The seven Wyoming bankers who run a booth each year at a trust administrators conference in Miami get some curious looks, Pamela G. Snell says.
That is because the seven are from different banks and usually compete with each other, Ms. Snell said.
But every January they collaborate instead at the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning at the University of Miami School of Law to promote their state's favorable new trust laws. The conference, which draws 4,000 administrators, is the industry's largest gathering.
"We're just trying to get the word out to come to Wyoming," said Ms. Snell, a vice president at Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas' $50 billion-asset BancWest Corp. "We can fight over the business after that."
The seven bankers make up the trust committee of the Wyoming Bankers Association. Their banks also advertise jointly in national trade magazine for a trust administrators, and the committee posts a brochure on the Wyoming Bankers Association Web site. But each bank markets its services separately to trust administrators.
Wyoming is one of a handful of states that have eliminated state inheritance and estate taxes for trust beneficiaries for a long time, in some cases indefinitely. With a Wyoming "dynasty trust," beneficiaries can escape such taxes for as long as 1,000 years, and the state has no income tax. (Federal income, estate, and inheritance taxes still apply.)
Robert Leibrich is also on the Wyoming trust committee. He is a vice president at the Sheridan trust office of First Interstate Bank, a unit of the $4.2 billion-asset First Interstate BancSystem Inc. in Billings, Mont.
The committee's years of working together on the legislation made it seem "like a partnership in marketing and development," Mr. Leibrich said. "We're still working on legislation to improve the laws, to make Wyoming even more of a destination point for wealth."
The Wyoming laws authorizing dynasty trusts were enacted in 2003. None of the seven banks have actually opened one, but Ms. Snell, who works in Cheyenne, said the committee thought it would take at least three years for trust administrators in other states to warm to the product.
Neither the administrators nor the beneficiaries need live in Wyoming, but they must open and maintain the trust at a Wyoming institution.
Al King 3d, a co-chief executive of South Dakota Trust Co. of Sioux Falls, said that the Wyoming bankers' joint marketing is unique, and that some banks in other states might want to follow suit.
"It's a great idea, but the verdict is still out on whether it gives them an advantage," said Mr. King, who works in New York. Though Wyoming has some of the most favorable trust laws in the country, he said, its banks must compete with those in states with even more attractive laws.
South Dakota, Alaska, and Delaware offer the most benefits for beneficiaries, including protection from creditors and lawsuit claims after five years, Mr. King said.
Michael E. Bohl, another member of the trust committee, said Wyoming bankers are trying to get the state Legislature to pass such protection. Mr. Bohl is a senior vice president at the $75 million-asset Wyoming Bank and Trust in Cheyenne.
