Laird Norton Opens South Dakota Office, Expands Trusts Footprint

Editorial Staff

20 July 2023

Laird Norton Wealth Management has opened a new office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota dedicated to trust services.

The firm now has six locations, adding to its operations in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and the recently-opened Philadelphia office.

“With many states implementing or exploring changes to estate, gift and capital gains tax laws, South Dakota offers attractive tax policies and other strategies that may be favorable to families of multigenerational wealth,” Kristen Bauer, LNWM’s chief executive officer, said in a statement yesterday.

Trusts based in South Dakota may provide additional protections against a range of tax situations, including income, capital gains, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes, the firm said. They can provide additional layers of privacy as well as protection from creditors and in some legal proceedings. Additionally, it is generally possible to move existing trusts domiciled in other states to South Dakota, it added.

LNWM, which is already a chartered trust company in Washington, received a charter to operate the Laird Norton Trust Company of South Dakota in January 2023 and received a Trust Services Office designation in May 2023, which allows its experts in Seattle to support these trusts.

This publication regularly tracks trusts and other structures used in the North American wealth management. View articles here, here and here, for example.