South Dakota Trust Company, LLC (SDTC) and its founders Al King and Pierce McDowell welcome you to our Directed Trust website!

Many individuals use the terms "directed" and "delegated" trusts interchangeably, when they are actually very different.  South Dakota statutes allow individuals to establish a South Dakota directed trust with an appointed investment advisor/trustee/committee, which can in turn select an outside investment advisor and/or manager to "direct" the trust investment management.  The trust documents name separate trustees for administration and for trust investment and place limits on an administrative trustees' liability when such trust duties are split.  Consequently SDTC, as an administrative trustee, is not generally held liable for the actions of the investment trustees/committees, who are chosen by the grantor.  Any type of trust, including both revocable and irrevocable, can be established as a directed trust, but only a few states have adopted directed trust statutes, like South Dakota.

SDTC's directed trustee services combine the fiduciary expertise of SDTC along with South Dakota's unparalleled trust laws with the skills of the family's own investment advisors.  This combination of services provides exceptional management and administration of a family's trust and the comfort of maintaining one's trusted investment advisors as well as the ability to select"best of class" investment professionals for all asset classes, which the trustee may not possess.    For more information on SDTC, please visit the Why South Dakota Trust Company? and Management Biographies sections of this website

Please explore this website for more information on the many services SDTC provides utilizing the unique directed trust statutes of South Dakota in tandem with our modern approach to trust administration