--- title: "Wyoming vs New Mexico vs Delaware for an Anonymous Holding Company (2026) | LLC Attorney" description: "Wyoming, New Mexico, and Delaware all support anonymous LLCs — but the best choice for a holding company that sits above other LLCs depends on series LLC availability, cost per subsidiary, and charging order isolation." canonical: https://llcattorney.com/small-business-blog/wyoming-vs-new-mexico-vs-delaware-holding-company image: https://llcattorney.com/images/share-cover.png source_path: /small-business-blog/wyoming-vs-new-mexico-vs-delaware-holding-company --- Wyoming, New Mexico, and Delaware are the three states most commonly recommended for anonymous LLC formation, and we rank them for that general purpose in our [Best States for an Anonymous LLC comparison](/about/comparisons/best-states-anonymous-llc). A **holding company** — an entity that exists to own other LLCs, real estate entities, or investment interests rather than to operate a business directly — has a slightly different set of priorities than a single-purpose anonymous LLC. This page applies that same three-state comparison specifically to the holding-company use case: what happens when the entity you're forming needs to sit above several other entities, isolate liability between them, and stay privately owned while doing it. One thing a holding company does **not** get, under current federal law: an automatic Corporate Transparency Act exemption just for being a holding company. See [Does the CTA Apply to Holding Companies?](/small-business-blog/does-cta-apply-to-holding-companies) for how that exemption logic actually works, and our [CTA status tracker](/small-business-blog/is-the-cta-still-in-effect) for whether domestic entities currently have to file at all. ## What Changes When You're Comparing States for a Holding Company For a single anonymous LLC, the comparison mostly comes down to privacy, annual fees, and charging order strength — covered in detail in our [main state comparison](/about/comparisons/best-states-anonymous-llc). A holding company adds a few more variables: - **Cost per subsidiary.** A holding structure with multiple LLCs underneath it multiplies annual state fees across every entity — a $60/year state doesn't behave the same way at five subsidiaries as a $300/year state does. - **Series LLC availability.** A series LLC can, in some states, let a single filing house multiple internally-siloed "cells" instead of forming a separate LLC (and paying a separate annual fee) for each subsidiary. - **Charging order isolation between subsidiaries.** The whole point of a holding structure is usually to keep a lawsuit against one subsidiary from reaching the others. That isolation comes from each subsidiary being its own separate LLC (or series) — the state's charging order statute determines how well a creditor of the holding company's owner, specifically, is kept out of the underlying assets. - **Foreign qualification burden.** If the underlying LLCs (say, rental properties) are located in other states, each one likely has to register as a foreign entity in the state where the property sits regardless of where the holding company itself is formed — so the holding company's state of formation doesn't eliminate that cost, but it does affect how much friction there is at the top of the structure. ## Wyoming Wyoming remains the most commonly recommended state for a privacy holding company. Member and manager names are not required on the Articles of Organization, the annual report fee is based only on assets located in Wyoming (so an out-of-state holding company with no Wyoming-based assets pays close to the $60 minimum), and Wyoming has a statutory series LLC option — allowing multiple subsidiaries to be organized as series of a single Wyoming LLC rather than as fully separate entities, which can reduce formation and annual-fee overhead for a holding structure with several subsidiaries. Wyoming also has some of the strongest charging order language in the country, including extending charging order protection (as the exclusive creditor remedy) to single-member LLCs — a point some states leave ambiguous. **Best for:** holding structures with several subsidiaries where minimizing per-entity annual cost and maximizing charging order protection both matter. ## New Mexico New Mexico's appeal for a holding company is the same as for a single anonymous LLC: no annual report and no recurring state fee after the initial ~$50 formation cost, and no requirement to list member or manager information at any point. For a holding company with several subsidiaries, that means the state-fee side of the cost equation stays flat regardless of how many LLCs sit underneath it, which some structures find attractive purely on cost grounds. New Mexico does not have a statutory series LLC framework in the way Wyoming and Delaware do, and it has a thinner body of case law testing its charging order and asset-protection statutes for holding-company-style disputes than Wyoming or Delaware do. **Best for:** cost-sensitive holding structures, particularly where the underlying subsidiaries are individually low-value or low-risk and extensive legal precedent isn't a priority. ## Delaware Delaware is the preferred jurisdiction when a holding company is expected to bring in outside investors, hold interests that will eventually be sold or financed, or otherwise needs the depth of business-law precedent that comes with the Delaware Court of Chancery. Delaware also has a statutory series LLC option. Member names aren't required on the Certificate of Formation, and LLCs don't file annual reports — only a flat $300/year franchise tax per LLC. That flat fee is the tradeoff: at $300/year per entity, a holding structure with several separately-formed Delaware subsidiaries gets expensive quickly compared to Wyoming or New Mexico, which is part of why Delaware holding structures more often lean on its series LLC option to consolidate subsidiaries under fewer filings. **Best for:** holding companies that anticipate outside investment, a future sale, or complex financing, where Delaware's legal infrastructure is worth the higher per-entity cost. ## Bottom Line For most privacy-focused holding structures with several subsidiaries, Wyoming's combination of low per-entity cost, a statutory series LLC option, and strong charging order protection makes it the default recommendation. New Mexico is worth considering if the structure is small and cost is the dominant concern. Delaware earns its higher cost when the holding company is built to attract investors or support a future transaction rather than purely to hold assets privately. See our full [Best States for an Anonymous LLC comparison](/about/comparisons/best-states-anonymous-llc) for how these three states (plus Nevada and Montana) stack up for a single-entity anonymous LLC, and our [Holding Company guide](/small-business-blog/holding-company) for how to structure the parent-subsidiary relationship itself. State fees and statutory details change — verify current requirements with each state's Secretary of State before forming. Building a Multi-Entity Holding Structure?We form and structure holding companies in Wyoming, New Mexico, and Delaware, with attorney oversight to keep the parent-subsidiary relationship legally sound.[Start My Business](https://app.llcattorney.com/formation?intake_type=formation) [Back to blog](/small-business-blog)