Foreign entities offer a "bullet proof" alternative to protecting liquid assets. Foreign offshore trusts as an alternative are difficult to maintain but allow you the most protection imaginable, usually, unbreakable protection, but they are not the cheapest alternative around. Some have complained that there money is so protected that they themselves can't get at it. But is that not the idea of offshore trusts, no access?

Some clients do not want to go through the expense or the trouble of a foreign trust, or may simply not need that much protection. Foreign trusts as a general rule work for those having 2 million or more in liquid assets but again expensive to set up and expensive to maintain. The typical cost is $25,000 to $50,000 to set up with yearly maintenance fees of $3,000 to $4,000 per year.

Holding offshore assets in your name does not work either. Any asset that is owned by you directly or titled in your name can be taken from you by a creditor. It does not matter whether this asset is stock of a corporation or a foreign bank account. All assets, domestic and foreign, owned by you directly can be reached even though a court cannot liquidate or grab these assets they can order you to do so.

It would be important for your IBC stock to be held by your properly set up Nevada Corporation or properly set up Nevada LLC with charging order protection. Again, the purpose is that both of these entities have charging order protection available to them.

A foreign LLC or IBC is governed and protected by the laws of a foreign jurisdiction. This means that it may be possible to move any litigation surrounding a foreign LLC to a foreign country. This makes it very expensive for the plaintiff to pursue a foreign LLC or IBC. Sometimes all that is needed is to change the creditor's economic analysis. Destroy their profit potential and they will leave you alone.

Offshore corporations or offshore LLCs may be owned by your Nevada Corporation or Nevada limited liability company giving way to the "charging order protection" rules. Assets are maintained offshore, say for example the Cayman Island with insurance of up to 20 million per account and interest, dividends or capital gains declared by your onshore entity. Money is wired back and forth between corporate accounts giving way to asset protection or moved from one country to another country.

It should be noted that John Ewing can incorporate your offshore company in any country around the world and can help you set up banking in these various countries. There are many planning options available including your own captive insurance plan where you receive full deductions. Go to our website under Offshore Corporations and check out one of our audio's on international tax planning.

All entities, especially foreign entities, can have tax consequences. Call our offices for an update on the latest I.R.S. rules regarding income tax obligations here in the United States. It is usually best to incorporate in a country where there are not tax consequences in that country.

A Privacy Land Trust can enable the "beneficial owner" to anonymously control the use and possession of real estate. One of the counter measures against identity theft is the use of this trust and can be best worked with a Nevada LLC which can be listed on the public record (County Recorder's office) as the official owner of the property. Further, the Trustee of the trust may be a financial institution, friend or relative with a different last name. The beneficial owner's name appears nowhere in the chain of title. Title is held by the Trustee as follows: "John Doe, trustee, fbo the 125 Main St. Trust". Ownership of the land trust's real estate can be transferred without issuing a new deed. It is done by an assignment of beneficial interest. One simply issues an "Assignment of Beneficial Interest" to the new owner and the Trustee issues a new "Certificate of Beneficial Interest." If the property is a rental property the beneficiary enjoys a positive cash flow from the property after deductions.

A Personal Property Trust ("PPT") is used to anonymously control personal property. The title and/or registration to motor vehicles, boats, RVs and air planes etc. can be placed in a PPT. A trustee holds legal to the personal property pursuant to a PPT Trust Agreement. The beneficiary has the use, control and possession of the property. Title to the personal property (if it has a title) will state that the property belongs to "John Doe as trustee for the Smith Property Trust #3". The trust documents are not in the public record. Because of this, the beneficial owner remains totally anonymous. PPTs can also be used to hold corporate stock certificates and LLC certificates of membership.

The corporation is a separate legal entity from its owner(s). When properly formed and administered under state law, the corporation has a separate identity, separate credit rating, property ownership and tax deductions from its owners. Corporations are owned by 'shareholders' or 'stockholders'. The owners select a Board of Directors, which in some states can be as few as one person or as many as authorized by the corporate by-laws. Nevada corporations may foreign file in another state so that it may operate in that state or set up a local state LLC on its behalf.

