On a bank statement, deed, or bond registration, U/A stands for “under agreement” and tells you the account or property is held in a trust created during the grantor’s lifetime through a written agreement with a separate trustee. If you’re wondering what U/A means in a trust, the short answer is that it identifies the trust as an inter vivos (living) trust set up by contract, with one person creating it and a different person managing it.1Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service. FS Publication 0049
What the U/A Label Actually Tells You
Three things, really. First, the trust exists now, not after someone’s death. It came into being the moment the grantor signed the agreement and funded it. Second, the grantor and the trustee are two different people. The trustee holds and manages the assets according to the written instructions in the agreement, for the benefit of whoever the agreement names. Third, the trust is governed by a private contract rather than by a court order or a will, so its terms generally stay confidential.1Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service. FS Publication 0049
What U/A does not tell you is whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable. A U/A trust can be either, depending on what the agreement says. The label only confirms how and when the trust was created, and that the grantor and trustee are separate parties. To learn whether the grantor can still change or cancel the terms, you have to look at the agreement itself or at a summary document the trustee can provide.
How U/A Appears on Accounts and Deeds
The U/A abbreviation almost never appears alone. It sits inside a longer registration string that identifies the specific trust. A typical format lists the trustee’s name, then “U/A,” then the grantor’s name, then the date the agreement was signed. A Treasury bond registration, for example, might read: “First National Bank Tr U/A John R. Smith Dtd 3-15-2020.”1Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service. FS Publication 0049
The date carries most of the identifying weight. Trusts get amended. Some get fully restated, meaning the entire document is rewritten rather than patched with amendments. When that happens, the original signing date typically stays in the trust’s formal name, and later amendments reference both dates (for example, “Smith Family Trust, Dated March 15, 2020, as Restated on June 1, 2025”). That is how a bank can tell one version of the agreement from another, and it’s why the date on the account has to match the date on the trust document. If the two don’t line up, the institution may freeze transactions until the mismatch is cleared up.
U/A, U/D/T, and U/W: Telling Them Apart
U/A is one of three abbreviations that commonly appear on trust-held assets. Each identifies a different structure.
- U/A (Under Agreement). The grantor and trustee are different people. The trustee manages the assets under the terms of a written agreement signed during the grantor’s lifetime.
- U/D/T (Under Declaration of Trust). The grantor and the trustee are the same person. The grantor simply declares that they now hold certain property in trust rather than as their own. This is the usual setup when someone creates a revocable living trust and names themselves as the initial trustee.
- U/W (Under the Will of). The trust was created by the terms of a deceased person’s will. Because it takes effect only after death, it is a testamentary trust, and the grantor can never serve as trustee.
If you’re reading an account registration and trying to figure out what kind of trust you’re dealing with, those three letters tell you most of what you need. U/A means a lifetime trust with a separate trustee. U/D/T means a lifetime trust where the grantor is also the trustee. U/W means a trust created by will.
What U/A Means for the Trust’s Tax ID
The tax identification a U/A trust uses depends on whether it is revocable or irrevocable, and on whether the grantor is still alive.
While a Revocable U/A Trust Is in Effect
If the grantor can still change or cancel the trust, it is treated as a “grantor trust” for tax purposes. Income is reported on the grantor’s personal return, and the trust uses the grantor’s Social Security number. No separate EIN or trust return is required during this period.2Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number
Once the grantor dies, a formerly revocable trust becomes irrevocable by default. The successor trustee then needs to apply for a separate EIN for the trust. The IRS accepts online applications, and Form SS-4 can also be submitted by fax or mail.3Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form SS-4
Irrevocable U/A Trusts
An irrevocable U/A trust needs its own EIN from the beginning, because the grantor has permanently given up control of the assets. The trust files its own federal income tax return (Form 1041) for any year it has taxable income or gross income of $600 or more.4Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 1041 and Schedules A, B, G, J, and K-1
Proving a U/A Trust to a Bank or Title Company
When a trustee opens an account or transfers property for a U/A trust, the institution will ask for proof the trust exists and that the trustee has authority to act. The full agreement doesn’t have to change hands. A certification of trust (also called a certificate of trust or abstract of trust) is a shorter document that summarizes just what the institution needs to see.
A certification typically includes the trust’s name and execution date, the identity of the grantor and current trustee, whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable, and the trustee’s relevant powers. It also confirms the trust has not been amended in any way that would make the certification inaccurate. More than 35 states have adopted a version of the Uniform Trust Code, which standardizes this process and protects institutions that rely on a certification in good faith. In those states, a financial institution that unreasonably insists on seeing the full trust document despite receiving a valid certification may be liable for resulting damages.
So when you see U/A on an account, you’re looking at a shorthand that tells you three facts at once: the trust was made during the grantor’s lifetime, it was made by written agreement, and the person managing the money is not the person who created it. Everything else about the trust lives in the agreement itself and, for day-to-day dealings, in the certification the trustee can hand to a bank or title company.