South Dakota · Public trust company
Dorsey & Whitney Trust Company LLC
Services offered
- Trust and estate administration
- Wealth management
- Co-trustee and trustee-agent support for counsel
- Trustee with a non-fiduciary family trust advisor under South Dakota law
Who it is for
- Clients of Dorsey & Whitney LLP
- Non-Dorsey lawyers who want a South Dakota corporate trustee that will not displace counsel
Sourced facts
- First issuance date on the South Dakota public-trust-company list is 23 November 1999.
- A second office is disclosed in Seattle. The firm states it transacts trust-company business only in South Dakota, where it is chartered, and in Washington, where it has complied with relevant requirements.
Notes
Dorsey & Whitney Trust Company LLC is a South Dakota-chartered public trust company (credential TC.012-2, first issued 23 November 1999) with its principal office at 401 East 8th Street, Suite 319, Sioux Falls. The firm states it is wholly owned by Dorsey & Whitney LLP and was formed to give the law firm’s trusts-and-estates clients — and others — a corporate trustee.
It is not a pure directed-trust shop. The useful South Dakota feature it does publish is the ability to serve as trustee while the family’s lawyer acts as a non-fiduciary family trust advisor, or to sit as co-trustee or back-office agent. That is a counsel-retention model, not an RIA-retention model. Read the appointment against that distinction.
What to verify next
This is a law-firm captive, not a product-free directed specialist. Confirm whether the engagement is trustee, co-trustee, or agent, and whether Dorsey’s wealth-management sleeve will sit beside the trusteeship. If the family already has an RIA, ask in writing that the trust company will not solicit investment management. Also confirm that a Washington office does not move situs or tax residence out of South Dakota.