All Forum Posts by: Brian Bradley

@John D. And if your asking in the lines of what about your name bring on the mortgage, the Mortgage will say whatever it's going to say, but the title wont match the public records which produces doubt, and it will look like an investor acquired the property as a credit sponsor to in turn sell it to investors through a trust. This is the importance of your team and not DIY this. Your lawyer would be doing the transfer etc for your and consulting with lender if needed and CPA.

@Erik Jenkins the idea is not to run or hide. What you are doing is taking away all economic drive to be able to get anything. If they or their lawyer want to spend all that money to get a settlement less then the money they spent, the suite is done. If judgments or settlements are less then the money they spent to get it, that business / firm is out of business. Law firms are business, especially plaintiff firms.

@John D. You get the mortgage in your personal name first, so long as not commercial, and then transfer the property via the land trust. Which is a legal conveyance into a trust.

@John Clark and as with any corporate structure if formalities are not followed the veil can be pierced. Yes. Hence why you never DIY and work wig your team, lawyer and CPA to maintain compliance.

@John Clark not sure if you got but scroll back up done and you will see how the trust addresses that. But here is a copy of it, The added power of anonymous land trusts is that these Anonymous Trusts can own the LLC itself as well as serve as Title Holding Trusts for the real estate asset. Yes, The LLC typically must disclose the members of the LLC on the filing instruments called the Articles of Incorporation. However, the member listed on the filing can be an Anonymous Trust. It’s does not have to be your name. Since the Anonymous Trust is a private document and it is not filed with the State, anybody researching the Owner or Beneficiary of the Trust will be unable to find that information in the public records. Additionally, anyone researching the owner of the real estate asset by searching the County Clerk records will only find the name of the Anonymous Land Trust. Since the Owner of Trust and the beneficiary is not registered with the state, they cannot find out that the Series LLC is the beneficiary of that Trust. If they wanted to fight this in court it would take again substantial amount of more time, billable ours, labor, manpower and money. 

@Jerry W. you can IM me and we can set up a call and get int the details of your situation, the nuts and bolts of what a trust is, the strengths of trust, how the trust is set up with an LLC for added layers of protection, how that works with your operation company that has no assets in it so is a shell operating company, how insurance etc adds to the equation. Lots of ways to skin a cat, But it is an evaluation that needs to be had with a client over the phone to their situation. All your questions of costs and what a trust is, what anonymity are, how firms bill, how only rich can afford this etc have been already addressed above and in a reply to you. The details of how it works with a particular person then goes to a in person conversation. You can also connect with me via BP and I can send you a info document for potential clients that we send out. But the BP system does not let you send out attachments unless its to a connection.

@Jerry W. All those guys you listed, I know what they have, and their protection systems and all the numerous LLC and trust up to their eyeballs and self negotiated insurance plans, and have primary residence is asset protection friendly states and a full legal team, etc. Do you practice law? And do trials? no. Do you know how a law practice are run, and how cases are evaluated? NO. I was a plaintiff trial lawyer for a very long time. Rated top 100 High Risk Trial Lawyers in the nation, Super Lawyers Rising Star List. I spent a vey successful part of my life evaluating cases and then after you evaluate a case, if it its good, the next mandatory questions is, whats the awards, damages, where is it coming from and man hours. If the case did not cover its costs it did not get filed end of day. Its a business.

That is why you go after the damages in your protection system and why our system was crated by very successful trial lawyers. 

You have asset holding companies that hold properties, and a shell operating company that does all the contracting. All contracts are not in personal names but in the names of the managing company, all agreements everything. You have property managers manage your properties who pay to the operating company (and PM should be in the analysis you give before even purchasing the property as most people invest in real estate for passive income flow) and contract to the operating company. If somebody wants to find you and sue you it will take a lot of time energy and money to even try to get something. Way more then a plaintiffs lawyer would be able to expel in resources and manpower for minimal payoff that wont cover the billable hours of you, paralegals, discovery, etc. You have a very different perspective of an asset protection system. Its outdated as if only the rich can afford and no firms have adapted. 

Our firm for example just charges one value based fee for lets just say for an example a basic set up (Series LLC, Trust and operating company. 3k) Then they enroll in a family based plan of $44.00 an hour for the maintenance, transferring title, etc and talking to a lawyer, rather then the billable hour. Man, that is so much money. Only the rich can afford $3k and $44 a month. You are stuck in an older system of how firms work. Not all firms work off of an old outdated method. So do not stereotype the law field. And some firms market not to the uber rich, but the little guy, and then help them grow and systemize growth with them and treat them like family.