Corporations offer its shareholders, directors, officers and agents a way to conduct business that is not personally binding, absent fraud. Under the tax laws of the USA, corporations are entitled to take ordinary and necessary business expenses as income tax deductions, including some for which individuals do not qualify.

Privacy, liability protection, tax advantages and separate legal and credit identity are among the reasons corporations are established. Our clients use the corporation as a business entity for these very reasons. The other form of company these choose is the Limited Liability Company or 'LLC'. To read more about Nevada Corporations, see our Nevada Business Corporations page.

The LLC is one of two types of companies in the USA. The other is the Corporation.

The Limited Liability Company was imported into the United States from Germany as a 'hybrid' form of company. It has some elements of the Corporation and some elements of a Partnership. It does not have ownership restrictions which the hamper 'subchapter S' corporations in terms of asset protection and has far more flexibility and less formalities than does a corporation.

More LLCs are now being formed in the USA than corporations. This is because of its ease of formation, fewer formality requirements, and better flexibility for tax planning and lawsuit protection. Where corporations are owned by 'shareholders', the LLC is owned by its 'Members', who have the option of either all sharing in management (a 'member-managed' LLC) or having a selected an individual or corporation to serve as the manager (a manager-managed LLC).

The LLC statutes of some states are far better than others, so due consideration should given as to which jurisdiction is best in light of the client's desire for financial privacy, flexibility of ownership, taxes and liability protection. For more about Nevada LLCs, see our Nevada Limited Liability Companies page.

Limited Partnerships may be formed in any state. However, not all states' limited partnership laws are created equal. Some are better than others, depending on how the partnership will be used and what the client might expect as to financial privacy, tax-efficient planning, management flexibility and liability protection. However, Limited Partnerships only provide limited liability to the Limited Partners, not to General Partners. Nevada Limited Liability Limited Partnerships provide limited liability to both Limited Partners and General Partners. When used in combination with certain other entities and funding strategies, the Limited Liability Limited Partnership is a very effective part of the integrated whole.

When a Limited Liability Limited Partnership is registered in the state of Nevada, an IRS taxpayer identification number must be acquired and a Limited Liability Limited Partnership Agreement drafted. Many partnership agreements leave out important provisions that help enhance liability protection in the face of a serious liability claim. The planning and execution depend largely on the client's goals, options, preferences, and choices.

As you work and invest to enhance your family's security and prospects for the future, Wealth Protection Trusts™ may be a key component in helping to protect personal wealth. Though it can stand alone, they work best other legal entities. Established under specific guidelines, the Wealth Protection Trust is a powerful and effective planning tool. Properly used by its settler ('founder') and trustee, a Nevada Wealth Protection Trust can create a barrier against unforeseen legal and business disputes, and adversaries who intend financial harm.

The Nevada Wealth Protection Trust™ can hold a variety of assets for its beneficiaries in a safe and conservative manner. Because the settler is not a beneficiary or trustee, the trustee can hold, administer, manage, and distribute the trust's assets to its beneficiaries without interference by the grantor's subsequent business or legal affairs. Thus, claims or legal actions against the settlor do not impact the trust or its beneficiaries so long as no fraudulent conveyance is involved in its formation and the client acts while there are no legal storms brewing on the horizon.

The 365 year Nevada Dynasty Trust is drafted on the founder's dreams and hopes for the future of the loved ones who are the beneficiaries. It helps to reduce or eliminate the loss of accumulated wealth due to estate taxes, lawsuits or divorce. Enormous estate tax savings are offered with this "generation skipping transfer trust". Creating a dynasty trust can save up to 80% percent of your estate tax and can last up to 365 years. The Dynasty Trust benefits the founder's children, grandchildren and their descendants down the line. These trusts hold a variety of assets for the beneficiaries and work best with other legal entities in a safe manner.

