Critique my asset protection for my rentals

Critique my asset protection for my rentals

Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

Looking for people in the know (lot's of bad info on forums and blogs). 

The threat:

-Lawsuits

-Natural disasters, etc.

The portfolio and what I'm doing now:

-I have a few single family homes as rentals. 

-The rentals are located in Washington state, which is very tenant friendly.

-Most are mortgaged, one is paid off, though I'm considering paying off another with the proceeds of the sale of my one and only rental that is in an HOA (when I sell in a couple years to escape their non-sense).

-I can only put the paid off property in an LLC, but even if doing so it provides limited protection since it would be in my name and even without that charging orders can eliminate the security LLC's used to provide.

-I do have an Umbrella policy for 1 million, and all the properties and my own primary residence and car have 500K liability each as well mandatory as part of my Umbrella policy. Having been in a car accident that wasn't my fault and the other party trying to extort my insurance company anyways, with my insurance company declining to pay them anything, which then resulted them in suing me instead (though they insurance company had to pay for my representation, though they didn't tell me that, my Personal Injury Attorney Uncle did), I know first hand insurance is not 100% fool proof (though I won the case and they got nothing...This time).

-Very limited homestead protection in Washington and for a very limited amount.

-I have some money in 401K's, IRA's, etc. which are quite protected.

-I have earthquake insurance on all the properties (except my new primary residence though I'm considering getting that as well even though my rate spikes by 50% and it has a 25% deductible.

Things I've considered:

-An out of state trust such as Alaska, but they cost about 25K just to set up.

-Moving some money out of the country, but much more difficult now with asset reporting laws and the IRS strong arm tactics.

-Selling the rentals. Once you have money, it seems that making a ton more money with that money as fast as possible is not as important as protecting the money you have accumulated. Investing in an index fund or REIT may not pay off as much until much time has passed but its considerably less likely to get you involved in litigation.

-Getting mortgages for the properties so they are mortgaged to the hilt/cash out refinancing the existing mortgaged ones. 

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Bluffton SC · Member since 2015 · 199 posts · 55 votes
10y

@Jack B. I recently worked with Anderson Advisors in Tacoma. They are setting up a living trust to move my primary residence to and a land trust to move my rental to. It cost me $2200 to set up the trusts and quitclaim the properties into the trusts. According to them this is the best option for asset protection. They are the experts, you should look into it. 

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  • Bluffton SC · Member since 2015 · 199 posts · 55 votes
    10y

    @Jack B. I recently worked with Anderson Advisors in Tacoma. They are setting up a living trust to move my primary residence to and a land trust to move my rental to. It cost me $2200 to set up the trusts and quitclaim the properties into the trusts. According to them this is the best option for asset protection. They are the experts, you should look into it. 

  • Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 500 posts · 243 votes
    10y

    Hey @Jack B.

    So the way I'm hearing this, you have a decent portfolio and you are concerned that a single lawsuit at one property could potentially wipe out everything you have built. You are presumably concerned about triggering a due-on-sale clause if you were to transfer title of the properties to various LLCs and are considering alternate strategies?

    Aside from @Julian Buick's excellent advice (thanks for the tip Julian, I may look into having a conversation with said lawyers), I would look into the LLC issue further with a few different lawyers. So long as you maintain the corporate-personal boundaries appropriately, your LLCs should provide a strong asset protection. I would also have a very frank conversation with your mortgage holder about just transferring title and seeing as you have considerable assets, they would not be concerned about the mortgage payments stopping.

    For me personally, I would look to do a combination of the steps you suggested by moving properties into LLCs, as well as cash-out refinancing them. Presumably, you have already diversified your asset portfolio with stocks as well as your RE investments, if not, I would take a good chunk of the cash-out refi money and buy into a set of REITs.

  • Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 500 posts · 243 votes
    10y

    Forgot to mention too that you may want to listen to podcast #109, they talk about asset protection and you may get some ideas to take away and present to a lawyer to price out.

    https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/02/12/bp-podcast-109/

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