Comparison
Wyoming vs. Delaware vs. New Mexico for LLC privacy.
All three states will keep your name off the public formation filing — that part is a tie. The real differences are cost and creditor protection: New Mexico is the cheapest to maintain, Delaware has the strongest courts for complex business disputes, and Wyoming pairs low annual cost with the most explicit charging-order protection for single-member LLCs. Each has legitimate use cases. For real estate investors protecting property, we default to Wyoming, and this page explains why without pretending the other two are wrong.
How do the three states compare at a glance?
Figures below are the state fees as published by each Secretary of State: Delaware’s certificate of formation is $90 according to the Delaware Division of Corporations fee schedule, with a $300 annual franchise tax; New Mexico charges $50 with no annual report; Wyoming’s online filing runs about $102, with a $60-minimum annual report license tax. State fees change, so verify before you file.
| Wyoming | Delaware | New Mexico | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formation fee | ~$102 (online) | $90 | $50 |
| Annual state cost | $60 minimum (annual report) | $300 franchise tax | None — no annual report |
| Member disclosure | None in public filings | None on certificate of formation | None in public filings |
| Charging-order protection | Sole remedy by statute, explicitly including single-member LLCs | Exclusive remedy by statute; deep case law, geared to multi-member entities | Charging order available; thinner statute and case law |
| Court system | Newer specialized business court; modest case volume | Court of Chancery — the deepest business jurisprudence in the country | General courts; no specialized business forum |
When does Delaware make sense?
Delaware’s reputation is earned, but it was earned by corporations and funds, not landlords. The Court of Chancery resolves business disputes with speed and predictability no other state matches, and generations of case law mean sophisticated parties can price legal risk precisely. If your entity will take outside investors, negotiate complex operating agreements, or hold assets that institutional counterparties will scrutinize, Delaware is a defensible — often correct — choice, and the $300 annual franchise tax is a rounding error at that scale. For a single investor holding rental property, those advantages mostly go unused while the bill arrives every June.
When does New Mexico make sense?
New Mexico is the minimalist’s answer: $50 once, no annual report, no recurring state fee, and no member names in the public record. For an entity that holds no significant assets — a privacy shell that serves as a manager or a mailbox layer — that is genuinely hard to beat, and we will say so even though we do not sell it. The trade-off is what you are not buying: New Mexico’s charging-order protection is less developed than Wyoming’s, and the absence of an annual filing means less, not more, ongoing evidence that the entity is maintained. When the LLC exists to protect real property rather than merely to hold a name, the cheapest option is rarely the strongest one.
Why do we default to Wyoming?
Three reasons, none of them mystical. First, the charging-order statute: Wyoming makes the charging order a judgment creditor’s exclusive remedy and says so explicitly for single-member LLCs, which is precisely the kind of entity most real estate investors form — the mechanics are covered in Charging Orders: Wyoming’s Quiet Asset Protection. Second, the annual economics: a $60-minimum annual report is one-fifth of Delaware’s franchise tax, and that report discloses remarkably little — we dissected it in The $60 Wyoming Annual Report. Third, track record: Wyoming created the LLC in 1977 and has spent decades legislating deliberately in favor of privacy and asset protection, which gives its statute a stability we trust more than any single year’s fee schedule.
A default is not a dogma. If your situation points to Delaware or New Mexico, a competent advisor should say so, and ours will. What we will not do is pretend any state makes you invisible — the limits are the same everywhere, and we keep a standing account of them in The Honest Limits of LLC Privacy.
This article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with nordtitle.com, NewTech Partners LLC, or their staff. Laws vary by jurisdiction, consult a licensed attorney or tax professional for advice specific to your situation.
Common questions
Choosing a privacy state: FAQ
- Which state is cheapest for an anonymous LLC?
- New Mexico. Its filing fee is $50 and it requires no annual report and no recurring Secretary of State fee. Wyoming costs roughly $102 to file online and a minimum of $60 per year. Delaware files for $90 but charges a $300 annual franchise tax, making it the most expensive of the three to maintain.
- Do any of these states publish LLC member names?
- None of the three requires member or manager names on the public formation filing. The differences show up over time: annual filings, registered agent records, and how much each state's other requirements expose. All three still require a registered agent whose name and address are public.
- Is Delaware worth it for a small real estate investor?
- Usually not. Delaware's advantages — the Court of Chancery and a deep body of business case law — matter most for companies with outside investors, complex governance, or the prospect of institutional transactions. For holding rental property, you pay a $300 annual franchise tax for benefits you are unlikely to use.
- Why not just use New Mexico if it is cheaper than Wyoming?
- For a pure holding entity with no assets, New Mexico is a reasonable budget choice. Wyoming earns its roughly $60-per-year premium with a charging-order statute that explicitly protects single-member LLCs and a longer asset-protection track record. When the entity exists to protect real property, we think that difference is worth more than the fee gap.
- Can my LLC be in one of these states if my property is elsewhere?
- Yes — that is the normal arrangement. But an LLC that directly owns and operates property in another state generally must register there as a foreign LLC, which is a public filing in that state. This is why we typically pair a Wyoming holding LLC with a property-state LLC rather than having the Wyoming entity hold the deed directly.
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