A (2:38)

Can you do an example for us? It may be tailored specifically to like a real estate investor as to, you know, what are some of the common pitfalls that a real estate investor could actually be sued for?

B (2:47)

Yeah, so a lot of like the pitfalls with real estate is, you know, an incident happening and then you not having anything in place and then saying, all right, I'm now getting sued, Brian, like, I don't want to lose my property. What can you do for me now? There's literally nothing or it's going to be mold issues, deals falling apart. There's a lot of ways in real estate that we can get sued. And beyond million dollar judgments, I have.

A (3:09)

Heard people talk about that when you are creating and structuring an llc, that it's setting you up to actually be kind of a target for being sued. Can you kind of talk about, like, what are the benefits of actually doing it and if that's actually true.

B (3:24)

So when it comes to asset protection, just people assume that by, you know, kind of like you're leading to setting these up or setting up a trust, that they're somehow the ones that are creating the situation and the legal threat. But that's not true. The peril already exists. The peril's coming from the lawsuit, not from your legal planning like LLCs or limited partnerships or trust. If a lawsuit's filed against you, that's the actual threat, not the fact that you took, you know, steps ahead of time to protect yourself. And the courts are very, very clear on this. And an example here is like, the Cook Islands Trust is the strongest trust in the world by far. Nobody even disputes that. And the U.S. courts have been frustrated at every turn when they're used. But not a single court has ever ruled that the creation of a trust in any way is illegal or immoral. It's actually the opposite. We already have federal exemptions on some assets. And then more and more states are starting to see that our legal system is a threat and, you know, creating their own protections. In fact, there's a well known asset protection case, Rikers vs. Rikers in 1998, and the court stated that the offshore Cook Island Trust that was created was created for the legitimate purpose of protecting the family assets. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just smart planning. So what some people were getting in trouble for is when they try to move assets after they've already been sued, or to hide assets to avoid paying taxes or hiding assets from your spouse for a divorce or, or having a poorly drafted trust where you maintain too much control or not knowing your state's regulations and policies. But if the protection was pre planned, meaning before any legal trouble and it's set up properly, all you're doing is exercising your legal right to, you know, structure your wealth defensively, just like buying insurance before an accident. And so this is why cutting corners and like online templates, diying your planning just doesn't work. Yeah, it's cheaper, but it's just a false sense of security and a smokescreen. And it's really not cheaper if you lose. So we gotta make sure we're going to the right doctor for the right injury and that starts breaking down. You know, like one of the bigger topics. It's just like pros and cons of LLC is because it's like a janky cookie cutter LLC just not going to work for you.

A (5:35)

Yeah. And there's also a ton of rules and regulations you have to follow when you actually set up the llc. First of all, you have to know how to actually set it up. And then as time goes on every year, there's certain requirements to actually keep your LLC a legal entity. Brian, I want to ask where a newer investor should start when it comes to thinking about asset protection. But first we have to take a quick break.

C (6:00)

Landlords. Here's a quick tip. A standardized checklist for property inspections can save you time, money and headaches. Preventative maintenance means fewer expensive surprises later. Want to save even more? Rent ready helps you stay on top of rent collection, lease management and maintenance requests all in one easy to use platform. And right now you can get six months of rent ready for just $1. With Chromebook promo code BP2025, visit rentready.com that's R E N-T-R-E-I.com and use code BP2025 to get started.

D (6:30)

So I tried explaining a sandwich lease to my insurance guy once and he just blinked at me like I made it up. And that's sort of the thing, right? Most insurance companies don't understand how we invest. You go vacant for a few weeks, you switch strategies, you hold stuff in an LLC and suddenly your coverage doesn't fit. That's why I recommend National Real Estate Insurance Group. They actually get real estate investors. Their coverage adjusts as your property changes and you get one monthly bill for everything, no matter how weird your portfolio is. You can check them out at N r e I g.com BPPOD that's n r e I g.com BPPod hey there.

E (7:06)

I recently traveled to Breckenridge, Colorado and stayed in an Airbnb during the shoulder season where I did some hiking and got to reset. And the best part was all the space I had staying in an Airbnb instead of a regular hotel. Which made me think have you ever thought about hosting your space on an Airbnb to help boost your income? Now it's easier than ever with Airbnb's Co Host network. With the Co Host network you can hire a first rate local co host that can help create your listing message guests, manage reservations and provide on site support. Find a co host@airbnb.com want to invest.

D (7:40)

In real estate but don't have the time or know the best local markets? Rent to Retirement has got you covered. Here's the deal. They've helped thousands of investors just like you find turnkey homes across the best US Markets. And best of all, they do all the heavy lifting for you. With over 255 star ratings on bigger pockets, Rent to Retirement experts help you build strategies to retire early through real estate. And right now, Rent to Retirement offers some amazing incentives on turnkey new construction properties. Just for example, you can get up to 30% off new build prices or you can get 0% down loan options or interest rates available as low as 3.99%. So don't miss out. These deals will not last. Text REI to 33777 or visit biggerpockets.com retirement to start investing in top cash flow markets today.

