Wisconsin agency trusts: instruments, trustees, and proof

Research current through 2026-07-15. This report distinguishes a private trust dealing with an agency, a statutory public fund, and a bond trust created by public resolutions. It also explains what a Wisconsin family or civil action can disclose and what documents prove a trustee's authority.

Bottom line. The DMV's “Registration Fee Trust” is part of Wisconsin's transportation-revenue bond trust. Its current corporate trustee is The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. The Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund is a real statutory, nonlapsible trust fund, but its statute does not appoint a named private-style trustee. DCF administers the child-support program, a private contractor operates the payment unit, and SWIB has statutory investment authority. Those are different legal roles.

1. A private trust dealing with WisDOT

WisDOT's “Vehicles involving trusts” procedure concerns a customer's private trust. It does not make WisDOT the trustee.

• The principal trustee or trustees sign the title transaction.
• Form MV2790, Trustee Statement for Certificate of Title, identifies the trust, creator, creation date, tax ID, principal trustee, and co-trustees.
• The signers certify that the trust exists, they were appointed, and they have authority to buy, sell, register, and, where applicable, lien the vehicle.
• WisDOT does not accept a lawyer's trust documents in place of MV2790 for this transaction. That makes MV2790 an agency certification, not the instrument that created the trust.

Who is trustee? The person or entity appointed under the private instrument and identified on MV2790. WisDOT remains the title and registration agency.

Proof: the executed trust agreement and amendments establish the office; the current certification of trust and appointment/resignation chain show who holds it now; the title, deed, or account record proves whether an asset was actually transferred to the trustee.

Sources: WisDOT procedure · MV2790 · WisDOT's current trust-verification guidance · Wis. Stat. §701.1013

2. Registration Fee Trust: the transportation bond trust

The phrase printed on DMV forms is not merely an unexplained remittance label. It is the check-payee name used in a larger public-finance structure: the State of Wisconsin Transportation Facilities and Highway Projects Revenue Obligations Program.

Who is the trustee?

The current financing documents identify The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A. as trustee, registrar, and paying agent for the transportation revenue bonds. The 2026 offering materials confirm the same trustee.

WisDOT is the trustee's collection agent. The official reports describe:

1. mailed checks payable to “Registration Fee Trust” going through a bank lockbox;
2. DMV service centers collecting program income for the trustee and depositing it into an account in the trustee's name; and
3. receipts moving into the Redemption Fund, held outside the State Treasury by the trustee and applied under the bond-resolution waterfall.

U.S. Bank's lockbox or payment-agent work does not make U.S. Bank the bond trustee. That service role must not be conflated with BNY Mellon's fiduciary office.

What is the “contract”?

The principal trust-creating contract is not a conventional private trust agreement. It is 1986 State of Wisconsin Building Commission Resolution 9, “State of Wisconsin Transportation Facilities and Highway Projects Revenue Obligations General Resolution,” adopted June 26, 1986, as amended and supplemented by Commission resolutions adopted March 19, 1998, August 9, 2000, and October 15, 2003.

The General Resolution and the applicable series resolutions form the bond contract among the State, trustee, and bondholders. They create funds held by the trustee, pledge registration and related fees as Program Income, establish the payment waterfall, define defaults and remedies, and govern replacement of the trustee. The authority comes from Wis. Stat. ch. 18, subch. II, and §84.59; vehicle-registration fees include those authorized by §341.25.

Located record set and remaining gaps

The most targeted public-records request should ask DOA Capital Finance and WisDOT for electronic copies of the complete General Resolution and all amendments; the current collection/agency agreement; every trustee resignation, removal, appointment, acceptance, merger, or succession record; and the program-specific lockbox agreement or schedule. It should request records, not ask the agencies to answer legal questions.

Sources: 2026 official statement · 2025 official statement · 2021 official statement · 2016 annual report, Part V · 2025 audit · official archive · DOA Treasury contracts · Wis. Stat. ch. 18 · Wis. Stat. §84.59 · Wis. Stat. §341.25

3. Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund

What creates it?

Wis. Stat. §25.68 creates a “separate nonlapsible trust fund” consisting of money DCF receives under §49.854; child or family support, maintenance, health, and birth-expense money received under §§767.57 and 767.75; other family-action money received by DCF or its designee; and specified intercepted money.