You seem to be stuck with a cost that we are not talking about and outdate billing methods that not every firm uses, and now just sound very angry. Maybe Asset protection is not for you. Thats fine. Its not for everybody. But for those little guys who work their butt off to get an investment property, learn to leverage it to another, and then realize they are now a target and don't want life's unexpected events to take everything from then, its a good thing a firm like mine and others exist that make these structures very reasonable and attainable to them. You don't need to speculate how every firm in the world charges crazy billable hours that only the rich guy can afford. Good thing my firm and others then exists to give the little guy the same product and freedom of mind of the rich at the cost price the little guy can afford. Must be nice being robin hood. I'll take it. 

@Jerry W. I did not think you were. As an actual lawyer I just know the strength of trusts by trial work and case law myself. And this is not for the super rich! Maybe in the past, or with other firms who want to bleed you. Some firms are now going to value based and or bundling to get a large market etc and adding value.  At least that's how we brand our practice. This basic set up for us is just under 3k. Then obviously after a full evaluation etc their are different things we can offer clients and the more assets, wealth, risk, etc that they have then the price will start climbing. And this set up does go hands in hands with people who want to be hands on investing (and is really suited for them since they will have the higher risk of liability and learning curve) or hands off investors. It does not impede it in any way. It lets the investor focus on what they should be focused on, finding and closing deals, not liability and damages and fear. In our experience, we have over 2,000 existing clients. A lot of them were newbies with zero property saving money for their first place (a lot from BP), some with a few investments (1-4 small multi families now wanting to leverage and scale up), and then your big fish who want a 50k work up. It is client and situation specific. Anonymity is just one layer of the protection and most people want to remain private in their investments and life if possible. 

@Jerry W. thank you for contributing to the forum. I see you on a lot. I think that if anybody relies on just one system to preserve wealth and assets it is not going to fully work. The idea of asset protection is to create multiple layers of protection around your castle, and make it very hard and expensive for the other side to get to anything, and if they can get to it, the likely hood of collecting will be very little, especially compared to the expense they just spent to get to it. That is why you have (Insurance, Umbrella Insurance, some sort of incorporated structure (LLC, Series LLC, etc) and a trust.) The trust is really the secret weapon, and this is from a trial lawyer the had to deal with this. Now to just really solely on an estate plan trust that was not drafted for asset protection and not the purpose of wealth preservation, but rather than a purpose of avoiding taxes and probate, you are right. When assets are placed into a trust, they are separate from the settlor, therefore if the settlor is sued, only the individual's personal assets can be pursued. Even the trust assets that are being distributed to the beneficiary are off limits through protective provisions (legal language) in the trust deed. This means that the benefit of the trust assets are not up for grabs. To even try to get a specific asset in the trust assigned is very time consuming and expensive.

The added power of anonymous land trusts is that these Anonymous Trusts can own the LLC itself as well as serve as Title Holding Trusts for the real estate asset. The LLC typically must disclose the members of the LLC on the filing instruments called the Articles of Incorporation. However, the member listed on the filing can be an Anonymous Trust. Since the Anonymous Trust is a private document and it is not filed with the State, anybody researching the Owner or Beneficiary of the Trust will be unable to find that information in the public records. Additionally, anyone researching the owner of the real estate asset by searching the County Clerk records will only find the name of the Anonymous Land Trust. Since the Owner of Trust and the beneficiary is not registered with the state, they cannot find out that the Series LLC is the beneficiary of that Trust. If they wanted to fight this in court it would take again substantial amount of more time, billable ours, labor, manpower and money. 

If the asset protection system focus on preservation by destroying the lawsuits legs of damages and recovery from the very beginning, it is a better strategy. Before a case is filed an attorney will always research whether there are assets which he can seize from the defendant in the case that he wins and do a cost to benefit analysis. If it appears that the defendant has very limited or no assets, or to even get to those assets it will go over his profits and or wont even break even, then in all but the cases but personal self-righteous vindication will the lawsuit be foregone. 

Moving is not always on option for others. Many people spend generations in the same town. They have families, support structures, jobs, social lives, etc. Why should they have to pay more taxes just because of where they live and the desire to generate passive wealth through real estate when their is another way. If you are the type of person who doesn’t want to uproot their entire life just so you can pay a fair amount of taxes, there’s an easier way, that is more organized, streamlined, provides a higher level of liability protection, and the added benefit of paying less in franchise taxes as your grow your portfolio.