A (8:30)

Thanks for sticking with us. We're back on the BiggerPockets podcast with Brian Bradley. So what would be the first step? If you're an investor and you're thinking, I need to get this LLC in place, what are some of the first things you should be doing?

B (8:43)

So if you're just starting out and you're thinking about investing in properties and you don't know where to start, the tools are LLCs, limited partnerships and Asset Protection Trust. And just to break down these layers, like I like to always think about winter, right? Like the first entry layer is your base layer. It's that thin shirt that's going to sit on your skin. This is an llc. This is when we're just starting out investing like LLC is an insurance. And then as you grow you're going to get more assets, you get more units. You might be investing in multiple states. So we need more llc. That's where a mid layer comes in. Like think of that sweatshirt or you know, cardigan for you ladies, you're going to have 500,000 probably of exposed net worth. This is a management company. You'll hear some people talk about Wyoming llc. We use limited partnerships. And then as you get to around that $1 million mark, you have a higher level of protection that you need. And that's going to be your outer shell Waterpr layer, that's the asset protection trust, that's your doomsday layer. But by laying, we're going to be more flexible, right? We can adjust, make yourself more comfortable. And this is where LLC is coming, right? Like that foundational base layer. And there's just a lot of misconceptions surrounding LLC is like a lot of people think that they're just this magic pill. Create an LLC that personally, you know, guarantees protection no matter what. And that's just not the case. But if we just want to like break down a couple of key issues on like where do we even set these LLC up? And like we hear people getting confused like, oh, run off to Delaware, Wyoming, Texas, Nevada. You know, what we're really talking about are charging order protections and corporate veil piercing. Like big legal fancy words that sound intimidating. What we have to remember is that LLC offer a limited veil of protection. That veil is better than nothing, right? Like having it all in your personal name, not good. But the veil is fragile. It can be easily pierced just by not following the formalities of setting up an LLC and maintaining it. And so that's kind of where this talk generally flows into next, like piercing the veil. A great example of this is like, let's say you're a California resident and you own California real estate and you go and create a Wyoming LLC and then you go and hold a key piece of California real estate in this Wyoming LLC and you're paying California franchise tax on this out of state Wyoming llc. What you've done is just convert your Wyoming LLC to a California LLC because you're doing business in the state of California. So if you have a liability issue in California, meaning a lawsuit, the judge is going to follow California law, not Wyoming law. You have no legal nexus or like connection to Wyoming whatsoever. So this understanding then leads to a deeper questioning of like, why it's crucial to differentiate between two very different areas of law. And that is what's the difference between like business law and port law, especially as it relates to real estate investments.

A (11:37)

Well, Brian, what if, using that same example, but what if the person lives in California gets the Wyoming LLC but they invest, say in Florida? What is the actual recommendation if you live in one state but invest in another state, where would you get your LLC in that scenario?

B (11:53)

Great question. Then if, like just for that, so it's a Florida property, it would be a Florida llc because that's where the damage is going to come from. Right. It's not going to be from California, most likely, if that real estate, we're going to be using Florida law, someone gets hurt on that property, it really segues into like, what's the difference between business law and tort law? When we're investing in real estate, we're getting sued through, you know, tort law. That's personal injuries and damage awards. That's all state specific. And so it's a very different area of law. And so that's why common rule is wherever the real estate asset is held at, like if it's Florida, it's a Florida llc. If it's Tennessee, it's a Tennessee llc. And then from there we can start cherry picking states for the management company. Like we can use an Arizona limited partnership or some people use a Wyoming llc. And so that's where it starts getting more nuanced at the second and third layer. But if you're a California resident and you're buying in Florida, Florida llc.

A (12:52)

That is like one of the most asked questions of rookie investors. The first one is, when I buy my first property, should I put it in an LLC or should I put it in my personal name? And then the second one is, where should I get the LLC from? So what do you think about that first part though, as far as like your first property?

B (13:10)

Yeah, the first property. Don't invest in your first property unless you can afford creating an LLC because you're new to investing. Like you just buying a property is going to increase your amount of risk. Create an llc, put the property in an llc. If you cannot afford an llc, push pause. Start off smart. Don't risk it. That's too risky. It'd be like taking my money down to Vegas and gambling and saying like, I'm a good person, I don't do things wrong. Like I'm going to follow the the law anyways. There's nothing about you being a good or bad person. It's about a negligent event happening and then you getting sued and liable for damages and we need to cut the legs off of how much someone can get from you and then the location. I think the confusion of it comes from everyone's falling in love with the word anonymity. The thought that you can just create an anonymous Wyoming llc, no matter what state that you're in, you can just like stick your assets in it and disappear and ghost a lawsuit.

A (14:03)

I'm already picturing all the gurus that have the whiteboard drawing out asset protection. No one will ever know my name.

