Wyoming

Wyoming Estate Planning Considerations

Common Law State

Wyoming is a Common Law State, which means the rules governing the ownership, division, and inheritance of income and property acquired by a husband or wife during their marriage holds that subject to various qualifications, each spouse owns and has complete control over his or her income and property.

Last Will and Testament

Will Creation

The minimum age of a person competent to make a will is 18. The number of witnesses necessary to execute a will is two.

Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA)

The custodial arrangement terminates when:

  • The minor child reaches age 21 for custodial transfers made by irrevocable lifetime gift, will, trust, or exercise of a power of appointment.
  • The minor child reaches the age of majority (generally speaking, age 18) for other custodial transfers.
  • The minor child dies.

Dying without a Last Will, the Wyoming Laws of Intestacy

The estate goes to the surviving spouse, as follows:

  • If there are no children or descendants of any child, —100% of the estate
  • If there are children or descendants of any children surviving—50% of the estate

If there is no surviving spouse, or if a portion of the estate does not go to the spouse:

  • 100% to surviving children and to descendants of deceased children—those collectively taking the share their parents would have taken if living (“collectively” is not defined in the statute)

If there is no surviving spouse, child, or descendant:

  • 100% to parents, siblings, and the descendants of deceased siblings shared equally, with descendants of a deceased sibling taking the sibling’s share collectively

If none of the above:

  • Intestacy laws outline further distribution steps to the level of grandparents and their descendants. See W.S. §2‐4‐101(c)(iii).
  • If no legally described recipient can be found, estate assets go to the state of Wyoming.

Digital Assets

 Wyoming follows the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act to ensure that testators can retain control of their digital property and plan for its ultimate disposition.

Taxes

  • Alabama imposes an estate tax equal to the maximum credit allowed under IRC Sec. 2011 for paid state estate and inheritance taxes. However, the current federal tax code does not permit a credit for paid state estate or inheritance taxes. Therefore, Alabama has no credit estate tax in effect at this time.

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