Wyoming Private Trust Companies

For affluent families, the goal of strategic estate planning is to safeguard assets while achieving tax efficiency, privacy, and long-term protection. The traditional path, however, often requires entrusting these responsibilities to an external trustee, which can mean giving up a degree of control and participation that many families prefer to retain. As an alternative to relying on individual or corporate trustees, families may instead establish a Wyoming Private Trust Company (PTC) — a structure that preserves professional fiduciary oversight while keeping governance and decision-making within the family.

Private Trust Companies are entities that centralize the governance and administration of family trusts and assets within a professionally run structure, while allowing for family ownership and participation.

PTCs are family-owned entities that serve as long-term trustees of trusts established for the benefit of family members. This structure offers a high degree of involvement in governance and investment oversight, subject to limitations designed to avoid adverse tax consequences. PTCs provide families with more influence and participation than traditional trustees while preserving the professionalism expected in fiduciary administration.

Advantages of a Wyoming PTC

PTCs are a powerful tool for strategic estate planning, enabling affluent families to exercise greater control and multi-generational involvement. As a single, integrated structure for long-term fiduciary management, they offer customized trust administration and investment oversight. Families can centralize the management of operating businesses, real estate, concentrated holdings, digital assets, and alternative investments—assets that many traditional trustees are unwilling or unable to administer.

PTCs help maintain continuity across generations by minimizing disruptions caused by trustee turnover, retirement, or institutional changes. By clearly defining committee responsibilities and governance processes, PTCs also mitigate the risk of family disputes and ensure that decisions reflect long-term family objectives. They can pool investment capabilities across trusts, providing access to alternative investments and cost efficiencies that would not be achievable for each trust individually. For families with substantial digital assets, PTC structures offer a unique framework for custody and privacy.

Directors and officers of a PTC benefit from limited liability protections, supported by Wyoming’s LLC laws and the ability to maintain directors’ and officers’ insurance. This helps attract qualified advisors and allows them to participate in fiduciary oversight without incurring the personal risk associated with acting as an individual trustee.

Family Participation

For many families, an important advantage of establishing a PTC is the ability to involve family members in managing generational assets. PTCs allow family members to take part in governance, investment decisions, and fiduciary processes rather than delegating these responsibilities entirely to external parties. They can function as a family office or fit naturally within an existing family office structure, helping define roles, establish shared decision-making, and promote long-term continuity.

Family members can gain leadership experience through board or committee service, participate in investment discussions, and develop the skills necessary to manage complex assets. PTCs can also incorporate a family foundation into their governance structure to support philanthropic initiatives and reinforce shared values.

Why Not Individual Trustees?

Individual trustees can work well for families with simpler structures, but as assets and family circumstances become more complex, the risks and limitations increase significantly. Individuals often lack the expertise required to administer complex trusts or oversee operating businesses, concentrated positions, or alternative investments. They also face heightened personal liability, and conflicts of interest can arise when individuals serve in overlapping roles.

Individual trustees may not provide a long-term solution due to the natural challenges of retirement, incapacity, and death. Additionally, families sometimes struggle to identify individuals who are willing to serve as trustees under an increasing regulatory and fiduciary burden.

Why Not Corporate Trustees?

Corporate trustees can address the complexities that exceed the capacity of individual trustees, but they also have meaningful limitations. Families have little influence over who within the institution makes fiduciary decisions, and decision-makers may change frequently due to turnover or corporate restructuring. Corporate trustees may be unwilling to manage closely held businesses, real estate portfolios, or illiquid alternative assets.

The incentives of corporate fiduciaries may not always align with those of the family, and maintaining privacy becomes more difficult as information is shared within a larger organization. Bureaucratic processes and organizational constraints can affect responsiveness and create challenges around continuity and consistency of service.

Why Wyoming?

When it comes to selecting a jurisdiction for establishing a PTC, Wyoming stands out as a clear leader. Wyoming's statutes offer a high level of flexibility, including 1,000-year dynasty trusts and directed trusts. Wyoming statutes facilitate trust migration and modifications through non-judicial settlements, and the state does not impose taxes on income, capital gains, gifts, or estates. These benefits extend to non-residents who place their assets in an irrevocable non-grantor trust. Wyoming also provides strong privacy laws, ensuring that trust details, including grantors, beneficiaries, and trust assets, are not part of the public record. In addition, Wyoming has robust asset protection laws that can safeguard assets from creditors and legal disputes.

