In HBO’s Succession, first-generation extreme wealth creator Logan Roy may have understood the advantages and importance of sophisticated planning tools—such as Dynasty Trusts, Privacy Trust Laws, and Asset Protection Trusts—to preserve wealth and family relationships, yet he fiercely resisted giving up control, whether during his lifetime or after. As we explored in our kickoff article, Protecting Families of Wealth from Themselves: Lessons from HBO’s Succession, ultra-high-net-worth families often face this same challenge: how to secure the benefits of advanced planning without surrendering authority over the family empire they built.

The Directed Trust, a truly revolutionary development in the trust industry, is the solution. It offers families several ways to preserve wealth and harmony while retaining meaningful control over trust administration and wealth transfer decisions.

Available only in a handful of states, including South Dakota, Directed Trusts continue to drastically change the trust world by unbundling asset management and trust administration functions, putting control back into the hands of settlors, beneficiaries, and their advisors. Through bifurcating liability, this model creates a legal framework that allows trustees and beneficiaries to work seamlessly with asset managers and independent trust companies the family chooses, rather than being forced into a one-size-fits-all institutional solution.

The Directed Trust Concept:

• Unbundles functions (asset management and trust services) that are traditionally bundled together by large, bank-based corporate trustees.
• Maximizes flexibility and control over the trust’s asset allocation, diversification, investment management, and distributions, making it ideal for settlors funding an irrevocable trust with a closely held company or specialized asset.
• Empowers the settlor to appoint an administrative trustee of their choosing and designate trusted individuals as both investment and distribution advisors, directing the trust company to act in accordance with their wishes within the trust’s parameters.

When combined with South Dakota’s progressive trust laws, Directed Trusts become a powerful tool for preserving wealth and control—helping ultra-high-net-worth families protect, grow, and direct their assets across generations without sacrificing flexibility. In the world of Succession, such a structure could have allowed Logan Roy to safeguard his empire while clearly defining who held decision-making authority, avoiding some of the chaos that unfolded.

For many families, the appeal lies not only in the control a Directed Trust provides, but also in the ability to partner with a truly independent trust company and one that is not tied to private equity funding, large banks, or international financial institutions. Bridgeford Trust Company operates within this new paradigm, free from the inherent conflicts and rigidity of institutionalized trustees. This independence, combined with South Dakota’s powerful trust laws, allows us to deliver Directed Trust solutions that align with each family’s unique goals and values, keeping control where it belongs. Learn more in our article Independent v. Institutionalized Trust Companies and explore Bridgeford’s commitment to this new paradigm.

If you have any questions about how a Directed Trust could fit into your planning, please reach out to us via our contact form or call us at (605) 224-9189.

In HBO’s Succession, legal threats came from every direction including business rivals, government investigators, and even within the Roy family itself. As we explored in our article, “Protecting Families of Wealth from Themselves: Lessons from HBO’s Succession,” the series offers a compelling lens into what can go wrong when the complexities of wealth, power, and family dynamics go unaddressed. It underscores the critical need for strategic trust planning that relies on powerful modern trust laws, especially among ultra-high-net-worth families.

Effective asset protection is essential for preserving wealth across generations, protecting family assets from external claims and legal challenges, as well as internal threats like rogue family members and divorcing spouses. Yet despite its clear value, asset protection is often mischaracterized as unethical and nefarious. When carefully designed and executed under the laws of progressive and highly regulated U.S. trust jurisdictions, however, it is a legitimate and vital strategy. For families of significant wealth, it is a critical tool to protect next and subsequent generations from themselves.

Domestic Asset Protection in South Dakota

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPTs)—available exclusively in a handful of top-tier trust jurisdictions, including South Dakota—are designed to legally shield assets from third-party liability (including spouses in a divorce proceeding) and lawsuits. At the same time, they allow settlors (the individuals establishing the trusts) to retain some control over trust assets and enjoy a discretionary benefit during their lifetime.

A DAPT can be fully discretionary, meaning the settlor may receive financial benefit from the trust (such as income and discretionary principal distributions) while safeguarding trust assets from creditor claims and lawsuits. When paired with South Dakota’s Directed Trust structure, the settlor can also maintain control over investment management. South Dakota has one of the oldest and most progressive self-settled domestic asset protection provisions in the U.S., and with its two-year “look back” fraudulent conveyance statute, South Dakota’s provision is among the shortest in the country.

DAPTs are also increasingly used in lieu of or in conjunction with prenuptial agreements in the pre-marital planning process. While prenups serve a specific purpose, many couples are hesitant to execute them due to personal or legal concerns and as such, many practitioners have turned to alternative ways of protecting assets obtained prior to marriage.

For families with extreme wealth, DAPTs are a powerful planning tool that could have avoided some of the intra-family drama and outside attacks depicted in Succession.

If you have any questions or are looking for further information about South Dakota’s asset protection laws and how they can be used to preserve wealth across generations, please reach out to us via our contact form or call us at (605) 224-9189.

As the trust industry continues to evolve, there is growing demand for more flexible, conflict-free solutions that reflect the needs of today’s advisors and the families they serve. At Bridgeford Trust Company, we’ve long embraced the idea that an unbundled alternative to the traditional bundled trust and asset management model is the future of our industry.

