South Dakota is rated the top privacy state in the U.S. for trusts – Automatic Total Seal in Perpetuity for all court matters involving trusts.
The issue of privacy of court documents and proceedings is important to many families as potential court cases may involve family disputes, wealth or other issues that the family does not want made available to the public. This is not only important with disputes, but also with court modifications/reformations of trusts and court blessed decants.
As a general rule, most all state court records and proceedings are available to the public. Although some states do have limited exceptions for sealing records, these generally do not apply to trusts. By statute, South Dakota uniquely seals court records for trust matters automatically in perpetuity, thus avoiding these issues and protecting the privacy of families.
