Nevada asset protection: the strongest trust in the country, and a charging order to match

Nevada has the strongest asset protection trust in America. A divorcing spouse tried to break one, and in 2017 the Nevada Supreme Court said it held.

That is Nevada’s real product. Its LLC charging order statute is as strong as any state’s, and its self-settled trust is stronger than any other state’s. The holes are the ones every state has, because they open where Nevada law stops being the law that applies: inside a federal bankruptcy court, and inside your home state’s courtroom.

The asset protection trust, and the spouse who could not reach it

Nevada lets you create an irrevocable trust, name yourself a beneficiary, and still shield the assets from your own future creditors. The general tool is on the trusts and LLCs page. Nevada’s version is the one the asset protection industry treats as the benchmark.

Nevada is the only state whose supreme court has upheld a self-settled trust against a divorcing spouse.

Two features put it at the top. The seasoning period is two years, tied with South Dakota for the shortest in the country, so a transfer becomes protected against later creditors after two years, with a six-month discovery rule for creditors who already existed. And Nevada recognizes no exception creditors. Most trust states carve out a divorcing spouse, a child support claim, or a pre-existing tort victim who can pierce the trust even after the clock runs. Nevada eliminated those carve-outs, and in Klabacka v. Nelson the state supreme court confirmed it by holding a Nevada trust beyond a spouse’s reach in a divorce.

Set that against Wyoming, the other strong western state. Both season in two years. But Wyoming keeps exception creditors for child support and credit-application reliance, and Wyoming conditions its protection on the settlor swearing an affidavit and carrying $1,000,000 of liability insurance. Nevada requires no solvency affidavit and no insurance. The stronger trust is also the easier one to fund.

The honest limits are the ones every domestic trust shares. The protection reaches future creditors, not the one already circling. Federal bankruptcy law reaches back ten years for self-settled transfers made to defeat creditors. And a court in your non-Nevada home state may apply its own law to a judgment against its own resident, which is the single biggest reason a Nevada trust works best for people and assets actually connected to Nevada. The trust needs a Nevada trustee and real Nevada administration for the same reason.

The charging order is exclusive, and courts have said so

For a personal creditor coming after your Nevada LLC stake, the charging order protection page has the full mechanics. Nevada’s statute is close to the strongest available.

Nevada’s charging order is the creditor’s only remedy, and it covers the single-member LLC by name.

NRS 86.401 makes the charging order “the exclusive remedy” for a judgment creditor “whether the limited-liability company has one member or more than one member,” and it bars foreclosure on the interest and any “order for directions, accounts and inquiries,” the language that shuts down receivers and creditor accountings. The creditor is left as a mere assignee of distributions. This is the same architecture as Wyoming’s statute, and it is the near-opposite of California’s, which hands a court the charging order plus a receiver plus foreclosure. One advantage over Wyoming: the Nevada Supreme Court has actually construed 86.401, so Nevada offers a strong statute with at least some case law behind it, where Wyoming’s is largely untested.

The single-member LLC, and the bankruptcy line

Nevada extends the charging order to the one-owner LLC in the text, so there is no Olmstead-style gap to fall through. The single-member LLC page treats this as the exception to the usual weakness.

A state charging order statute, however strong, does not bind a federal bankruptcy trustee.

The limit is the same one Wyoming faces. NRS 86.401 is state law, and a bankruptcy trustee operates on federal law. Nevada sits in the Ninth Circuit rather than the Tenth, so the leading single-member bankruptcy case, In re Albright, is persuasive here rather than controlling, but its reasoning travels: with no other members to protect, a court can treat a sole member’s entire interest, control included, as property of the bankruptcy estate. Treat a single-member Nevada LLC as exposed in bankruptcy.

Piercing the veil, decided by the judge

The attack from the LLC’s own creditor back to the owner runs on Nevada’s alter ego statute. The doctrine is on the piercing the veil page.