White label trust services—sometimes referred to as private label trust services—reflect this shift. Designed for family offices, RIAs, insurance professionals, and investment managers, this approach allows advisors to offer sophisticated trust planning options to their clients without taking on the burden of trust administration or compromising their brand identity.

Understanding the White Label Approach

Bridgeford Trust Company’s white label trust services provide the regulatory framework, infrastructure, and trust expertise, while the advisory firm remains the primary client relationship holder. This offering is particularly valuable for firms that do not have trust powers or want to expand their capabilities without building a trust company from the ground up.

Because “white label” means something different to everyone, we work across a continuum of options to meet firms where they are and deliver a highly customizable arrangement. This may include:

• A fully branded experience, where trust statements and client communications feature the advisor firm’s name.
• A co-branded model with Bridgeford Trust Company identified as the trust provider.
• A completely independent relationship with no brand integration at all.

These and many other collaboratively designed options can be adapted to meet the unique needs of the firm, while also providing marketing and sales support to effectively communicate trust solutions, training and education to confidently discuss the advantages of South Dakota’s modern trust laws, and back-office infrastructure that includes accounting and reporting support, with flexibility around asset custody.

To learn more about Bridgeford Trust Company’s white label trust services, or to explore a customized relationship, reach out to our team at (605) 224-9189 or via our contact page.

In our recent article, “Protecting Families of Wealth from Themselves: Lessons from HBO’s Succession,” we examined how poor planning and lack of governance can lead to destructive family dynamics and the erosion of wealth across generations. The Roy family’s fictional struggles illustrate the real-world importance of strategic trust planning, modern trust laws, and effective family governance—ultimately, protecting families of wealth from themselves.

One of the most understated but critical elements in preserving wealth and family harmony is privacy. Throughout Succession, the Roy family was wrought with conflict and power struggles, fueled by the siblings’ (next generation’s) full awareness of the extent of the family’s extreme wealth and expansive business empire. This “transparency” created intense competition over who was going to control, and ultimately take over, the family’s sprawling business operations, as well as lead the family after Logan Roy’s death. It is often persuasively argued that full access to information about family wealth and business operations, particularly for young adults, is detrimental to the growth and development of next and subsequent generations for a myriad of reasons, many of which were depicted in Succession.

South Dakota’s Privacy Laws

A solution to this issue is found in South Dakota’s privacy trust laws, considered the strongest and most comprehensive in the nation. Privacy has always been of paramount concern to wealthy families and is one of the primary reasons why billions of dollars have been and are being moved into South Dakota for trust administration from around the globe.

Quiet Trusts

Unlike most states, which require trustees to inform beneficiaries of their interest in a trust at age 18, South Dakota offers unmatched flexibility through its quiet trust statute. This statute allows the settlor, trust protector, and advisors (investment or distribution) to expand, restrict, eliminate, or modify the rights of the beneficiaries to discover information about a trust.

Simply restricting access to information about the full extent of family wealth can be a powerful method of protecting next and subsequent generations from themselves as they grow into and come to understand the responsibility of extreme wealth through proper education and communication.

South Dakota’s Total Seal

South Dakota’s privacy statute also provides for a total seal forbidding the release of trust information, including names of settlors, beneficiaries, and the contents of a trust, to the public during litigation. Most states do not have privacy statutes specific to trusts and, as such, privacy is not mandated or guaranteed by law as it is in South Dakota.

Of the states that do have privacy provisions, most only limit privacy for a certain duration (Delaware is three years); then the information is released to the public, and the privacy provisions are subject to the court’s discretion, which is routinely denied.

In contrast to the public unraveling of the Roy family, real-life families of wealth can preserve harmony and mitigate conflict through intentional privacy planning. South Dakota’s privacy trust laws are clearly superior to those of any other state in the nation and are universally considered by advisors and academics to be among the best and most comprehensive in the world.

If you have any questions or are looking for further information about South Dakota’s privacy provisions and how they can be incorporated into a wealth plan, please reach out to us via our contact form or call us at (605) 224-9189.

Bridgeford Trust Company is proud to sponsor the upcoming 38th Annual Spring Symposium, hosted by the Philadelphia Tri-State chapter of the Financial Planning Association. Taking place on May 14, 2025, at Penn State’s Great Valley Campus in Malvern, PA, this event brings together leading professionals from across the financial services industry for a day of insightful presentations and networking opportunities.

David Warren, Co-Founder and Chairman of Bridgeford Trust Company, will be presenting during the symposium. His session, “Modern Trust Laws: Delivering Direction and Control,” will explore how Directed Trusts, Trust Protectors, and South Dakota’s modern trust laws are transforming the trust industry in the United States. Attendees will learn how these progressive statutes, available only in top-tier trust jurisdictions like South Dakota, empower families and advisors by providing innovative trust solutions that enhance trust administration, investment decision-making, and asset protection strategies.

We look forward to connecting with attendees throughout the day. Be sure to stop by our exhibit table and attend David’s session to learn more about how Bridgeford’s independent and conflict-free approach offers families a personalized, non-institutionalized solution for trust planning that is Big Enough to Matter, Small Enough to Care.

For questions or to arrange a meeting, contact us at (605) 224-9189 or via our contact form. If you won’t be at the conference but will be in the area, we invite you to connect with Bridgeford Advisors’ Philadelphia office to schedule a meeting for another time!