Land trusts can be created for several different purposes. One common type of land trust is a conservation trust. Such a trust may be created by a group of individuals who are interested in preserving land in their local community. Regional land trusts also exist which preserve much larger tracts of land across the U.S. This type of non-profit trust usually doesn't have the money to actually buy up land to place in the trust. They generally rely on land being donated by owners. Sometimes, landowners will retain all ownership rights over a parcel of land but sign over development rights to the land trust. Then, no matter who buys the land later it cannot be subjected to such destructive acts such as deforestation or mining.

Many private individuals use personal land trusts for estate planning, asset protection, and privacy purposes. A land trust can be set up to assign a piece of real estate to a specific beneficiary in the event of the original owner's death. This bypasses the probate process. Having land held in the name of a trust can also protect the title from liens by creditors. A beneficiary's interest in the land is still subject to claims, but the title itself remains clear. Finally, beneficiary's names are not generally made available to the public. This means the public deed will only name the trust as the owner. This type of privacy is ideal for protecting the transactions of developers and other real estate entrepreneurs.