If you are looking to benefit from all the best laws, you might consider living in Florida, shopping in Oregon, forming your corporation in Delaware, forming your LLCs in Alaska, and forming your trusts in Nevada. These are the reasons why:
1. The following states have no income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. In addition, New Hampshire and Tennessee limit state income tax to dividends and interest income only. By changing your residence to one of these states, you can avoid state income taxes.
2. The following states have no sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. By shopping online from stores in Oregon, you may be able to avoid state sales taxes. But beware, a resident of a state with a sales tax who purchases goods from a state with no sales tax might be required to pay a "use tax" to their home state which is just as bad as their state sales tax.
3. For over a hundred years, companies have been formed under Delaware law, even though they have no connection to Delaware. Why? Because Delaware corporate law is well settled and it is favorable for the protection of the corporation and its officers and directors. None of this would matter if it were not for the legal doctrine of internal affairs. The doctrine of internal affairs states that the internal affairs of a company are governed by the laws of the state where the company is filed, not by the laws of the state where the company is located.
4. The best state for creating an LLC (for better asset protection) is Alaska. See my page at AlaskaLLC.net for more information.
5. In my opinion, the best states for creating a trust are Nevada, Alaska, Delaware and South Dakota. These are the reasons that I like Nevada law for asset protection trusts: (1) Nevada law requires clear and convincing evidence to prove a fraudulent transfer, (2) Nevada law provides a short statute of limitations against fraudulent transfers, (3) Nevada law provides asset protection for a self settled trust, (4) Nevada law gives absolute discretion to a discretionary trustee whether or not to make distributions, (5) Nevada law provides that a contingent beneficial interest is not a property right, and (6) Nevada law protects a beneficiary's interest in the event the beneficiary is divorced.
To give a practical example, many of my wealthy clients want to leave an inheritance to their children in a manner that the children cannot jeopardize. A properly designed trust that is governed by Nevada law can protect assets even if a beneficiary later becomes sued, divorced or bankrupt. If the trust administration occurs in Nevada, the trust may also be exempt from state income taxes. If the trust is governed by the laws of another state, the results may not be as favorable.
As a final note, a well designed trust should be governed by the laws of the state where the administration occurs. This way, you can continue to forum shop as time goes on, changing the governing law to a more favorable state by simply changing the location of the trustee.