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W. Va. Code § 31I-1-2

This is the official text of W. Va. Code § 31I-1-2, part of West Virginia’s Va. Code — part of the compiled statutory law of West Virginia, published by the state as "Va. Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§31I-1-2. Purposes; findings.

Official statutory text

(a) The purpose of the article is to establish requirements for licensing private trust companies, to regulate persons who provide fiduciary services to family members of no more than three families and their related interests as a private trust company, and to establish the degree of regulatory oversight required of the State Auditor over such companies. The public interest served by this article is to ensure that fiduciary activities performed by a private trust company are restricted to family members and their related interests and as otherwise provided in this article.

(b) The Legislature finds that:

(1) A private trust company is not a financial institution, and licensure of such a company is not required.

(2) A private trust company may elect to be a licensed private trust company under this article if the company desires to be subject to the regulatory oversight of the State Auditor, as provided in this article, notwithstanding that the company restricts its services to family members.

(3) With respect to a licensed private trust company, the State Auditor is responsible for regulating, supervising, and examining the company as provided under this article.

(4) With respect to a private trust company that does not elect to be licensed, the State Auditor’s role is limited to ensuring that fiduciary services provided by the company are restricted to family members and authorized related interests and not to the general public. The State Auditor is not responsible for examining a private trust company regarding the safety or soundness of its operations.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.