Teton Agents Inc.

TETON AGENTS
INC

Serving as your Professional
Registered Agent in Wyoming for
LLCs and other Business Entities

Headquartered in
Jackson Hole, Wyoming

800-955-0554
Contact Us

Cecil Smith, JD
Chief Operating Officer

Carol Gonnella, JD
President

The Grand Tetons
Oil Painting by Cecil Smith

In 2002 estate planning attorneys Cecil Smith and Carol Gonnella were invited by a national educational organization to teach a course about LLCs in Kansas City to other estate planning attorneys. A few weeks before their presentation the state of Wyoming enhanced their LLC statutes to make them among the best in the United States. Wyoming already had a great reputation for being a good place to form an LLC as Wyoming was the first state to enact statutes permitting the formation of LLCs. This was in 1977. It took 25 years for the rest of the states to catch up with Wyoming. Then, in 2002 Wyoming pulled ahead again.

After teaching the course with Carol in Kansas City, Cecil realized that his Tennessee clients would like the Wyoming LLC for asset protection and estate planning purposes, and he anticipated that very few of his Tennessee clients would have a family member or close friend who lived in Wyoming that could serve as their registered agent ... a requirement under Wyoming law. Cecil saw the need for a professional registered agent to accommodate his Tennessee clients who formed Wyoming LLCs. In order to be a registered agent, Wyoming law requires a registered agent to be an individual who resides in Wyoming, or a corporation with a physical office in Wyoming. Cecil asked Carol (who is part owner of the building in Jackson, Wyoming that houses her law offices) if she would be willing to let her building serve as the headquarters for a corporation to serve as professional registered agent for Cecil's clients. Carol agreed. And Cecil and Carol became owners of Teton Agents, Inc. To their surprise estate planning and asset protection lawyers all over the country had an interest in Wyoming LLCs and their clients needed the services of a professional registered agent.

Cecil and Carol began teaching courses to CPAs, financial planners and other estate planning lawyers about the Wyoming LLC. They formed the TETON INSTITUTE, LLC, which is an educational organization that conducts a 3-day workshop every Fall in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and they have the TETON INSTITUTE ROAD SHOW, that takes the course on the road. Hundreds of estate planning attorneys have graduated from the TETON INSTITUTE.

Teton Agents, Inc. supports estate planning and asset protection attorneys from all over the country in the formation and maintenance of LLCs for their clients.

*Benefits of the Wyoming Close* LLC**
	Many attorneys, CPAs and financial advisors recommend Family Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies to their clients for a variety of estate planning reasons.
	We like LLCs over FLPs because they are so much easier to form and administer. Our clients also like the simplicity of the LLC. Using LLC terminology, the owners of an LLC are known as members.
	Asset Protection: It is difficult for a member's creditor to reach the assets of the LLC. Under Wyoming law, the creditor of a member can only reach distributions made to the member, but the creditor cannot force the LLC to make such distributions.
	Valuation Adjustments: Although we never form an LLC solely to avoid estate taxes, a by-product of forming an LLC is that the value of the membership interest is usually less than the value of the assets owned by the LLC.
Why Wyoming?
	Wyoming is tax friendly to individuals and business entities. Wyoming has no inheritance tax or gift tax. They have no state income tax, inventory tax, use tax, or intangibles tax. Nor do they have a Franchise and Excise tax, meaning that the members of a Wyoming Close LLC will only be subject to federal income taxation on the income realized by the company each year, unless a member (owner) lives in a state where there is a state income tax, in which case the income realized by that member may be taxed by his or her state of domicile.
	In 1977 Wyoming was the first state to enact legislation codifying the Limited Liability Company. They became the first and only state to enact legislation codifying the Close LLC, which allows greater flexibility and valuation adjustments of assets for estate planning purposes.
	The Wyoming Close LLC is a known quantity, whereas other planning strategies that provide similar benefits, such as off-shore asset protection trusts, possess certain inherent levels of risk due to the fact that the off-shore entity, for example, would be subject to the laws of a foreign jurisdiction.
	The Wyoming Close LLC may be coupled with many other tried-and-tested estate planning strategies to enhance the long term benefits to a family.
	Residents of any state can establish a Wyoming Close LLC. You merely have to file the appropriate documents and appoint a Registered Agent to represent your LLC in the state of Wyoming. The Registered Agent may be any individual who resides in Wyoming, or it may be a corporation with an office in Wyoming.
	We recommend TETON AGENTS, INC. TETON AGENTS has offices in Jackson, Wyoming. It serves as a professional Registered Agent for Wyoming LLCs and other business entities.