Revocable trust: now the default, and you have 10 days to record changes

A trust is an autonomous estate: the settlor transfers property or rights to a trustee, who administers them for the beneficiary’s benefit or for a specific purpose. What changed in 2026 is that the law expressly recognizes the revocable trust — the one you can change or undo — and makes it the presumption when the document does not say otherwise.

Anyone who has or is considering a trust in Puerto Rico, and any interested party needing a certification from the Trust Registry. The law sets no wealth or age requirement to create one; what it sets are the formalities of the constitutive act and the recording.

• Recording the trust in the Special Trust Registry. The law says every trust constituted in Puerto Rico shall be recorded in that Registry “on pain of nullity”.Verified against the official source
• That the entry state clearly whether the trust is revocable or irrevocable, as the constitutive act provides. It is one of the items Article 5 lists.Verified against the official source
• If the trust is revocable: notifying and recording every amendment or revocation within ten (10) days from its execution.Verified against the official source
• To request a Registry certification: being an interested party or their legal representation, and paying the fees the Director of Notarial Inspection sets. Those exempt from fees under special laws are exempt.Verified against the official source

• The law publishes no document list or form for the citizen. The trust’s constitutive act is a deed, and it is executed before a notary: Article 5 places on that notary the duty to notify the constitution to the Office of Notarial Inspection.

1. 1

   Step 1: Revocable is now what is presumed

   Article 1, as this Act left it, provides that a trust may be revocable or irrevocable as the constitutive act expressly provides, and adds the rule that changes the starting point: “Absent an express provision in the constitutive act declaring it irrevocable, the trust shall be presumed revocable, unless its own clauses clearly show the contrary intent.” If you want an irrevocable trust, now you have to say so.

2. 2

   Step 2: What you may reserve if it is revocable

   That same article lists them: in revocable trusts, the settlor may reserve powers of revocation, amendment or withdrawal of property, without that affecting the estate’s autonomy against third-party creditors, save as this Act provides. That last proviso matters and we will not stretch it: the Act reserves exceptions of its own in other articles we do not describe here.

3. 3

   Step 3: Ten days to record each change, and why it is not a formality

   This is the deadline to write down. In revocable trusts, every amendment or revocation must be notified and recorded in the Registry within ten (10) days from its execution. And the law explains the consequence: “The recording of those amendments or revocations shall be constitutive and only from it shall they take effect against third parties.” That is, until it is recorded, the change cannot be asserted against a third party. For the initial constitution the deadline is different: the notary shall notify no later than the first ten days of the month following execution.

4. 4

   Step 4: Recording is not optional

   Article 5 says every trust constituted in Puerto Rico shall be recorded in the Special Trust Registry “on pain of nullity”. The Registry is attached to the Judicial Branch’s Office of Notarial Inspection, and it is that office that shall set by regulation the requirements and the manner in which it is to be established.

5. 5

   Step 5: You can now request a Registry certification

   This is what this Act opened and what an interested party will use most. The Director of Notarial Inspection is authorized to issue certifications of the Registry’s entries, including negative certifications, to any interested party or their legal representation. The law conditions issuance on payment of the fees the Director sets, who shall also establish how that payment is made and how such certifications are issued. And it adds that people exempt from fees under special laws shall be exempt.

6. 6

   Step 6: If there are several trustees, each answers for their own part

   Article 46 now reads: where there is more than one trustee and all breach their fiduciary duties, each shall answer jointly, exclusively for the portion of harm or loss resulting from their own act or omission. A trustee shall be exempt from liability if they show they did not take part in the breach and acted with due diligence to prevent it or mitigate its effects. And the exception: liability shall be solidary if it is shown by preponderance of the evidence that the trustees acted intentionally and in concert in the breach.

7. 7

   Step 7: Why a trust exists: the estate stands apart

   The basis is worth repeating, because it is what people come for. Article 2 provides that the trust property constitutes a fully autonomous estate, separate from the personal estates of settlor, trustee and beneficiary, dedicated to the particular purpose conferred at its constitution. Once the deed is executed and filed under the Act, an independent juridical entity with full legal personality is constituted. And while the trust subsists, that estate is exempt from the individual or collective action of the creditors of the settlor, the beneficiary and the trustee, save as Article 6 of the Act provides.

A trust is constituted by deed before a notary, and it is the notary who notifies the constitution. The Special Trust Registry and its certifications sit at the Judicial Branch’s Office of Notarial Inspection, whose Director sets the fees and the manner of issuing them. The law publishes no address, phone, portal or form.

• Assuming your trust is irrevocable because the document is silent: since this Act, absent an express provision declaring irrevocability, it shall be presumed revocable.
• Amending or revoking and not recording it: the recording of amendments and revocations is constitutive and only from it do they take effect against third parties.
• Confusing the two deadlines: the notary notifies the constitution no later than the first ten days of the following month; an amendment or revocation of a revocable trust is recorded within ten (10) days of its execution.
• Believing Registry recording is a formality: the law says every trust constituted in Puerto Rico shall be recorded on pain of nullity.
• Thinking only the settlor may request a certification: the law opens them to any interested party or their legal representation, and includes negative certifications.
• Supposing all trustees answer for everything: the general rule is joint liability, and it will be solidary only if it is proven they acted intentionally and in concert.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov