Two Bar Admissions, One Broader Shield

This dual-state capability is more than a résumé detail; it translates directly into better planning choices for you. Colorado statutes offer strong revocable trusts and solid probate shortcuts, yet they stop short of the cutting-edge liability barriers found just north of the border. Because Diedre can practice in both jurisdictions, she drafts, forms, and maintains Wyoming entities under Wyoming law while still anchoring the rest of your plan under Colorado law. You meet with one legal team, pay one flat fee, and receive one cohesive strategy that spans two states.
Wyoming’s court system recognizes these Colorado-based attorneys just as fully as any Cheyenne lawyer. That recognition empowers Braverman Law Group to form new entities, file annual reports, and, when needed, defend those structures in Wyoming courts. As a client, you gain a deeper moat around your wealth without leaving your favorite Front Range coffee shop.

Why Wyoming Sits at the Top for Asset Protection

Asset-protection rankings consistently place Wyoming in the nation’s top tier for several reasons. First, the state imposes no personal or corporate income tax, allowing business profits and trust earnings to accumulate free of state tax drag. Second, Wyoming statutes give LLC owners robust privacy; member names stay off public filings, shielding you from data-hungry litigants. Third, creditors face a “charging-order” remedy as their sole avenue of collection, which means they cannot force a liquidation or seize company assets. Finally, the annual maintenance requirements remain minimal: a modest filing fee and a registered agent keep your entity compliant.
Those four features—tax freedom, privacy, creditor deterrence, and low overhead—blend perfectly with a Colorado estate plan. You still claim Colorado residency and enjoy local probate shortcuts, yet your business interests and long-term investments sit under Wyoming’s stricter creditor rules.

Wyoming Close Limited Liability Companies: A Family-Focused Fortress

A Wyoming CLLC refines the traditional LLC to fit tightly held families. The statute caps members at thirty-five, bans public trading of ownership interests, and limits member withdrawal rights unless all members consent. Those restrictions close loopholes creditors might exploit and discourage disgruntled family members from selling outside the clan.
Braverman Law Group tailors each Close LLC to your goals. For some families, the entity holds a vacation rental in Summit County; for others, it manages a brokerage portfolio or a private lending venture. Because the company exists under Wyoming law, every membership interest falls under Wyoming’s charging-order protection—even if the property itself sits in Denver or Boulder.
Interested readers can dive deeper into CLLCs by requesting Braverman Law’s complimentary whitepaper Planning with the Wyoming Close LLC. The report explains formation steps, tax treatment, and practical management tips in plain English.

Asset-Protection Trusts: Adding an Extra Wall

A domestic asset-protection trust (sometimes called a self-settled spendthrift trust) lets you transfer assets to an irrevocable trust while naming yourself as one of the permissible beneficiaries. Under Wyoming’s statute, creditors face a four-year window to challenge contributions; afterward, the trust assets sit beyond their reach. You still receive discretionary distributions for health, education, maintenance, or support at the trustee’s discretion, yet the assets no longer appear on your personal balance sheet for lawsuit purposes.
Because Diedre practices in Wyoming, she drafts these trusts to comply precisely with the state’s requirements—independent trustee, written spendthrift clause, and explicit Wyoming governing law—then coordinate the trust agreement with your Colorado revocable trust, powers of attorney, and health-care directives. As a result, probate avoidance, incapacity planning, and asset protection merge into one smooth framework.

Integrating Wyoming Entities Into Your Colorado Estate Plan

Choosing a Wyoming CLLC or asset-protection trust does not uproot your Colorado foundation; it reinforces it. Real-world coordination happens in three layers:

1. Ownership alignment – Your Colorado revocable living trust holds the membership units of the Wyoming CLLC or receives discretionary benefits from the Wyoming asset-protection trust. The alignment keeps Colorado probate courts out of entity governance while maintaining Wyoming creditor shields.
2. Tax reporting clarity – Braverman Law works with your CPA to ensure federal tax returns reflect any election (partnership, disregarded entity, or S-corporation) and to confirm Colorado remains your tax home. Wyoming’s lack of income tax never jeopardizes your Colorado filing obligations.
3. Succession continuity – Successor-trustee provisions in your Colorado documents dovetail with Wyoming statutory agents and successor managers in the CLLC. Your heirs step into pre-established roles without courtroom drama or emergency motions.
   By viewing your affairs through a two-state lens, the firm delivers a sturdier plan than either jurisdiction could offer alone.

The Braverman Law Process: Clear Steps From Idea to Implementation

Every asset-protection engagement moves through four predictable stages, each with its own purpose and ending point.

• Discovery Call – Fifteen minutes confirm fit and outline goals, giving you immediate clarity on whether a Wyoming component makes sense.
• Design Meeting – You review proposed structures, choose trustees and managers, and approve funding strategies. Plain-language diagrams replace thick binders of legalese.
• Signing & Funding – The firm prepares Wyoming filings, operating agreements, and trust deeds simultaneously with Colorado wills, revocable trusts, and deeds. Bank and brokerage accounts move into the structure under attorney guidance.
• Ongoing Maintenance – Annual check-ins, Wyoming filings, and Colorado document reviews keep everything current as laws and life change.
  Each phase ends with an action summary so you remain in control and never wonder about next steps.

Common Questions From Colorado Families

Will moving assets to Wyoming trigger Colorado tax or reporting obligations?
No additional Colorado tax arises merely from forming a Wyoming entity. You continue filing Colorado returns as usual; the entity appears on Schedule E or a K-1, just like an in-state LLC.
Can a Wyoming asset-protection trust protect my primary residence in Denver?
Yes, provided the deed transfers to the trust and you observe the four-year seasoning period. You keep the right to live there through a carefully drafted occupancy agreement.
Does a Close LLC need a Wyoming-based bank account?
Not necessarily. Many clients keep operating accounts with Colorado institutions. The operating agreement simply states that banking location does not affect governing law.

Take the Next Step Toward a Two-State Safety Net

Colorado courts administer probate efficiently, yet they cannot match Wyoming’s privacy and creditor deterrence. When you add a Wyoming entity to your Colorado estate plan, you combine home-state familiarity with frontier-state strength. Diedre Wachbrit Braverman stands ready to craft that hybrid shield without outsourcing or split billing.
Request your complimentary copy of Shielding Family Wealth With Wyoming Close LLCs to learn more about how these entities function. Then schedule a strategy session to discuss whether a Wyoming Close LLC, a Wyoming asset-protection trust, or both belong in your estate plan. Call (303) 800-1588, or use the secure contact form on our site. Protect today, sleep better tonight, and leave a stronger legacy tomorrow.

They say that in the past Robin Williams had battled depression and substance abuse and that he had recently received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, which often brings treatment-resistant depression with it. As someone with bipolar disorder who has experienced serious and treatment-resistant depression, I can relate. When the doctors can’t help and everything hurts, a person reaches a point where it’s hard to believe that this horrible painful state can ever improve.

It’s hard, as someone who wasn’t in Mr. Williams’ inner circle, to imagine him depressed. As a fan, I always saw him the way his director wanted his character portrayed or, when he was doing stand-up, as his “on” self. But I also saw the kindness of spirit his actions evidenced.

Did you know that on September 11, 2001, he gave blood instead of staying glued to his TV like the rest of us? Within three days, he was at ground zero, heartening the police and firefighters there who were doing the gruesome and heart-rending work of finding the bodies of the victims. Mr. Williams was involved – seriously involved, with his time, not just his money – in something like 30 charities.

So I don’t write this blog article, examining Robin Williams’ Estate, in a laughing mood. I’m not writing to poke fun. I’m writing because if a wealthy, presumably well-advised, celebrity can make these obvious mistakes in his estate planning, then so can you, or your parents, or your kids.

I am sure that good things will continue to come from his time on this planet with all of us. Maybe one of those good things will be better estate planning for Gen-X’ers and Williams’ other fans of all ages. Already I’ve seen people treating depression differently, more like the illness that it is and less like some kind of character flaw or weakness.

Here are the lessons I’ve pulled from what has come out about Robin Williams’ Estate in the weeks after his death:

1. Lack of Privacy

How is it that copies of Robin Williams’ two trust documents for his three children are all over the internet right now? It’s because the trust documents were incomplete.

They both named the same two co-trustees but provided no instructions in the event that one of those co-trustees was unable or unwilling to continue to act in that role.

In fact, one of those co-trustees died and the trusts were silent about who was to be trustee in that case. (Williams had funded the two trusts during his lifetime, probably for tax planning reasons, and they were irrevocable, meaning that Williams could not name new trustees himself.) Once a co-trustee died, the other co-trustee had no choice but to go to court and seek the court’s order naming a new trustee or co-trustee.

Once the matter is taken to court, the trusts become a matter of public record and are available to any conman, tabloid reporter, or inheritance-seeker who wants a copy.Williams’ loss of privacy could have been avoided if he had:

(1) named backup trustees and specified what was to happen if one of the co-trustees became unable or unwilling to act; and/or

(2) named a trust advisor who had the power to name trustees in the absence of a trustee able and willing to act.

So far, it appears that Williams learned his lesson as none of his other estate planning documents has leaked. In fact, it looks like he had a fully funded revocable living trust plan. If he had had a will-based plan, the will would probably have been filed by the family by now and, as it would be a matter of public record, the tabloids would have found it. Good job the second time around, Robin.

2. Generic Distribution Ages

Although I’m relying on the public trusts for this information, there is no reason to think he created any later trusts any differently. He directed that the trusts be distributed in thirds at ages 21, 25 and 30. That is a very generic choice of ages. It’s on hundreds of thousands of trusts for hundreds of thousands of very unique and individual children. How many of them are really mature enough to handle a third of everything they are ever going to inherit from their parents at age 21?

