diff --git a/vm/actor/src/builtin/verifreg/mod.rs b/vm/actor/src/builtin/verifreg/mod.rs
index a1ae35ef8fa3..06fee0a0d560 100644
--- a/vm/actor/src/builtin/verifreg/mod.rs
+++ b/vm/actor/src/builtin/verifreg/mod.rs
@@ -453,19 +453,19 @@ impl Actor {
         }
 
         rt.transaction(|st: &mut State, rt| {
+            let mut verified_clients =
+                make_map_with_root_and_bitwidth(&st.verified_clients, rt.store(), HAMT_BIT_WIDTH)
+                    .map_err(|e| {
+                    e.downcast_default(ExitCode::ErrIllegalState, "failed to load verified clients")
+                })?;
             let verifiers = make_map_with_root_and_bitwidth::<_, BigIntDe>(
                 &st.verifiers,
                 rt.store(),
                 HAMT_BIT_WIDTH,
             )
             .map_err(|e| {
-                e.downcast_default(ExitCode::ErrIllegalState, "failed to load verified clients")
+                e.downcast_default(ExitCode::ErrIllegalState, "failed to load verifiers")
             })?;
-            let mut verified_clients =
-                make_map_with_root_and_bitwidth(&st.verified_clients, rt.store(), HAMT_BIT_WIDTH)
-                    .map_err(|e| {
-                    e.downcast_default(ExitCode::ErrIllegalState, "failed to load verified clients")
-                })?;
 
             // validate we are NOT attempting to do this for a verifier
             let found = verifiers.contains_key(&client.to_bytes()).map_err(|e| {