To create a tax-free inheritance for loved ones, a client might make use of an irrevocable Life Insurance Trust. By using this trust as the owner and beneficiary of life insurance coverage on the grantor, the death benefits payable under the policy may be excluded from the IRS Taxable Estate of the insured. This is true whether the policy is considered 'term' insurance (death benefit only) or permanent ('cash value') insurance. In the typical scenario, the trust beneficiaries are the loved ones of the grantor. This may be the settlor's children, or nieces and nephews. Typically the life insurance policy is on the life of the settlor, but this need not always be the case. Some clients who are grandparents establish such a trust to benefit their grandchildren with the parents of the grandchildren as the insured.

Since the trust is irrevocable and the settlor ('founder') is not a beneficiary, any life insurance policy owned by the trust is not considered part of the Taxable Estate of the settlor. Gifts into the trust are subject to IRS guidelines if a beneficiary waives his or her interests on the present interest gift, the money will be used by the trustee to pay premiums on the policy inside the trust. At the death of the insurance, the policy death benefits are paid into the trust are both income tax free and estate tax free.

Certain IRA and 401(k) Custodians allow you to Self-Direct your Retirement Account. You can choose investments you believe to be best suited to your retirement account. Self-Directed IRAs or Self-Directed 401(k)s have wide latitude in selecting investments such as commercial or residential real estate and would qualify by yourself or with other IRA co-investors.

To qualify for loans on investment property (without pledging your IRA as collateral), you may use a offshore company that's specifically designed to be owned by a Self-Directed Retirement Account for better asset protection and with the Self-Directed IRA or 401(k) as the 'Member', profits flow into the retirement account without income tax or capital gains tax.

Many home owners would consider selling their home to a friend in order to protect the equity in the home. However, they may still want to live the property. The way to possibly handle this is through what is called "a sale and leaseback" of the principal home to a friendly third-party through a deferred installment note. Commercial businesses do this all the time with their assets.

Under this arrangement, the home owner sells their house to a friendly party and takes back a promissory note. The promissory note is usually set up as a long-term interest only balloon note. The debtor then leases the house back from the buyer and continues to live in the home. Now, instead of owning the home, the debtor now owns a promissory note, an asset that is a lot less desirable to a creditor and their attorney. Further, the balloon note may be assigned to a Nevada Family Limited Partnership or other Nevada corporate entity.

It is important to note that this asset protection arrangement can only work so long as the debtor can establish the legitimacy and the arm's-length nature of the sale. Possible income tax consequences of the sale and possible property tax consequences on the transfer of ownership should be considered remembering the I.R.S. principal residence exemption available to both mom and dad of $250,000 each. It should be further noted that the third party friend could also place the property into an LLC owned by an offshore company. Which in turn is owned by a Nevada LLC or Nevada LLLP owned by a Wealth Protection Trust™ (WPT) for advanced protection. This, thereby, brings up their own asset protection by use of the "charging order rules" whereby any creditor would be forced to pay income taxes under section 77-137 I.R.C. on any pursuit of the real estate property.

OUTRIGHT SALE
A better way to protect the home is an outright arm's-length cash sale and equity stripping of the equity in the home. In this example the debtor would take back a promissory balloon note and assign that note to a LLC owned by an offshore company. Some clients have prepared a notarized assignment using an offshore company for equity stripping the property. As a standard rule it is much easier to protect liquid asset than real property assets. However, this method affords the best possible asset protection and is also the most extreme but very effective but could result in income taxes if the principal residence exemption of $250,000 per person is exceeded.

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• Nevada Corporate Structuring
  
• Qualified Personal Residential Trusts
  
• Equity Stripping
  
• Sale and Lease Back to Friendly Party
  
• Offshore Foreign Entities
  
• Privacy Land Trusts
• Property Trusts
  
• Nevada Corporations
  
• Limited Liability Companies
  
• Limited Liability Limited Partnerships
  
• Nevada Wealth Protection Trust™
  
• Nevada Dynasty Trusts
  
• Tax Free Inheritance Trust
• Self Directed IRA Accounts
  
• Asset Protection Plan™

Nevada Corporations, Limited Liability Companies and Nevada Limited Liability Limited Partnerships are commonly used in asset protection.

