South Dakota Trust Company’s (SDTC) and South Dakota Planning Company’s (SDPC) founders and its employees have advised more than 25% of the Forbes 400 and are currently working with over 100 billionaires and over 300 centimillionaires.
Through working with these families, as well as with other wealthy families and their advisors across the country, SDTC/SDPC have seen many creative and cutting-edge estate planning and trust strategies.
South Dakota Planning Company LLC (SDPC), located in New York City and Westport, Connecticut, is a separate sister company to South Dakota Trust Company LLC (SDTC), and is responsible for sales, marketing and technical support, as well as publications, speeches, trust planning and consulting to support South Dakota Trust Company. Absolutely, no trust administration is done out of the New York or Westport offices.
It is often beneficial for wealthy families to learn how other similarly situated families are approaching their estate and trust planning so that they can make informed decisions regarding their own planning. As a result of our experience working with most of the top lawyers, accountants, insurance agents and investment managers across the country, we provide guidance on the planning strategies of similar wealthy families without, of course, divulging any private information. A decision can then be made after analyzing the plan with the client’s advisors from both a tax and non-tax point of view regarding whether or not the family wants to implement any of these strategies.
Many of these strategies involve the following goals:
- Establishing a Family Bank/Dynasty Trust: Why? How? When? Where?
- Unique business succession and closely-held business planning
- Creative charitable giving strategies with charitable trusts
- Charitable giving strategies with non-charitable trusts
- Movement of an existing trust to South Dakota to save state income taxes and garner other advantages
- Advanced and flexible planning for minimizing estate and generation skipping taxes
- The latest education planning strategies for children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren
- Important non-tax issues and strategies for passing family wealth intergenerationally
- “Value and incentive oriented” estate planning for families promoting social and fiscal responsibility
- The latest strategies for planning with residences and vacation homes
- The latest advanced and creative estate planning strategies for corporate executives, doctors and professional athletes
- Cutting-edge strategies for shifting growth from one’s estate
- Domestic asset protection planning
- Minimizing taxes on the sale of highly appreciated assets: Publicly-traded stock, closely-held stock, art, partnerships, LLC’s, etc.
- Estate planning for international families without any existing ties to the US
- Planning for foreign citizens with US citizen/green card children and/or grandchildren
- Estate planning for international families with US assets (i.e., securities, real estate, etc.)
- Creative insurance and premium tax planning
These strategies typically involve one or more of the following trusts:
- Directed Trust
- Delegated Trust
- Dynasty Trust
- Defective Dynasty Trusts (Grantor and Beneficiary)
- Incentive Trust
- HEET Trust
- Change of Situs Trust (Domestic and Foreign)
- Pour Over Revocable Living Trust
- Domestic Asset Protection Trust/Self-Settled Trust
- Private Placement Life Insurance Trust or LLCs
- Irrevocable Life Insurance Dynasty Trust
- Supercharged Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
- Foreign Grantor or Non-Grantor Trust
- NRA Dynasty Trust
- Pour-Over NRA Dynasty Trust
- Pre-Immigration Trust
- Charitable Remainder Trust/NIMCRUT
- South Dakota 2503(c) Trust
- South Dakota 2642(c) Trust
- Private Foundation
- Personal Residence Trust (Great Alternative to a QPRT)
- Charitable Remainder Trust
- Charitable Lead Trust (Kennedy Trust)
- Walton Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)
In addition to the trusts listed above, many of these strategies also involve family limited partnerships and LLCs. The assets funding these vehicles are typically financial assets, non-financial assets, and/or insurance. SDTC also administers most of the standard trusts utilized in estate planning.