Why choose to have your trust formed under Wyoming law?
While Wyoming and several other states have similar trust laws, the following are features unique to Wyoming that we most often discuss with clients:
Asset Protection Trust – Asset protection trusts are established to shield assets against creditors. By removing assets from personal ownership, they can be protected. The grantor can be designated as a permissible beneficiary and state income tax savings may be possible if certain criteria are met.
Blind Trust – A blind trust is a structure in which the grantor and beneficiary have no control or knowledge of the trust’s assets or how they’re being managed. The trustee can be an individual or an institution.
Crypto Optimized Irrevocable Non-grantor Trust (COIN) – Wyoming is a leader in digital asset regulation and provides many benefits specifically tailored to crypto ownership and estate planning. A COIN Trust integrates digital assets with traditional estate planning, including access to favorable trust, estate, and tax laws, multi-signature private key management, Qualified Custody, trade execution and digital asset borrowing and lending.
Directed Trust – Under a directed trust the trustee is treated as an excluded fiduciary with regard to the investments and/or distributions and, instead, the settlor or other appointed person can serve in this role, allowing greater flexibility and control of investments.
Dynasty Trust – This specific type of trust is also known as a perpetual trust, which effectively allows wealth to transfer from generation to generation without triggering transfer taxation such as gift, estate or generation-skipping transfer tax. A dynasty trust is irrevocable and can also last as long as there are assets in it.
Modification Statutes – Wyoming provides flexible methods of modifying, migrating, and decanting trusts. Examples include determination of a trustee’s compensation, distribution of a trust’s corpus, adding or removing beneficiaries, or transferring a trust’s principal place of administration.
Privacy – Wyoming trust details including grantors, beneficiaries and trust assets are not part of the public record, and there is no requirement for the trust to be disclosed to a registry of any kind.
Private Trust Company (PTC) – PTCs are established to serve as a corporate trustee to a trust or number of trusts for the members of a single family. Wyoming is one of the few states to permit the establishment of regulated and unregulated private trust companies. While unregulated PTCs are commonly established to serve as corporate trustee to a single family, under Wyoming law a regulated PTC is allowed to serve as corporate trustee for up to two unrelated families.
Silent Trust – A silent trust incorporates language, available under Wyoming trust law, to specifically direct the trustee to withhold information concerning the trust’s administration from a beneficiary or to withhold the disclosure of the trust’s existence altogether.
Tax Savings – Wyoming imposes no state income tax of any kind. Furthermore, the Wyoming legislature is required by constitution to pass a balanced budget and has accumulated a $25 billion surplus sovereign fund. Wyoming trust law provides for certain structures which, if specific criteria are met, achieve state income tax savings.
Wyoming Incomplete-gift Non-grantor Trust (WING) – WINGs are primarily utilized as an asset protection and state income tax tool during a grantor’s life. One of the most appealing features is that the grantor can also retain a beneficial interest in the trust’s assets. WINGs are ideal for low basis assets and for parties who intend to migrate to lower tax jurisdictions in the coming years.
About Two Ocean Trust
Two Ocean Trust was founded to serve private clients whose assets are multi-generational. We provide investment management and trust services to ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, and foundations. Based in Jackson Hole, Two Ocean Trust is uniquely positioned to provide access to Wyoming's tax advantages, modern trust laws, and enhanced privacy and asset protections.
