The Murdoch family feud playing out in an obscure Nevada court is highlighting the state’s popularity as a center of family trusts and a friendly home to the world’s biggest fortunes, CNBC reports.
Nevada is now the top state in the country when it comes to so-called asset-protection trusts like the one at the center of the Murdoch dispute, according to legal industry rankings. The state’s unique combination of no income taxes, iron-clad secrecy protections and strong defenses against creditors makes it attractive for those looking to establish big family trusts to protect assets.
Nevada doesn’t report the total amount of assets in its trusts and the state’s fast-growing industry of trust and estate attorneys, trust companies and facilitators keeps a deliberately low profile. Yet experts estimate the state likely has hundreds of billions of dollars in trust assets locked away in nondescript office buildings or trust companies, offering little to no visibility to the outside world.
“Nevada is No. 1 and has been for at least four years,” says Steven Oshins, a Nevada attorney who publishes the most widely cited ranking of states based on their appeal to asset-protection trusts.
South Dakota is a “close second,” and then “there is a big drop-off for the next batch with Tennessee, Delaware and others,” Oshins adds.
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