In Nevada, whether the veil gets pierced is a question of law for the judge, not a question for the jury.

NRS 86.371 shields members and managers from the company’s debts, and NRS 86.376 codifies the alter ego test: a person is the alter ego of an LLC only if the LLC is dominated by that person, there is such unity of interest that the two are inseparable, and honoring the separation would sanction fraud or injustice. The seam worth knowing is procedural. NRS 86.376(3) makes alter ego a question of law, so a judge decides it rather than a jury, which is a real advantage for a defendant facing a sympathetic plaintiff. What the statute does not do is protect you from your own conduct. In Gardner v. Henderson Water Park, managers kept their shield against the company’s liabilities but were still exposed for their own alleged negligence, and Ene v. Graham is a reminder that even weak alter ego evidence can buy a single-member owner years of litigation. Clean separation of money is the defense, in Nevada as everywhere.

Beyond the LLC: a large homestead with strings

Nevada’s exemption statutes are generous on paper, and two of them carry conditions worth stating plainly.

Nevada protects $605,000 of home equity, but only after you record a declaration, and a couple cannot double it.

The homestead exemption is $605,000 in equity under NRS 115.010, far above Wyoming’s $100,000. Two catches. It is not automatic: you must record a Declaration of Homestead with the county recorder before it protects you, and in bankruptcy the declaration has to be on file before you file. And spouses cannot stack it, so a married couple gets $605,000, not double. Nevada is a community property state, so there is no tenancy by the entireties to protect a jointly held home or LLC interest the way Wyoming’s does; the married-couple analysis runs through community property rules instead.

Other exemptions are solid. A vehicle is protected to $15,000 in equity, tools of a trade to $10,000, and a wildcard covers $10,000 of any personal property. Retirement accounts are exempt up to $1,000,000 for IRAs and without limit for Nevada public employees. Life insurance is broadly exempt. One Nevada-specific rule is worth flagging: if the judgment against you arose from a medical bill, your primary home is exempt regardless of equity under NRS 21.095. Nevada is a federal-opt-out state, so its residents use these state exemptions, not the federal bankruptcy list.

The courts, and the jury Nevada keeps

Nevada runs specialized business dockets, mainly in the Eighth Judicial District in Las Vegas and the Second in Reno, part of its pitch as a formation state.

Nevada’s business courts can seat a jury, which the chancery states cannot.

The Las Vegas commercial bench is busy and experienced, which gives Nevada more real-world LLC case law than a young statute state like Wyoming. But these dockets sit inside ordinary district courts, so unlike Wyoming’s bench-only Chancery Court or Delaware’s, a Nevada business dispute can still reach a jury, and juries add the unpredictability that gets priced into every settlement. The courts page explains why that tradeoff matters when you are choosing where a dispute among owners will be decided.

The bottom line

Nevada’s self-settled asset protection trust is the strongest in the country: two-year seasoning, no exception creditors, and a supreme court decision upholding it against a divorcing spouse.

The trust requires no solvency affidavit and no insurance, where Wyoming’s requires both, so the stronger trust is also the easier to fund.

Nevada’s charging order statute is top-tier, covers single-member LLCs by name, bars foreclosure and receivers, and has actually been construed by the state’s high court.

The statute stops at the federal courthouse, and a single-member Nevada LLC should be treated as exposed in bankruptcy.

Home equity is protected to $605,000, but only with a recorded declaration and without doubling for couples, and Nevada has no tenancy by the entireties.

The trust and the LLC both work best for people and assets genuinely connected to Nevada, because a distant home-state court may apply its own law.

What this page does not cover

This page is about how creditors reach you in Nevada. What Nevada’s law lets your operating agreement do, including the fiduciary duties it turns off by default, is on the governance page. Privacy, series LLCs, the real property transfer tax, and the annual cost of the entity are on the structure and cost page. Fees, forms, and deadlines are on the filing page.

Last verified July 2026.