How would you have handled that sum of money when you were 21? What would you have done with it? Would you have saved it for retirement? Can you think of anyone you know who would have used all that money to buy drugs and maybe have harmed themselves irreparably?

If you think you would have spent it on your education, then don’t worry, you would not have been harmed by a later distribution age or scheme. That’s because most trusts include provisions that allow distributions to be made before and between those distribution ages for “maintenance, education, support & health.” Generally that phrase has been interpreted to mean that the beneficiary can receive money for reasonable living expenses, education and medical expenses.

At Braverman Law Group, we’re more thoughtful about choosing ages that really work for our clients’ unique family arrangements based upon their children’s maturity levels and knowledge and interest in finance, the availability of friend or family mentors for their children, and other factors.

We also tend to use those ages in a unique and very different way. Rather than forcing a distribution of a huge portion of a child’s inheritance, we allow the child to continue to benefit from the asset protection available only to money in trust while gaining more control over the trust (for example, by being a co-trustee).

Remember, with the ability to distribute for maintenance, education, support and health, the child lacks for nothing essential. So, rather than distributing one third or one half of the trust at a particular age, we keep the money in trust where it is protected from creditors, failed business plans, divorces, bankruptcies or other financial problems and disasters, while giving the child gradually more control over that money as she gets older.

Eventually, the child becomes the sole trustee, has total control over the money, but it is still protected from financial disaster by the trust. (More than a few clients have asked if they can make a trust like that for themselves. Unfortunately we have to tell them it’s not nearly as easy to do it for yourself as it is to do it for someone else.)

We have no way of knowing whether Williams changed this provision to something more suited to his particular children and the financial challenges each one of them could be facing at distribution time, aged 21, 25 or 30. Let’s hope he got better advice and did change those provisions.

Oh, Robin, why didn’t you let me do your estate plan? I would have been delighted to! And I used to live so close to L.A.! But not to your Napa Valley residence… so maybe I wasn’t the most convenient attorney… we could have done the planning by Skype!

Related Posts: Inherited IRAs: Sweet or a Trap?

Right now, if you inherit an IRA or other tax-advantaged retirement account, you are allowed to stretch out the withdrawals, and therefore the income tax, over the course of your own life expectancy.

Estate planning attorneys have found a way to wrap asset protection around that inherited IRA by putting it into a special tax-advantaged trust.

Congress proposed to end this nice tax strategy by requiring that all inherited IRAs must be withdrawn completely (and all income taxes paid) within 5 years but abandoned that proposal. So, inherited IRAs can offer income tax deferral over decades if handled properly.

Ms. Greene’s article points out the pitfalls of leaving IRAs to beneficiaries without strategic legal planning.

Naming a Living Trust as Beneficiary

Some people name their living trust as the beneficiary of the IRA, perhaps hoping to gain the asset protection advantages of a protective trust. But a typical living trust has no life expectancy. It also doesn’t have asset protection unless than was built into it. Without a life expectancy, a typical living trust cannot qualify for withdrawals over decades. The tax opportunity is lost.

Mistitling the Inherited IRA

Titling problems: When you inherit an IRA, you should retitle the account so it reads like this: “William Smith, Deceased (date of death) IRA F/B/O (for benefit of) James Smith, Beneficiary.” But Mr. Anderson is working with a client who received forms from the custodian of the account that didn’t spell out that he had inherited the account. The second set of forms the client received still needed some edits to avoid possibly disqualifying the account, Mr. Anderson says.

Missing the Estate Tax Deduction

The final mistake Ms. Greene warns readers to avoid is failing to take a tax deduction against the IRA income for estate taxes paid. The estate tax is deductible against the IRA income even if the tax was paid out of other estate assets.

Mistreating Your Children

I want to add another warning to readers of this blog: don’t let IRA planning end up treating your children unfairly. The child inheriting the IRA is going to have to pay income taxes against it, yes, but the child inheriting non-IRA assets is probably the one who has to pay estate taxes on all of the assets, including the IRA.

A Happy Ending

There are creative and effective ways to ensure fairness without trying to predict how much the income tax on the IRA will be (you’d need to know the inheriting child’s marginal income tax rate as well as when they were going to withdraw the income and how much growth the IRA would see before they withdraw) and how much the estate tax is going to be (you’ll have to predict what Congress is going to do about the exemption and predict the exact size of your estate).

As an example, use an IRA trust to name all of your children the beneficiary of so that the IRA tax deduction is shared equally, all children get a chance to postpone income taxes and all of the IRA assets are protected from divorce, lawsuits or creditors.

Related Posts: Robin Williams’ Estate Plan Has Problems That Can’t Be Fixed