Innovative Trust Structures
Wyoming has been innovating since it became the first state to adopt the limited liability company (LLC) in 1977. Since that time, the Wyoming legislature has further enhanced the state as a trust and business planning situs. Wyoming’s legislature was an early adopter of the Uniform Trust Code and single family and chartered family private trust companies (PTCs). The state is a leader and innovator in the digital asset and cryptocurrency space.
Key components of Wyoming’s Uniform Trust Code include:
Directed Trusts: W.S. § 4-10-718.
Dynasty Trusts: Wyoming trusts can hold non-real property for up to 1,000 years. W.S. § 34-1-139. The real property limitation can be managed in a number of ways, including by holding such assets in a limited liability company, the membership interests of which can then be held as personal property by a 1,000-year trust.
Flexible Reformation and Modification: W.S. § 4-10-411 to -413, -415 to -417.
Flexible Trust Migration and Change of Governing Law Rules: W.S. § 4-10-107, -108.
Trust Combination and Division: W.S. § 4-10-418.
Decanting: Trustee with discretion to distribute principal or income (including subject to a standard) may decant in further trust. W.S. § 4-10-816(a)(xxviii), (b).
In addition, Wyoming district courts have frequently recognized the common law power of a trustee to decant (useful for decanting in a manner that preserves a trust’s exemption from Generation Skipping Transfer (GST) tax).
Non-Judicial Settlement Agreements: W.S. § 4-10-111.
Trust Protectors and Advisors (both fiduciary and non-fiduciary): W.S. § 4-10-710 to -717.
Non-Charitable Purpose Trusts with no ascertainable beneficiaries: W.S. § 4-10-410.
Virtual Representation: W.S. § 4-10-301 to -305.
Private Trust Companies (PTCs): W.S. § 13-5-201 to -219.
Wyoming is one of the few states that authorizes both unregulated private family trust companies, which serve single families, and chartered family trust companies, which may serve up to two unrelated families.