Wyoming's combination of flexible trust laws, tax advantages, and privacy protections makes it an ideal jurisdiction for families seeking long-term control over their wealth planning structures.

Wyoming is particularly favorable for families looking to include digital assets in their PTC. The state's commercial and property laws recognize digital assets, affording them the same property rights and protections as other forms of intangible assets. Further enhancing its appeal, Wyoming recently enacted groundbreaking digital asset bankruptcy legislation that protects customers in the event of financial institution insolvency. This new law ensures that assets in "covered accounts" are shielded from being considered liabilities of the financial institution during bankruptcy, providing much-needed clarity and security for families managing digital assets.

Regulated vs. Unregulated

Wyoming is one of the few states that permit the establishment of both regulated and unregulated PTCs. Regulated or "chartered family” trust companies obtain a charter from the Wyoming Division of Banking. This can be a lengthy process and requires minimum regulatory capital of $500,000 as well as ongoing examinations. Unregulated or "private family” trust companies operate without a charter, are not subject to examinations by the Division of Banking, and are not required to maintain regulatory capital. While most families choose unregulated PTCs, a regulated version may provide additional protection against possible challenges to trust situs and help to ensure best practices. Wyoming law also allows a regulated PTC to serve as trustee for up to two unrelated families.

Regardless of the regulatory structure chosen, it is recommended to establish policies and procedures that adhere to sound fiduciary principles. These include formal acceptance of trusts, conducting annual investment reviews, maintaining accurate minutes of regularly held meetings, and implementing a robust distribution policy.

Typical PTC Structure

PTCs offer a flexible structure that can be organized either as a corporation, governed by a board of directors, or as an LLC, managed by a board of managers. This flexibility allows families to tailor the PTC to their specific needs and objectives.

Typically, PTCs are organized as an LLC and elect to be taxed as a corporation operating with minimal profits. Due to the associated costs and administrative requirements, PTCs are most suitable for families with substantial assets that can justify the expenses and family involvement. While a general guideline is that families with $100 million or more in assets are a reasonable threshold, this is not an absolute requirement. More important is the concentration of family wealth in complex or illiquid assets and/or the family’s desire for control in managing their wealth across generations.

Selection of the board, committee members, and officers can include family members or trusted advisors. However, it is important to consider potential adverse tax implications based on their jurisdiction of residence. Seeking advice from attorneys during the formation process and retaining their services on an ongoing basis can help mitigate such risks. While there are typically two committees at a minimum – distribution and investment – the structure can be customized to align with each family's specific goals.

Implementing a PTC

To fully benefit from the legal and tax advantages, PTCs should take all necessary measures to establish Wyoming as their situs. Best practices include establishing a bank or custody account in Wyoming, leasing office space, maintaining books and records within the state, and administering both the PTC and its underlying trusts in Wyoming. Often, Wyoming-based officers, board members, and committee members are incorporated into these structures.

The ongoing administration and compliance tasks are typically handled by third-party service providers. These responsibilities encompass thorough recordkeeping, expense payment, and tax reporting at both the PTC and trust levels. It is essential for PTCs to conduct regular committee and board meetings in Wyoming, maintain meeting minutes to document decisions, and develop and adopt budgets, among other necessary tasks.

Successful PTCs require a long-term commitment from families to collaborate effectively, share a common family mission, and address the needs of beneficiaries. As fiduciaries, PTCs have obligations to the trusts they serve and must fulfill their duties in a professional and responsible manner.

Conclusion

Private Trust Companies offer affluent families an effective framework for managing assets across generations. By establishing a PTC in Wyoming, families gain greater control, participation, and continuity in their estate planning strategies while benefiting from the state’s modern trust laws, favorable tax environment, strong privacy protections, and robust asset-protection statutes..

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About Two Ocean Trust

Two Ocean Trust partners with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and foundations. As a privately owned trust company, independent of other financial institutions, we deliver trust, custody, and investment solutions to a select number of important relationships.

With offices in Jackson Hole and Las Vegas, we provide access to the tax advantages, modern trust laws, and enhanced privacy protections available in both Wyoming and Nevada—supporting the preservation and long-term growth of our clients' generational assets.