asset protection

When you’re looking at rewarding a valuable employee the idea of giving him or her a piece of your company often comes up. It’s a quick, easy solution, that doesn’t necessarily mean you come out of pocket (at least initially). That can be great for a cash-strapped start up. But is it always a good idea?

We’ve been talking about single member LLCs (SMLLCs) for the past couple of days on the TaxLoopholes Forum. Because an SMLLC means one thing legally and something else from a tax perspective, it’s really easy for people to confuse the two.

In times of economic downturn, there are more people looking to blame their own financial troubles on someone else. And if they think you have something, they might even delude themselves into thinking they deserve it more than you. Tough times discloses the true nature of people. One of my favorite sayings is that being fearless just means you have no fear. To have courage means that you feel fear and do what’s right anyway.

If you’ve ever had someone prepare an asset protection plan for you, then you know one of the inevitable steps will be the creation of one or more business structures (typically LLCs) to hold title to various assets. The more you have, the more structures will be recommended. But at what point do you say “enough?” Where is the balance between adequate asset protection, and economics and practical record-keeping?

I’ve advised thousands of clients to hold their property in an LLC for asset protection. Learn why I’ve now changed my mind and why you must ACT NOW to protect your ability to refinance in the future.

In this week’s Online Workshop I finish up the discussion I started last week about the recent change in internal lending guidelines issued by Freddie Mac. These new changes are making holding real estate in a protected business structure far less appealing than before. But I don’t believe the answer is to go “bare” and hold title in your name, either. That paints a huge target on your back … not to mention putting all that you’re working for at risk.

Join me for the final segment of my brand-new 3-part online workshop to discover what I’m doing (and suggesting for my clients).

Leverage your equity … or preserve your assets? That seems to be the choice investors are being asked to make as a result of new Freddie Mac lending guidelines coming into effect on August 1st. When Diane and I learned of the upcoming changes we immediately began brainstorming to find a solution. And, as many of you already know, what we came up with was the Trust Sandwich™.

I’ve advised thousands of clients to hold their property in an LLC for asset protection. Learn why I’ve now changed my mind and why you must ACT NOW to protect your ability to refinance in the future.

In this week’s Online Workshop I’m continuing the discussion I started last week about the recent change in internal lending guidelines issued by Freddie Mac. These new changes are making holding real estate in a protected business structure far less appealing than before. But I don’t believe the answer is to go “bare” and hold title in your name, either. That paints a huge target on your back … not to mention putting all that you’re working for at risk.

Join me in the second of three brand-new online workshops to discover what I’m doing (and suggesting for my clients).

I’ve advised thousands of clients to hold their property in an LLC for asset protection. Learn why I’ve now changed my mind and why you must ACT NOW to protect your ability to refinance in the future.

In this week’s Online Workshop I’m talking about the recent change in internal lending guidelines issued by Freddie Mac (and anticipated to be followed by Fannie Mae). These new changes making holding real estate far less appealing than before. Yet, I don’t believe that going “bare” and having no asset protection is the answer either. So is there an answer? You bet! Join me in a brand new, 3-part online workshop to discover what I’m doing (and suggesting for my clients).

Rules to refinance properties have just been changed and that means that hundreds of thousands of real estate investments are now in the wrong business structure. Freddie Mac, one of the two largest underwriters of conforming loans on the secondary market, has just changed their internal rules to state that they will no longer refinance a property that has been inside of a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for any time within the past 6 months.

Fannie Mae, the other big underwriter, is expected to follow suit with a similar change.

One of the most frequently-asked questions I get in my business is about resident agent service - what it is, and when it’s required. In many cases people enquire about whether or not they can act as their own resident agent. The quick answer is “yes.” The longer answer is “it depends.”