Planning Strategies

The South Dakota Trust Company (SDTC) and South Dakota Planning Company (SDPC) founders and its employees have advised more than 25% of the Forbes 400 and are currently working with over 50 billionaires and over 250 centamillionaires. In 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.

It may be helpful for wealthy families to know what other similarly situated families are doing regarding their estate and trust planning so that they can make informed decisions about their own planning. Our experience with most of the top lawyers, accountants, insurance agents, and investment mangers across the country allows us to identify trends among similarly wealth 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 about whether the family wants to implement any of these strategies.

Many of these strategies involve the following goals:

Establishment of a Family Bank/Dynasty Trust: Why? How? When? Where?

Unique business succession and closely-held business planning

Creative charitable giving strategies

Movement of an existing trust to South Dakota to save state income taxes

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

The latest strategies for planning with residences and vacation homes

The latest advanced and creative estate planning strategies for corporate executives and doctors

Cutting-edge strategies for shifting growth from one's estate

Domestic asset protection planning

Minimizing taxes on the sale of highly appreciated assets e.g., publicly traded stock, closely held stock, art, partnerships, LLCs, etc.

Estate planning for international families

Planning for foreign citizens with U.S. citizen/green card children and/or grandchildren

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. In addition to the trusts listed above, SDTC also administers most of the standard trusts used in estate planning.