Why All The Buzz About Wyoming?
Wyoming's reputation for leading through innovation is one reason why the state of Wyoming has earned a well-deserved reputation as an excellent place to locate businesses and create estate plans.
In 1977 Wyoming became the first state to authorize the limited liability company (LLC). Other states followed suit by adopting LLC acts of their own, especially after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted LLCs formed pursuant to Wyoming’s original LLC Act (Original LLC Act or Original Act) favorable partnership tax status in 1988.
With its adoption of the 2010 Wyoming Limited Liability Company Act, the Wyoming legislature has chosen an “opportune moment to identify the best elements of the myriad ‘first generation’ LLC statutes and to infuse those elements into a new, ‘second-generation’ uniform act.” On March 5, 2010, Governor Dave Freudenthal signed into law the 2010 Wyoming Limited Liability Company Act.
Trust...In Wyoming!
In the United States, Wyoming has emerged as a first-class, reputable financial center with world-class company, trust and finance laws that rival offshore jurisdictions, but with much less scrutiny and tax compliance costs.
A Wyoming "home-cooked" enhanced version of the uniform trust code is one reason why Wyoming consistently ranks among the most preferred states in the nation in which to form Trusts, Private Trust Companies and LLC's. Another is Wyoming's reputation for leading through innovation.
Wyoming continues to lead the way by becoming one of only a few top-ranking states that allows for the formation of unregulated Private Trust Companies, and the only state with ZERO minimum capitalization requirements, which allows the team at OUTPOST PROVISIONING LLC, to provide the most comprehensive wealth protection system available anywhere today, at a price unmatched by anyone!
With the help of OIW Trust Associates LLC you can receive all of the benefits that Wyoming has to offer which extend to Non-Residents of Wyoming who accumulate assets and investment income in a Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust...
Wyoming consistently ranks among the most preferred states in the nation in which to form, migrate, or resettle a trust. Wyoming imposes....
- No state tax (or estate, capital gains, corporate or gift tax)
- No tax on mineral ownership
- No intangibles tax
- Fast and efficient court systems, which include access to Teton County, Wyoming judiciary and juries. Teton County, Wyoming is one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S. and the judiciary has vast experience in the issues of high net worth families and individuals.
- Strong privacy laws, including LLC protections and no owner registration or disclosure requirements
Additionally, Wyoming is one of only a few top-rated trust situs states that allow for the formation of Unregulated Private Family Trust Companies and only Wyoming offers ZERO minimum capitalization, along with additional benefits which include:
- No minimum capital investment
- Quick and inexpensive to establish
- Exempt from regulation by Securities and Exchange Commission if structured to qualify for Family Office exemption
- Exempt from regulation normally required of an entity formed to offer trustee services to the public at large
- Privacy laws that enable us to shield completely, family names, financial information, and other relevant details from the public
- Minimal reporting requirements and attendant formalities
- Operating interstate offices is prohibited
- Almost-Perpetual Trusts: A properly-formed Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust exists outside the federal transfer tax system, meaning during the life of the trust (up to 1000 years), gift, estate, and generation skipping taxes do not apply.
- #1 Business-Friendly Tax Climate (Tax Foundation)
- Best Run State in the US (24/7 Wall Street)
- #1 Business Tax Climate (National Chamber Foundation)
- AAA Credit Rating (Standard and Poor’s)
- #1 Performing State Economy (The Atlantic)
- #3 Pro-Business State (Pollina Corporate Real Estate)
- #4 Entrepreneur-Friendly State (Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council)
- #5 Next Boom State (National Chamber Foundation)
vs.
the Wyoming Asset Protection System
This is important. All trusts no matter where formed or by whom, require a trustee.
Where your trustee lives, has a direct result on legal and tax treatment of your trust: Example…
You live in Arizona where the State Income Tax is say, 4.5%, and your friend of 20 years …your trustee, lives in California where the State income tax is 13.5%. Your trust is deemed to be administered in the state of residence of your trustee so, the investment income of your trust will be taxed at 13.5% and other taxes imposed by the State of California…which could have been avoided!
Wyoming has emerged as a preferred trust situs over Nevada, Delaware, and many others and because of it, many of the promoters and marketers’, and 50-state “paper-mills” are using the Wyoming jurisdiction but not complying with the Wyoming statute. The greatest majority of the non-Wyoming attorneys and non-Wyoming based trust promoters/ organizers provide trusts with an individual as trustee… that is a person who you appoint to the position of trustee…and in most cases a person who does not reside in Wyoming. In either or both cases, a Big Mistake!
Wyoming trust statute that requires a “Qualified trustee” which is at article 5 of Wyoming statute § 4-10-103. Definitions at section (XXXV) "Qualified trustee" SO, a person acting as trustee, who does not reside in Wyoming, is in violation of Wyoming trust statute and therefore, the trust will not receive the benefits and protection of Wyoming. The trust NOT a Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust.
Your trust could very likely be held invalid when challenged AND, you are unable to minimize your state income tax on investment income or avoid Medicaid Estate Recovery.
Why? Because they are not physically located in Wyoming… they are unfamiliar with the Wyoming Family Private Trust Company, and lack the expertise to craft the specialized trust instrument that is required by IRS Notice 2008-63, which is necessary to implement proper use of the Wyoming Unregulated Private Trust Company as trustee.
The end-result of the lack of expertise and forthrightness about not being physically located in Wyoming, and other omissions by the promoters/organizers, is that at their direction, the person YOU appointed to serve as your trustee is now unwittingly exposed to enormous potential risk and liability.