Generally any asset that you own directly in your personal name or personal business name is an asset that is titled directly or indirectly to you and can be seized by a creditor. For example, if you have a commercial building, brokerage or bank account, a creditor can seize those assets. Any asset that you do not own cannot be taken from you by a creditor. So a question we like to ask is, "If you got sued... could they take away your neighbor's business?" The obvious answer is a resounding no. While this sounds like a simple question, it lies at the heart and soul of bullet proofing your asset protection planning.

Any asset that is owned by a corporate legal entity is not owned by you, even if you own and control the legal entity. For example, if you own shares of Microsoft you have no ownership in the offices in Seattle or the computers they use. In a way you indirectly own Microsoft's assets but not directly. If you got sued they would not take away Microsoft's assets. The same is true that if Microsoft got sued they would not sue you. This concept applies to any legal entity, regardless of any percentage of the entity you own.

How does that benefit you? Once you transfer the ownership of an asset to a corporation, limited liability company, or a limited partnership, you no longer own that asset. The asset is now owned by the CORP, LLC or LLLP. All you own is an interest in the legal entity. It is far better to own an interest in a legal entity than to own the underlying asset directly.

Under the laws of all states, interests in limited liability companies and limited liability limited partnerships are protected by what is called the "charging order protection" rules. Under the charging order protection rules a creditor cannot seize your interest in one of these entities. However, this requires proper set up. Limited Liability Companies have in the past been broken up by the court and assets liquidated to satisfy creditors. Further there is no charging order protection given to corporations except in business friendly Nevada. Nevada is the only state to offer full and complete charging order protection to all its corporate entities. In addition to backing this up, Nevada has now set up its own business court so that legal outcomes are pre-determinable. That is why so many in corporate America today operate in one state but are incorporated in tax free Nevada. They are using the rules of jurisdictional pre-litigation planning or management. See one of our many brochures on the website.

So, if they cannot take away your interest in one of these corporate entities they cannot take away your underlying assets.

Note that corporations outside of Nevada do not offer you any charging order protection. If you own a corporation, which in turn owns valuable assets, a creditor will be able to seize your corporate stock, and then get to the valuable assets. Corporations will only protect you from lawsuits directed against the corporation itself. If the lawsuit is directed against the shareholder, there is no protection. If you are seeking to protect your assets from claims of creditors in your state forget about corporations except in Nevada.

If you review our website our clients protect their assets by using offshore companies, a limited liability limited partnership (LLLP) and onshore LLCs. They transfer investments, income producing real estate, intellectual property, valuable business assets, corporations, art and collectibles, yachts, aircraft, antique cars and other valuables into these companies.

To see how this works for businesses go to our Limited Liability Corporations webpage and examine how the "sale and lease back" strategy works and Sec. 355 for tax free spin-offs.

Limited liability companies and limited partnerships are easy to set up, have nominal annual costs, and provide you with a tremendous level of asset protection when owned by an offshore offshore company.

Example: Joe Smith owns rental property A which is titled to a local state corporation; and rental property B which is titled through a limited liability company owned by an IBC or Nevada Corporation. Assume that a tenant in each building files a lawsuit. Each tenant would sue the owners of the respective buildings, which means the corporation and the LLC. Each legal entity will protect Joe Smith and prevent the lawsuits from reaching his personal assets.

Now assume that Joe Smith is being sued personally. The Creditor obtains a judgment against Joe Smith and pursues Joe Smith's personally held assets. What happens to the rental properties?

First, the creditor would first seize Joe Smith's corporate stock, then remove him as manager, officer or director replacing themselves or their attorney, dissolve the state corporation and finally seize rental property A.

The creditor would not be able to seize rental property B or seize the interest in Joe Smith's LLC because he does not own the LLC, thereby giving Joe Smith full asset protection.

Again, the creditor would not be able to seize rental property B or seize the interest in Joe Smith's Nevada Corporation stock due to the charging order protection rules in Nevada, thereby giving Joe Smith full asset protection.

The home we live and invest in is probably one of the most important assets to shield from creditor claims. Many Americans place their greatest investment into their homes by paying off the debts and buying furnishings for the property and nothing more can be said about the attached sentimental value of the homes we live in.

