Privacy in Trust & Estate Planning

It’s really interesting that, in this day and age, we have access to all kinds of information. You can look up almost anything about anybody and find some level of detail. Almost everyone has some sort of internet footprint, whether it’s just their phone number and address—it can all be found online.

One of the fascinating aspects of today’s world is the rise of celebrity culture and how many different types of celebrities there are now. In the past, it was mostly movie stars and athletes, but now we have all kinds of celebrities thanks to social media. And what’s really intriguing is that so many details about these celebrities are available, not just about athletes and movie stars, but all types of celebrities—who they’re dating, who they’re married to, and even juicy details about their lives, including their net worth.

I always find this super fascinating and super interesting. You’ll see these young entrepreneurs worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars—or at least on their way to that—and you can see this information in places like the Fortune 500 list of the richest people, which comes out every year, or on celebrity websites dedicated to personal details about celebrities. You know, things like who they’re married to, who they’re dating, and, of course, their net worth.

I think these websites are completely ridiculous. I don’t know how they calculate the net worth of a celebrity, but if a celebrity’s net worth is accurate—and this is a call-out to all celebrities—they should check to see if they think it’s accurate and if the internet really has them pegged correctly when it comes to their net worth.

Because no one, particularly people of affluence, should have their net worth in their individual name. There should be structures, entities, business entities, and trust planning that remove assets from their name. Even though they may control the wealth, even though they may benefit from the wealth or other family members may benefit from the wealth, there’s no reason for anyone in the public to ever know what someone’s net worth is, even in this day and age.

I’ve used this example quite a few times recently: Kobe Bryant’s estate. I’m a big basketball fan and love the game, but there have been some issues with Kobe Bryant’s estate, particularly around his youngest daughter, who, I believe, was not named as a beneficiary in the trust he set up. Now, they’re trying to modify the trust through the court system to add her as a beneficiary. Even then, public details are getting out, and his net worth—approximately $600 million—has become public knowledge. That information should have never gotten out.

I enjoy reading about these things just like anyone else, but the reality is that this information shouldn’t have been public. Even if updates to the trust were needed, there are certain jurisdictions, like South Dakota—I love talking about South Dakota—even though I live in Texas and most of my clients are not in Texas, but spread out everywhere. Most states don’t offer the level of privacy that South Dakota has.

So, if you’re serious about privacy, about protecting the identity of your beneficiaries, about protecting the identity of your wealth and the types of assets you own, you need to consider South Dakota. You need to have a conversation with your attorney about privacy. Privacy is important to me, and if your attorney just glosses over that, then they probably don’t understand the privacy aspect of trust planning. Unfortunately, a lot of attorneys aren’t helping their clients take advantage of the best trust laws in the country, or even the world.

What’s interesting is that you see corporate attorneys helping their clients set up entities and run their businesses out of Delaware, Wyoming, or Nevada. This is common practice nowadays. The vast majority of publicly traded companies are set up in Delaware, or if not Delaware, then Nevada. But most entities at that level are in Delaware, Nevada, or Wyoming.

The point is, individuals should take that same philosophy and approach to their individual lives and family wealth. Make sure they’re using the best laws available for them, so no one should ever know what your family’s net worth is.