Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

It probably indicates that a mortgage was paid off.

It doesn't necessarily mean a thing about a pay-off unless right after it a Reconveyance of Deed of Trust was recorded. It just as likely means a default was entered and they started down the road to foreclosure. It could mean the loan was sold to a new servicer. It could mean lots of things. All it means by itself is that the bank changed trustee services. What you probably call your mortgage is evidenced by a deed of trust with power of sale. This is what allows lenders to foreclose in California without going to court to sue the borrower first (although they can still do it that way if they choose). The deed of trust vests a trustee or trustee service with bare naked title in trust for you. In reality it is basically just a lien for the debt held by a trustee, but there are lots of old Feudal land holding reasons we started doing it this way and it still is. Usually the original trustee is the escrow company that handled the loan. If the bank wants to do the trustee work in house, or do a foreclosure or a variety of other things with the loan, they often want to use a real professional trustee service. So they record a substitution of trustee. Why they did it in your case, we don't know, but that's all it was.

You and your ex-husband's name were on the deed of trust. The original named trustee was unable or refused to act. The beneficiary under the deed of trust (the lender) substituted a new trustee. This was most likely done to reconvey the power of sale after a refinance or sale of the property or pay off of the loan. It released the underlying deed of trust that you had originally signed.