A personal residence trust is one of the most commonly used techniques to protect the home property. They are fairly inexpensive to set up, simple in nature, and exceptionally effective. Millionaires and movie stars a like have established thousands of personal and private real estate trusts. However, there are some key points to be looked at in order to make them effective asset protection vehicles.

A personal and private residence trust must be an irrevocable trust. The word "irrevocable" means what it means which is unchangeable. Once it is set up it is non-changeable in the eyes of a creditor, however flexibility can be built in when dealing with the family's most significant asset.

Irrevocable simply means that no one like a creditor or their attorney would be able to force you to revoke the trust after it has been set up. However, some states there are procedures to revoke an irrevocable trust that just requires the trustee of the trust and the beneficiary to sign a simple agreement document.

Even though this trust is set up as irrevocable, all of the assets are owned by the trust not owned by you. At least in the legal technical sense. The trust is the owner your principal home residence. You no longer hold the legitimate legal title to the house you reside in therefore it is not an asset that your creditor can reach. Your legal relationship with the property you live in becomes the same as your legal relationship to the Space Needle in Seattle. If the asset is not in your name at the time you are being sued your creditor cannot attach claim on the property in the trust. They are stuck. We like to explain it this way, "If you get sued... can they take your neighbors' house?" The answer is obviously and resoundingly no.

Under the life estate provisional rules of the "irrevocable" property residence trust, it allows you to continue living in the house, rent free, usually for the remainder of your life. Your children or other family members would then become the beneficiaries of the trust. However, for better asset protection for the beneficiaries in the event they fall victim to a lawsuit themselves, many of our clients create a Nevada Limited Partnership not only naming the property trust to this corporate entity but also furnishings to the house, expensive assets such as jewelry and paintings and many other "safe" assets. In this way the LLLP structure is very similar to your living trust. Now your beneficiaries also receive asset protection using this corporate structure and are able to apply the "charging order protection" rules whereby a creditor can only obtain an interest in the percentage owned by the child being sued. The problem creditors have is that under section 77-137 IRC rules of the federal tax department, any creditor obtaining from a judge an interest in the FLP is responsible to pay all income taxes even if they receive no monetary distribution. No lawyer in his right mind would advise his client to go up against a correctly set up Family Limited Partnership.

The other big advantage is there are no income tax consequences on the transfer of the house into the qualified principal residential trust. Further, there is no property tax consequences nor any property tax reassessments. Your bank cannot call in the mortgage liability and or accelerate monthly mortgage payments due to federal statutes that prevent the banks and mortgage companies from doing anything with your mortgage even though ownership of the house is in fact transferred to a trust.
Because the trustee of the trust will be a person you appoint usually a friend, family member, attorney or accountant but never you, you will retain the ability to sell the house outright, swap the house or even refinance the house. Trusts are not subject to any annual fees or filing requirements. Once a trust is set up there is no further maintenance.

The qualified principal residential trust is inexpensive and easy to establish while at the same time allows you to continue living in your home and giving you full control over your own property, but makes it unreachable by creditors and their lawyers which has a long history of case law and has been proven in the courts time and time again. Truly the residential trust has been the favorite asset protection technique used by millionaires and movie stars.

Whether you are looking to protect your home or real estate investment property you have to consider that creditors and their lawyers do not generally pursue the real property itself, but are looking to grab the equity in the property. Creditors have to file court documents in order foreclose on the property which means the property would be seized and then sold at the local auction. Upon successful foreclosure and sale thereof, all secured debt must be paid. Therefore the payment of secured notes like a bank mortgage, secured liens, debtor liens such as a "friendly lien", court costs, state sheriff's expenses, and after any homestead exemption available only on principal residential property with that amount being variable from state to state, any last and final remaining equity goes to the creditor. The remaining equity is converted into cash and is released to the creditor.