This statutory trust-fund status and the State's governmental-accounting classification can coexist. The State ACFR reports the operation as a custodial fund because it holds and redistributes money belonging to others; that accounting category does not repeal the legislature's express “trust fund” designation.

Who is the trustee?

Section 25.68 does not appoint an individual or corporate trustee. Wisconsin instead divides the work:

Calling Conduent “the trustee” would overstate the located evidence. Official materials identify it as the State Disbursement Unit operator/contractor. DCF is the supervising agency. SWIB has investment authority. None is expressly named by §25.68 as the common-law trustee of this fund.

Governing and operational documents

The governing stack is:

• Wis. Stat. §25.68, creating and defining the fund;
• Wis. Stat. §25.17, placing the fund within SWIB's investment authority;
• 42 U.S.C. §654b, requiring a centralized State Disbursement Unit;
• the applicable support judgment, income-withholding notice, and ch. 767 receipt/distribution rules;
• DCF's Title IV-D state plan, KIDS allocation rules, and state–county contract exhibits; and
• the DCF–Conduent operating contract and amendments.

The actual DCF–Conduent SCTF/SDU execution copy has not yet been located in the public web materials. DOA's separately published Conduent Retail Lockbox Services contract is an enterprise treasury contract and should not be represented as the child-support operating contract without a program-specific schedule or cross-reference. DCF's public contracting contact is the appropriate records custodian for the SCTF contract, procurement record, amendments, statements of work, and current term.

Sources: Wis. Stat. §25.68 · certified current ch. 25 PDF · Wis. Stat. §25.17 · DCF program roles · current state–county contract exhibit · federal State Disbursement Unit law · federal SDU contact directory identifying Conduent staff · DCF contracting information · 2024 State ACFR

4. SWIB: who the trustees are and how they get the office

SWIB is an independent state investment agency created under §15.76 and governed by a nine-member Board of Trustees. It sets investment policy, asset allocation, benchmarks, and risk parameters and appoints the executive director/chief investment officer. Staff execute the program under the Board's oversight.

As of the research date, the official roster is:

How they become trustees

• The Secretary of Administration or the Secretary's designee serves by office.
• Five public members serve staggered six-year terms. Four must have at least ten years of investment experience, and statutory conflicts disqualify certain securities, mortgage, and real-estate dealers or brokers.
• One local-government finance representative serves a six-year term and must meet experience and participating-government requirements.
• The five public seats and the local-government seat are gubernatorial nominations subject to Wisconsin Senate advice and consent under the general board-appointment rule in §15.07.
• The Teachers Retirement Board appoints one educator WRS participant, and the Wisconsin Retirement Board appoints one non-educator WRS participant, each for a six-year term.
• The Governor designates the chair and vice-chair under §15.07.

Their authority comes from public office and statute, not appointment by a private settlor. Section 25.15 imposes the investment purpose and prudent-person, diversification, and sole-interest standards. Section 25.156(5) expressly says the Board members are trustees of the State Investment Fund. SWIB also acts as statutory fiduciary and investment manager for WRS and the other funds listed in §25.17. It is more precise to describe the Board's authority fund by fund than to say every Board member is the separately appointed common-law trustee of every account SWIB invests.

Sources: current Board and biographies · Wis. Stat. §15.76 · Wis. Stat. §15.07 · Wis. Stat. §25.15 · Wis. Stat. §25.156 · Wis. Stat. §25.17 · SWIB public-records description

5. Other Wisconsin public trusts and fiduciaries

The same role-by-role analysis applies to other state systems. A board that administers benefits, a board that invests assets, a program contractor, and a legal trustee are not automatically the same actor.

Sources: WRS funding policy · BCPL governing authorities · DFI 529 statutes and rules · Wisconsin Volkswagen trust documents

6. Would a family or civil action expose the trustee?

Usually, yes if the trust is relevant—but not automatically to the general public, and not necessarily the entire trust instrument. Three questions must stay separate:

1. Can the case identify the trustee and obtain records?
2. Is a party's beneficial interest, income, or control relevant to support or property division?
3. Can the court reach the trust's principal or bind the trustee?

