Choosing a jurisdiction

Our work, and the question

Our work is in Wyoming. People always ask how it compares, so here is the comparison. If your people are in Sioux Falls, Wilmington, or Las Vegas, the comparison is still worth reading. It is not a reason, by itself, to leave them.

Our focus is the unregulated private trust company, which Wyoming calls a private family trust company. We also administer the regulated, chartered kind. Both are described in the private trust company guide. We do not administer companies formed in the other states on this page.

Three different places

Governing law is the law the instrument selects. The place of administration is where the work is done. The trustee's home is where the trustee lives or is formed. They can be three different places. A trustee working in one state, with beneficiaries living in another, can produce a tax result nobody in the meeting mentioned. Ask counsel to name all three for the trust you are looking at before anyone talks about "the state."

What actually differs

Duration. Personal property can sit in a Wyoming trust for 1,000 years. Nevada's statutory rule against perpetuities uses 365 years (NRS 111.1031). South Dakota, Delaware, and Alaska allow a trust to last indefinitely. People quote the number and then over-weight it. If the people being planned for are alive, that spread is rarely what should pick the state. Ask counsel whether duration is even a live question, and have them read the current section rather than this sentence.

Directed trusts, decanting, and protectors. All five states provide for them. The starting sections are W.S. 4-10-718 and W.S. 4-10-816(a)(xxviii) (Wyoming decanting, in the statute since 2013), NRS 163.553 through 163.5559 and NRS 163.556, SDCL chapter 55-1B and SDCL 55-2-15, 12 Del. C. § 3313 and 12 Del. C. § 3528, and AS 13.36.157 through 13.36.159 for Alaska decanting. The texts are not the same. Delaware relieves a directed fiduciary except for wilful misconduct (12 Del. C. § 3313(b)). Wyoming treats a trustee who follows a covered direction as an excluded fiduciary (W.S. 4-10-718, 4-10-715, 4-10-717). A comparison of the clauses, not of the marketing, is counsel's work.

Court privacy and beneficiary notice. Specified Wyoming trust records are sealed by statute when filed (W.S. 4-10-205). South Dakota seals the entire court file when a trust matter is filed (SDCL 21-22-28). Delaware trust matters on the Chancery miscellaneous docket are confidential under Chancery Rule 90. In Nevada, sealing is generally by court order. Alaska leaves more to the judge. Notice to beneficiaries is a different statute. In Wyoming the instrument can specifically direct, limit, or waive the reports in W.S. 4-10-813(b). The general duty in subsection (a) is separately worded, so how far a waiver goes is a question for counsel on the current text. South Dakota lets the trustor, a trust advisor, or a trust protector expand, restrict, or eliminate information rights, including for a period or indefinitely (SDCL 55-2-13). Alaska lets a settlor limit what beneficiaries are told (AS 13.36.080). Nevada and Delaware have their own notice sections. This page does not restate them. Ask counsel.

Self-settled trusts. Each of these five states has a statute that can let a person settle a trust for himself and still claim a measure of creditor protection: W.S. 4-10-510 through 4-10-523, NRS chapter 166, SDCL chapter 55-16, 12 Del. C. §§ 3570 through 3576, and AS 34.40.110. They are not the same statute. Wyoming's exceptions, in W.S. 4-10-520, include child support the settlor is at least thirty days behind on, a lender who was shown the trust property on a credit application, and property the settlor received by a fraudulent transfer. The other four have their own exceptions and their own clocks. None of them fixes the tax result of a power that was kept. Don't pick a state because someone used its name as a promise. Have your lawyer read the transfer against the current section.

State income tax and the residence traps. Wyoming levies no income tax today. Its constitution does not forbid one, but any income tax would have to credit sales, use, and property taxes paid in the state that year. Nevada's constitution prohibits a tax on wages and on the personal income of natural persons, and still permits a tax on business income. South Dakota's rule is statutory. Delaware can tax accumulated trust income when a beneficiary lives there. A family that lives in a taxing state does not escape that state's rules by naming another state's law. That is the residence trap. Ask the tax adviser, not this chart.

Trust company rules. Wyoming lets a private family trust company step outside Banking Division supervision after it is formed (W.S. 13-5-701). There is no capital requirement for that company (W.S. 13-5-703). A chartered Wyoming company needs at least $500,000, paid in cash before it opens (W.S. 13-5-605), and is examined at least once every three years (W.S. 13-5-607). A Nevada family trust company need not be licensed (NRS 669A.100). An unlicensed one cannot put the word trust in its name (NRS 669A.150). A licensed one needs stockholders' equity of at least $300,000, paid in cash before it opens (NRS 669A.160). A South Dakota trust company under SDCL chapter 51A-6A has a minimum capital of $200,000, and the director may require more (SDCL 51A-6A-19). Delaware enacted a Family Trust Company Act, effective July 13, 2026. The capital figure is in that act. Alaska trust companies are in AS 06.26. Confirm both of those figures with local counsel. If the question is the unsupervised Wyoming form, that is a Wyoming fact. It is not, by itself, a reason to move a relationship.

Courts and local professionals. Delaware has a long Chancery docket. The other states have their own benches and their own bars. Depth is who you can actually hire and who has done the work before, which a chart cannot score. If you already have a lawyer in one of these states, that fact outweighs a cell.

Cost. Filing fees, trustee minimums, and the cost of local counsel differ, and they change. This page does not quote them. A Wyoming limited liability company can be formed quickly, and the articles do not have to name the members or the managers. The organizer and the registered agent are still public. Useful, and not a reason to move a trust.

The people you already have

South Dakota, Delaware, Alaska, Wyoming, and Nevada can all do a modern trust. If you already have a lawyer or a trustee in one of them, the usual answer is to stay. Moving a trust to chase a longer term, or a seal statute, is rarely worth a new relationship. A few facts are large. They are not large enough to walk away from a lawyer you already trust.

Wyoming is the one of these five with a statutory foundation. If a family already uses foundations in a civil-law country, that is a fact to put in front of counsel. It is not, on this page, a reason to leave Delaware counsel. Specified Wyoming trust records are sealed when they are filed. South Dakota seals the whole court file. In Nevada you generally have to ask the judge.

Between the five, this site does not choose. Have your lawyer check the current statute before you rely on a cell in the chart. Our work, if you hire us, is administration of a Wyoming private trust company. If your people are in Sioux Falls, Wilmington or Las Vegas, go there.

The five states