trustee records a resignation of trustee in each county where the trust property is located, and under (5)(b) the resignation takes effect upon recording. Not upon notice to the beneficiary, not upon the beneficiary’s consent. The statutory form in (5)(c) parallels the substitution form: the resigning trustee’s name and address, the trustor, the beneficiary, the trustee, the recording date and book and page or entry number, the legal description, a signature, and a certificate of acknowledgment.

The three-day notice in pending litigation

Under (5)(d)(i), within three days after resigning the trustee must give written notice to each party in any pending legal action against the trustee that relates to or arises from the trustee’s performance. A party then has 10 days under (5)(d)(ii) to move the court to substitute the beneficiary as defendant in the trustee’s place until a successor is appointed. If no one moves within that window, (5)(d)(iii) requires the court to dismiss all claims against the withdrawn trustee with prejudice. That dismissal rule does not apply, under (5)(d)(iv), to claims alleging negligent or intentional misconduct by the withdrawn trustee.

The strategic point for a beneficiary is that a trustee resignation in the middle of borrower litigation can move the beneficiary into the defendant’s chair. Related to this, Section 57-1-22.1 provides that a party is not required to join the trustee in an action involving a trust deed unless the action pertains to the trustee’s obligations, and (3) requires a court to dismiss and award the trustee attorney fees when the trustee is joined improperly.

What the beneficiary has to do next

Section 57-1-22(5)(e) answers both questions people ask. First, (e)(i): the withdrawal of a trustee does not affect the validity or the priority of the trust deed. The lien is fine. Second, (e)(ii): after a trustee withdraws, “only a qualified successor trustee appointed by the beneficiary under Section 57-1-22 may exercise trustee powers, including the power of sale.”

So a resignation stops the file cold until the beneficiary records a substitution. Any beneficiary carrying Utah paper should be watching for recorded activity on its own collateral, because a resignation recorded quietly in March is a foreclosure that cannot start in April.

What breaks a substitution of trustee in Utah

These are the defects I actually see on recorded Utah substitutions, ranked roughly by how much damage they do.

The written instruction that turns an appointment into action

Section 57-1-21.5(1) is the most useful sentence in the chapter for a beneficiary, and it is the one that explains why so many private loan files stall.

Until a beneficiary under a trust deed or the beneficiary’s agent provides a trustee of the trust deed written instructions directing the trustee to exercise powers under this chapter, the trustee has no duty or obligation to the beneficiary or to the agent of a beneficiary.

Utah Code Section 57-1-21.5(1)

Recording the substitution installs the trustee. The written instruction hires it. Until that letter goes out, the newly appointed trustee owes the beneficiary nothing, and a trustee sitting on a file is doing exactly what the statute permits.

A workable instruction is short. Identify the loan, the trust deed, and the property. Direct the trustee to exercise the power of sale under Section 57-1-23 and to record a notice of default under Section 57-1-24. State the default. Confirm who at the beneficiary or servicer will quote reinstatement and payoff figures. Address costs and advances. Sign it as the beneficiary or as an authorized agent, because the statute recognizes both.

What the new trustee may not delegate back to you

Once appointed and instructed, the trustee owns a list of duties that cannot be handed back. Section 57-1-21.5(2) makes these nondelegable: preparing and executing the notice of default, the cancellation of notice of default, the notice of sale, and the trustee’s deed; notification of foreclosure through publication, posting, and certified or registered mail; receiving and responding to requests for reinstatement or payoff requirements; and handling reinstatement or payoff funds.

Subsection (3) then gives back what a working file actually needs. The trustee may use clerical or office staff under direct and immediate supervision, may use outside services for publication, posting, marketing, or advertising the sale, and, under (3)(c), the beneficiary or its servicing agent may directly perform the functions in (2)(c) and (2)(d). In other words the lender or servicer may quote reinstatement and payoff figures and may handle those funds. What it may not do is draft or sign the recorded instruments.

