Many international families are establishing South Dakota Private Family Trust Companies (PFTC) owned by the families or by a South Dakota non-charitable purpose trust. The top-rated South Dakota PFTC laws, when combined with the favorable South Dakota trust, asset protection and tax laws, are a very powerful combination.
South Dakota Trust Company LLC (SDTC) is the leader in the U.S. serving as corporate and trust agent for PFTCs, providing for the set-up, operation, administration, compliance, nexus and back office services to allow the PFTC to operate with ease.
Additionally, there is flexibility to charter a PFTC in South Dakota while maintaining a full service family office in another state or country (i.e. the resident country of the family office). The family office can provide investment advisory, allocation and management as well as other services to the PFTC via a service contract. The most popular reasons for international families to establish a PFTC are privacy (versus secrecy), continuity, convenience, family governance and cost efficiency.
Step 1:
Form a South Dakota LLC and apply to South Dakota Division of Banking to be a PFTC and receive a charter.
• Need office in South Dakota, one South Dakota resident Board Member, and a South Dakota Corporate Agent
• SDTC® sits on the board and serves the role as corporate agent, i.e. providing office space to PFTC, collecting mail and answering the phone.
• SDTC Services LLC provides compliance and operations support as well.
Step 2:
South Dakota PFTC leases services from family office in another state or country.
Step 3:
Trust administration can be done in South Dakota to benefit from South Dakota’s favorable trust laws by hiring SDTC® as trustee agent for PFTC, or administration can be done in another state (interstate administration allowed) by family office and its advisors. The latter will not garner the benefits of South Dakota trust and tax laws.
Unregulated Wyoming/Nevada Private Family Trust Company
SDTC has related companies in Wyoming (SDTC Services of Wyoming), and Nevada (SDTC Services of Nevada) to provide for the set-up, operation, administration, compliance, nexus, and back office services for unregulated PFTCs established in Wyoming and Nevada.