The OUTPOST PROVISIONING LLC system is comprised of an Unregulated Family Private Trust Company as trustee of a Wyoming Qualified Spendthrift Trust, for the most effective asset protection system available on or offshore...at a price unmatched by anyone!
What Is An Unregulated Single Family Private Trust Company?
An Unregulated Single Family Private Trust Company is a family-owned enterprise that provides trust services similar to those provided by an individual or an institutional trustee. Generally, an Unregulated Single Family Private Trust Company is formed as a Registered Limited Liability Partnership, Corporation or Limited Liability Company; as such, it is legally qualified to act as trustee of a single trust or group of related trusts provided that the trusts are related to one single family. Read more at The Unregulated Private Trust Company
SO, YOU THINK YOU ARE PROTECTED?
Why Creditors and the State Can Get to Assets in a Revocable Living Trust or Family Partnership ...that your trusted “Attorney” put you into, without telling you...
RULE #1. If you own it, control it, or have control over receiving a benefit from it, it can be taken from you.
About Revocable Living Trusts
A revocable living trust is the kind of trust a lawyer might recommend when you're writing your will and taking other estate planning steps. Its primary purpose is to save your family the expense and hassle of probate after your death.
Avoiding probate is a worthy goal. Unlike property left through your will, property that you leave to others through a living trust doesn’t need probate court approval before it can be passed on to those who inherit it. That means your surviving family members don’t need to conduct a probate court proceeding, which typically takes six months to a year and can eat up three to five percent of the amount of your estate. (Probate’s complexity and expense depend on where you live and how complicated your financial and family situations are.)
Living trusts have other benefits, too. If you ever become incapacitated, your “successor trustee”—the person you name in the trust document to take over after your death—can step in and manage trust assets. That can be extremely helpful in an emergency or in the case of a serious, chronic illness.
Why Creditors Can Get to Assets in a Revocable Living Trust. Refer back to RULE #1
Revocable living trusts don’t, however, protect your assets from people with legal claims against you. That’s because although the trust is a legal entity, for legal purposes you’re treated as the owner of the trust assets.
When you set up a typical probate-avoidance revocable living trust, you name yourself as the trustee. That lets you keep complete control over the assets you transfer to the trust. You can put property in the trust, take it out, sell it, or give it away at any time, with no restrictions. As a practical matter, it’s still yours.
Another reason the law considers you the owner of trust property is that the trust is revocable—that is, you can revoke it at any time. If you did, the assets would once again be in your name. While assets are in the trust, any income they generate is taxed on your personal income tax return. The trust isn’t a separate tax-paying entity as long as you’re alive.
Basically, Personal Assets Are For Trusts; Business Assets Are For Business Entities
Business entities such as corporations, partnerships and LLCs are meant to be vehicles for commercial operations, to limit liability and protect assets…unless of course, you are adjudged liable in a legal proceeding that attaches your assets or distributions from your LLC or Corporation…they are not to act as personal piggy banks.
When personal assets (including personal signatures and guarantees on business obligations) are placed into a business entity, and personal signatures and guarantees are pledged for business obligations, YOU ARE AT RISK…the potential for the entity to be pierced by a creditor on some theory or another, such as alter ego, increases exponentially. The place to put personal assets is in a trust. There is a long and solid body of law that protects trust assets—when the trust is properly drafted and funded.
For more information on this subject, please read Asset Protection Fallacies on our website.
If You Can’t Explain It, It Will Never Work
Many asset protection plans become so complicated that not even the client or the client’s organizer can explain how assets are held or how those assets were transferred.
But such questions can be expected in depositions or a debtor’s examination, and a failure to fully and clearly explain what happened and why will make the court very suspicious and potentially give the court grounds to begin disregarding entities or setting aside transfers. Most judges start asking themselves, “What is really going on here?” If the structures and transfers are too complicated and not well explained, there is a much higher chance that the judge will find fraud on creditors.
Ask yourself if the Nominee that you used as a Trust Settlor or corporate officer and director, or the Organizer that you used for your Corp Sole or Business Trust, is going to commit perjury for you when they are sworn under penalty of perjury to tell the truth and reminded of the consequences of not doing so.
The structures have to be defended and someone…the Court is going to ask the questions and make the determination.
Indeed, the best asset protection plans are often simple plans, such as creating and funding an irrevocable trust for the benefit of their children.
For Offshore Enthusiasts…Your Money May Be Offshore But You Are Here
Recent cases have recognized the power of courts to require debtors to bring their money back to the U.S. through what are known as “repatriation orders”. If the debtor does not comply with a repatriation order, a court may issue a bench warrant for contempt of court and hold you in contempt (and in jail for many years) until the money does come back. The record so far? It is 14 years in jail served by former corporate lawyer H. Beatty Chadwick who refused to repatriate money from overseas to pay alimony to his ex-wife.
FATCA “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” adds a whole other dimension to the complexities and risk involved with going offshore.
NOTICE. Do not fall victim to the flurry out-of-state promoters selling so-called Wyoming Spendthrift Trusts which are nothing more than obsolete business trusts that do NOT provide asset protection, state income tax minimization, Medicaid Estate Recovery avoidance or a Wyoming-based Qualified trustee.
Wyoming law requires all Wyoming trusts to have a Qualified trustee and without one, you will NOT be in compliance with Wyoming Trust statute - you will NOT have a valid Wyoming Trust. See W.S. § 4-10-103. Definitions at section (XXXV) "Qualified trustee") http://law.justia.com/codes/wyoming/2011/title4/chapter10/section4-10-103/