Trust Structures
Three Entities, One Integrated System.
We don't sell individual trust products. We design a single coordinated architecture for legacy planning, built to withstand court scrutiny and any unexpected circumstances life throws your way.
The Foundation
How Does Your Trust Work?
A Qualified Spendthrift Trust — also referred to as a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT) — is a statutory trust, meaning it's a type of trust explicitly created and authorized by state law. While the term “asset protection” is commonly used in the industry, the primary purpose of a QST is legacy planning: ensuring that what you've built transfers to the right people, on the right terms, and holds up through whatever life brings. The QST is the language used in the Wyoming statute and reflects that broader purpose.
A QST acts as a container for assets including real estate, investments, and businesses. When you move assets into a QST, you can maintain managerial control over those assets and still benefit from them. The trust itself holds legal title to those assets. That distinction is what provides the structure.
Because the trust is treated as a distinct entity separate from yourself, its assets are treated as separate from your personal finances, in the same way that your creditor cannot pursue your neighbor's property to satisfy your obligations.
The Architecture
How the Structure Fits Together
Most trust structures force a tradeoff: give up control, or give up protection. This structure eliminates that tradeoff. You manage investment decisions and contributions indirectly. Distributions require approval from an independent committee — but that's the point. Because you can't unilaterally move money out, creditors can't force you to either.
Entity 1
Qualified Spendthrift Trust
The QST holds legal title to assets while you remain a beneficiary. Assets inside the trust are shielded from personal creditors and judgments because the trust, not you, owns them.
Entity 2
Private Trust Company
The PTC serves as the trustee for the QST. It is a Wyoming LLC and managed by you. This preserves, indirectly, your day-to-day operational control over trust assets, including investment decisions, distribution requests, and administration, without undermining the creditor protection.
Entity 3
Non-Charitable Specific Purpose Trust
The NCSPT holds the membership interests of the Private Trust Company. This prevents the PTC, and by extension the QST, from being unwound through claims against you because you do not own the PTC or the NCSPT.
Scope of Protection
What the Trust Protects and What It Does Not
These limitations exist by design. This is a legitimate planning structure, not a mechanism for evading obligations that are rightfully owed.
Protected
- ✓ Personal residence
- ✓ Rental properties and real estate investments
- ✓ Investment and brokerage accounts
- ✓ Intellectual property, patents, and trademarks
- ✓ Bank accounts
- ✓ Holding companies and subsidiaries
- ✓ Cryptocurrency and digital assets
- ✓ LLCs and corporations
- ✓ Property, plant, and equipment
Not Protected
- ✕ Property required for court-ordered child support
- ✕ Property listed on financial statements used to obtain credit
- ✕ Fraudulent transfers under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, if challenged within the statute of limitations
- ✕ Transfers made with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor, if challenged in bankruptcy within the statute of limitations
A fraudulent transfer is one made with the intent to defraud a creditor you already know about — for example, moving assets into a trust the day after a lawsuit is filed. Routine planning transfers made before any claim exists are a different matter entirely, and this is something we evaluate as part of your consultation.
Jurisdiction
Why Wyoming, and Why It Matters Where the Trust Is Formed
One of the most common misconceptions in estate planning is that a trust must be formed in the state where you live. That is not the case. Jurisdiction is a strategic choice, and people across the United States and internationally establish their trusts in Wyoming precisely because of the legal environment the state has created.
Self-settled trusts permitted
Wyoming was among the earliest states to allow QSTs, where you are also a beneficiary of the trust you create. Most states still do not permit this. Wyoming's statutory framework for self-settled trusts remains one of the strongest in the country.
Nation's shortest fraudulent transfer window
After assets are transferred into a Wyoming QST, the statute of limitations for a fraudulent transfer claim can be as short as 120 days. In other states, this window extends to two years or more, which makes a meaningful difference when timing is a factor.
Dedicated chancery court
Wyoming has an independent tribunal specifically for trust and business matters, staffed by judges experienced in trust law who apply the statutory framework consistently. Proceedings before this court are automatically sealed, so if a trust is ever challenged, the details do not become public record.
No state income tax
Wyoming imposes no state income tax and no state estate tax on trust assets. For trusts that generate income or hold appreciated assets, this preserves more of the wealth you have built.
Domestic, not offshore
Unlike offshore structures in the Cook Islands or Nevis, a Wyoming QST operates entirely within the U.S. legal system. It is recognized under domestic law and protected by the full faith and credit clause. U.S. judges have held individuals in contempt for claiming they could not repatriate assets from foreign trustees, including jail time. A Wyoming trust avoids those risks entirely.
No residency requirement
You do not need to live in Wyoming to establish or benefit from a Wyoming trust. The structure requires a qualified Wyoming trustee, which the Private Trust Company satisfies.
Who This Is For
People Who Benefit Most From This Structure
High-net-worth families
Individuals or couples with $2 million or more in assets outside their primary residence and retirement accounts, particularly those whose wealth is concentrated in businesses, real estate, or investment portfolios.
Business owners and entrepreneurs
Owners of closely held or family businesses with $500 thousand or more in assets outside of retirement accounts. The structure is designed for operators who face real liability exposure and want to ensure that a single lawsuit or dispute does not destroy what they have spent years building.
Professionals in high-risk fields
Physicians, attorneys, engineers, and other professionals whose earning power and accumulated wealth make them targets for litigation beyond what insurance alone can cover.
Individuals approaching these thresholds
Anyone building toward significant wealth through a business exit, professional income, or investment growth. The right time to plan is before you become a target, not after a claim has been filed and the options have narrowed.
Next Step
The Right Time to Build Protection Is Before You Need It.
Most people reach out after a death, a divorce, or a business dispute has already started. By then, the structure that would have kept everyone whole can no longer be put in place. The best time to do this is before life gets complicated.
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