Family action

Wis. Stat. §767.127 requires each party to disclose all assets held separately, jointly, in full, or in part. The list expressly reaches vested and nonvested future interests and any other financial interest or source. The court can require tax returns. The disclosure itself is confidential and restricted to adjudication, appeal, modification, or enforcement of the family action.

In Stevenson v. Stevenson, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that a party violated the disclosure duty by omitting interests in discretionary trusts. The case used document requests, a motion to compel, tax returns, and testimony from the trustee. It also held that trust income taxable to the parent could be used in the child-support calculation even if not distributed.

That means “the trustee decides distributions” is not a reason to omit the trust. It also does not mean a family court automatically owns or can distribute the trust corpus. Trowbridge v. Trowbridge treated a future trust interest as part of the beneficiary's estate but distinguished an order directed to the party from an order purporting to transfer assets held by out-of-state trustees who were not parties.

Ordinary civil action

Wisconsin civil discovery reaches nonprivileged matter relevant to a claim or defense and proportional to the case. A party can use interrogatories, requests for production, depositions, and a subpoena under §805.07 to require a trustee, bank, accountant, agency, or other records custodian to produce documents and testify. The recipient may object, assert privilege, or seek a protective order; relevance and burden still matter.

For the Registration Fee Trust, litigation is unnecessary merely to identify the trustee because official financing records already do that. A public-records request is the proportionate first route to the missing resolution, collection agreement, and succession papers. For WI SCTF, a family case can obtain case-specific payment histories and relevant DCF/vendor testimony, but it is unlikely to uncover a hidden private-style trustee because §25.68 does not name one.

Sources: Wis. Stat. §767.127 · Stevenson v. Stevenson · Trowbridge v. Trowbridge · Wis. Stat. §804.01 · Wis. Stat. §804.09 · Wis. Stat. §805.07

7. Comparison with the reviewed private family trust

The reviewed family-trust file is structurally different from both agency systems. It includes an executed private instrument, a certificate of trust, settlor-resignation material, tax-identification material, banking correspondence, and property-transfer documents. Those are the right categories of evidence, but each proves a different fact.

The local file appears materially stronger on identity evidence than an unexecuted template because it contains both the signed instrument and a certificate naming the acting office. The key litigation questions are still the succession chain, whether each disputed asset was actually funded into the trust, who is settlor and beneficiary, what powers anyone retained, what income was taxable or distributed, and when transfers occurred.

Those facts determine reach. For example, §701.0505 makes property of a revocable trust reachable by a settlor's creditors during life and allows a judgment creditor, in specified circumstances, to reach payments an irrevocable trust permits to or for its settlor. A spendthrift label does not answer those fact-specific questions.

Sources: Wis. Stat. §701.1013 · Wis. Stat. §701.0505

8. Practical proof and request checklist

For a court-ready record, collect documents in this order:

1. the complete executed instrument or public resolution and all amendments;
2. every acceptance, resignation, removal, death record, merger record, and successor appointment forming the chain to the current trustee;
3. a current certification of trust or official statement identifying the current office and powers;
4. asset-level funding records—deeds, titles, assignments, account-opening records, and statements;
5. tax and administration records showing who reported income and who received distributions; and
6. certified public copies or records-custodian testimony/affidavits sufficient to authenticate records if their genuineness is disputed.

A focused records request for the two state systems can use this description:

Please provide existing electronic records consisting of: (1) the complete executed 1986 Transportation Facilities and Highway Projects Revenue Obligations General Resolution and each amendment; (2) the current agreement under which WisDOT collects Program Income as agent of the trustee; (3) all instruments documenting appointment, resignation, merger, replacement, or succession of the current trustee; (4) the current program-specific lockbox agreement or schedule; and (5) DCF's current contract, amendments, statement of work, and procurement award for operation of the Wisconsin Support Collections Trust Fund/State Disbursement Unit. Electronic production is preferred. This request seeks records, not answers to questions.

This report is research, not legal advice. The effect of a private trust in a specific family or civil action depends on the instrument, funding, retained powers, tax reporting, transfers, pleadings, jurisdiction over the trustee, and the relief requested.