Two more limits protect everyone. Section 57-1-21.5(5) bars a trustee from soliciting or receiving referral fees, including fees for referring title work, posting, or publishing services, with narrow exceptions for co-counsel fees and certain ownership participations. Section 57-1-21.5(6) prohibits charging a reinstating trustor, or a beneficiary acquiring property through foreclosure, more than the trustee’s actual costs. Violations of either are a class B misdemeanor under (7)(a), carry liability to the trustor for actual damages or $1,000 whichever is greater under (7)(b), and shift attorney fees to the prevailing party under (7)(c).

Cost and timeline

A substitution of trustee is one of the cheapest documents in a Utah foreclosure file and one of the most expensive to get wrong. The recording fee is set by each county recorder and is charged per document, which is why a two-county property costs twice. Notary fees are capped by statute at $10 per acknowledged signature, or $25 per act for a remote notarization. Certified mail is a per-recipient postage cost. The real expense is the trustee’s own engagement, which is negotiated, not statutory.

A well-run substitution takes about a week from decision to recording. A file with four private investors, a missing assignment, and a property in two counties takes a month. Plan for the second one.

Nine mistakes on Utah substitutions of trustee

Anyone working out how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed can skip most of the learning curve by avoiding these.

Appointing the servicer. A servicer is not on the Section 57-1-21(1)(a) list unless it independently qualifies. Appointing one produces a trustee without the power of sale.

Appointing an out-of-state law firm. Section 57-1-21(1)(a)(i) requires an active Utah Bar member and a Utah office that a trustor can visit. A national default firm with a Utah co-counsel arrangement is not the same thing as a Utah entity that employs an active member.

Assuming the trust deed’s substitution clause overrides the statute. Many trust deeds contain their own substitution language. That language cannot lower the floor set by Section 57-1-22(2), and a substitution that satisfies the contract but not the statute is a defective substitution.

Recording only in the county where the borrower lives. The test is where the trust property is, parcel by parcel.

Skipping the certified mailing. It costs a few dollars and it is the difference between an unassailable record and a colorable claim by a junior lienholder.

Letting one investor sign for the group. Unless the record vests the beneficial interest in that person, this is the defect that unwinds sales.

Using a form from another state. The book and page or entry number, the legal description, and the all-beneficiaries execution requirement are Utah specific.

Notarizing in-house when the notary is named. Section 46-1-7 disqualifies the notary, and it is an unforced error when a remote notarization costs $25.

Recording the substitution and then waiting. Without the Section 57-1-21.5(1) written instruction, the trustee has no duty to do anything, and files sit for months while everyone assumes someone else has the ball.

How this fits the rest of a Utah foreclosure file

Knowing how to appoint a successor trustee on a Utah trust deed only gets a file to the starting line, because the substitution is step zero. Once a qualified trustee is in place and instructed, the rest of the sequence follows Title 57 Chapter 1: the notice of default under Section 57-1-24, three months of waiting, the notice of sale with its publication, website posting, property posting, and certified mailing under Sections 57-1-25 and 57-1-26, the sale itself under Section 57-1-27, and the trustee’s deed and proceeds distribution under Section 57-1-28 and Section 57-1-29. If the numbers do not work out, the deficiency window in Section 57-1-32 closes three months after the sale.

Depending on who you are, the next read differs. Private lenders and note funds should start with Utah trust deed foreclosure for private lenders. If you want the whole procedure end to end, how to foreclose on a trust deed in Utah walks the nine steps. Sellers who carried paper should read seller carry back note foreclosure in Utah. And for the decisions that belong to the beneficiary rather than the trustee, including the credit bid and the deficiency election, see the Utah nonjudicial foreclosure process for beneficiaries.

Trust deeds are not the only Utah lien that ends in a forced sale. The rules differ substantially for association assessments, covered in whether an HOA can foreclose on a lien in Utah and how HOA lien priority interacts with a mortgage, and for construction liens, covered in removing an invalid Utah construction lien. If a title defect predates all of it, quiet title may be the cleaner path, and the underlying ownership concepts are covered in fee simple title. For the loan documents themselves, see commercial real estate financing and loan agreements and real estate closing law.

Written by Jeremy Eveland, a business and real estate attorney practicing in Utah, with offices in Lindon and West Jordan.

This article is general information about Utah law as of September 2026, not legal advice. Statutes change and every loan file is different. Reading this does not create an attorney-client relationship.