If the property has no equity or is upside down in balance, then on a foreclosure sale the pursuing creditor will not get anything. For example if your home is worth $450,000 and has an encumbered mortgage of $325,000 and for example your homestead exemption is $125,000, the home is forced into a foreclosure sale, where it is sold to some buyer for $450,000. Of the $450,000, the first $300,000 goes to the bank to pay off the mortgage. Then some money goes to the sheriff, and then $125,000 goes to you. There is nothing left for the pursuing creditor. However, you have to file for bankruptcy and the creditor may seek other methods.

Most creditors and their lawyers will not pursue a property like this due to the legal costs and time involved. In most cases, many creditors and their lawyers will drop the lawsuit if they realize that there is no equity to pursue. Because of this many of the rich and wealthy secure each and every real estate property by utilizing equity stripping.
There are three techniques used by the rich to equity strip real estate and other assets.

NON-OWNERSHIP
The first way is to not own the piece of real estate in question personally or directly. Many of the rich place each property into a Private Land Trust making a Nevada corporation or Nevada LLC as both the beneficiary and trustee. They may even use another trust to act as the trustee or a Nevada Management company but again it is never themselves.
On principal residences of the home the rich will use an "irrevocable" residential land trust with the beneficiary being a Nevada Family Limited Partnership thereby protecting the property and the children who may be the heirs giving way to inside and outside asset protection.

ACTUAL BANK LOAN
The second way is to strip out the equity is by obtaining a credit line or a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). The bank will secure the loan by recording a deed of trust against your property. This eliminates the amount of equity equal to the loan. This line of credit must be assigned to another entity ahead of time so that if required the line of credit can be triggered to avoid the fraudulent transfer rules.

This technique results in the elimination of equity, however there are a couple of things to consider. First, it is difficult to obtain a total and complete bank loan large enough to completely eliminate the entire equity. Second, the cost of this asset protection technique can be expensive except by offsetting the debt through investment banking. Assuming the HELOC is a $750,000 loan bearing a 3.5% interest rate, the cost of this equity strip is $26,250 per year. The debtor would have to invest in some type of investment vehicle to offset this cost. This can work out great and the client can obtain tax write offs through a loan to a Nevada corporation in various benefit plans and captive insurance write offs. Many times we have seen that through the use of the assignment documents the rich have placed the HELOC on "standby" if in the event of a threatening lawsuit thereby avoiding the cost of borrowing.

PAPER EQUITY STRIP
Another way to strip out the equity which is frequently used by the rich is to encumber their principal residence or investment properties is by the recording a deed of trust in favor of a Nevada Corporation, Limited Liability Company owned by an offshore corporation or a Nevada Limited Liability Limited Partnership or in the case of Michael Jackson, a friend who can be trusted to never steal or be sued.

This avoids the carrying costs of an actual bank loan through the use of an interest bearing balloon note known as a "friendly lien" and can be done in any amount. With this technique it is important to know the aggressiveness of the creditor. Some creditors may stop trying to collect when they realize that there is no equity in the residence. Others may dig deeper, and if the debtor cannot substantiate the transaction as an actual loan, the note will be set aside by a court as a sham. The creditor will again have equity to pursue. One way the rich avoid the "paper sham" defense is to do what is known in the financial accounting industry is "circling". The actual movement of debt from one entity to another thereby creating a paper trail and being able to prove the debt's validity. Offshore corporations are used very effectively by the rich to avoid the pursuit of court appearances since many countries do not recognize court judgments. Based on the balloon note with no monthly payment it is easy for the rich to argue no income in order to service the "friendly lien" before a judge.

Persons doing a "paper lien" with no cash transactions risk having the lien set aside as a sham even though an initial search on the title deed of the property may discourage a first time title search. For a friendly lien to hold up in court, we recommend that actual funds be distributed from a secondary corporate entity and paid to the clients bank account to verify that indeed a loan took place. Even to the effect that the borrower may move the funds from their account to re-pay a secondary corporate entity. This is called "circling" in accounting terms.

To add more strength to the friendly lien, the borrower can make the promissory note a balloon note payable in ten years, interest only and payable at the end of the term. Or the borrower can show legitimate payments each month and remembering to save copies of all checks in the event proof is required by the court.

Correctly used, equity stripping is the tool of the rich, millionaires and super wealthy.

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