B (14:11)

Yeah, you know, yeah. So you know, create a Wyoming LLC and a land trust and you know, you're good to go. No one can ever find you. That's just completely false. So there's so much case law on this. But like our prior topic, right. It's, it's completely misunderstood. When your LLC is sued, you know you have a personal agent of service they're required to have. Especially for Wyoming and Delaware and Nevada LLCs, their sole job is to serve you. Congratulations, you just got served. Now you got to get your butt to court. Also, the simple reality is that once a lawsuit's filed, the legal discovery process in court begins. And what's even worse is that if you want secrecy to even work, also known as lying under oath, let's be clear about this, lying under oath is a one way ticket to jail. The bottom line is that privacy is good. I like privacy. I'm all for it. But privacy does not equal protection. Privacy helps stop harassment, but it does not make you lawsuit proof once a legal action is filed. Privacy does not prevent legal disclosures in court. And courts have repeatedly ruled that while LLC like Wyoming can offer a degree of privacy, legal disclosure requirements still apply. So the ideal strategy involves forming LLCs in the state that the asset is located in and then establishing a complete asset protection system that's layered and then that leverages the strongest jurisdictions for actually the next two layers, the management company and most importantly the asset protection trust. And that's where the magic happens when you add the next two layers. Your sweatshirt and waterproof coat layer. Like true protection does not come from LLCs. We can't hide ourselves and ghost ourselves from lawsuits just because we create a Wyoming llc. So LLC is merely serve as your starting point, like to get the assets out of your personal name. The real strength comes from the teeth, which are the asset protection trust.

A (16:09)

So to kind of summarize that the advantage of privacy is maybe that if someone is looking to sue you, they can't find out who you are to find everything else that you own. But the real gold is to actually have the asset protection. Because it shouldn't matter if someone knows who you are because all of your assets are protected in this plan.

B (16:32)

Correct. I would much rather have the system be so strong that I can disclose all the assets in it and say, here's everything my clients own. You'll never see a penny from it.

A (16:41)

Yeah. So Brian, real quick, before we move on to trust, you had mentioned that you should be able to afford to create an LLC and to maintain an llc. And I know it varies by state as to what those costs are, but maybe could you enlighten us as to where you can find those costs and maybe like bulk park of what some of those costs are, like including bookkeeping costs of an llc, you know, tax preparation, things like that.

B (17:09)

Generally, I would say to maintain an LLC, you know, in any state ballpark, it's like a $100 renewal fee, you know, on average. And then you're going to also in some states you're going to have to deal with the franchise tax. I'll go to the most extreme, which is California. That's $800 per LLC.

A (17:27)

Brian, I want to shift this conversation toward trust, but first we have to.

C (17:31)

Take a quick break inspecting your rentals. Again, here's a pro. A simple checklist makes sure nothing gets overlooked. It saves you time and costly repairs down the road. And when it comes to managing your rentals, RentReady makes everything easier. Rent gets paid on time, leases get signed online, and maintenance requests don't get lost in your inbox. And if you're a BiggerPockets Pro member, I've got great news for you. RentReady is already included in your membership for free. Don't leave it sitting on the table. Log in to your BiggerPockets Pro account and start using rent. Ready today.

D (18:02)

Okay, let's say you're one property's mid flip, one's between tenants, one's on Airbnb. Now try explaining that setup to a regular insurance company. Yeah, it's not fun. But with National Real Estate Insurance Group, it's actually easy. They're built for this stuff. Whether it's flips, short term rentals, even creative deals like subject to or sandwich leases. Doesn't matter if you've got properties in an LLC or a trust either. They just roll it all into one bill and their coverage flexes as your properties change. If you invest in real estate, this is who you want. Go to nrig.com/bppod to check it out. That's N R E I g.com/bppod. Do you want to invest in cash flowing rentals but don't have the time to manage the properties? Is your local market too competitive or expensive to invest in? Rent to retirement offers new construction, turnkey investment properties that you can buy with as little as 5% down and rates as low as 3.99%. Their team handles everything from financing, management, insurance and more so you can live where you want and invest in the markets that offer the best returns. Rent to Retirement has the best reputation in the industry with more five star reviews than any other company on the BiggerPockets website. To learn more, visit biggerpockets.com retirement or just text REI 233777 to start investing in the best markets today. Do you know that feeling when you're about to leave the house and you pause to double check the locks? I used to get that feeling all the time until I got Simplisafe. Here's why I trust it. Most security systems only act after somebody's already inside. SimpliSafe takes action before anything happens. Their AI powered cameras and agents keep an eye on things 24 7. If someone's hanging around your property, the agents can talk to them, activate spotlights, and even call the police. All in real time. I've had peace of mind since day one. Setting it up is a breeze and I'm honestly not very handy. And it could be done in just under an hour. Plus there are no contracts, there are no surprise fees and plans start at just $1 a day. And if it's not for you, that's fine. They offer a 60 day money back guarantee. It's no wonder SimpliSafe's been named the best home security system in the US by US News and World Report five years in a row. Right now is a great time to get SimpliSafe because you can get 50% off a new SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring and and your first month free. Go to simplisafe.com pockets that simplisafe.com pockets. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.

A (20:36)

Okay, we're back on the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast talking asset protection with Brian Bradley. So you mentioned trust a lot throughout the episode. So let's get into that. What is a trust that is meant for asset protection?

B (20:49)

They're the heart and soul of an asset protection system. Especially if you're a high risk professional like you're a real estate investor. And especially if you start having multiple real estate investments and you're investing in different states at that point you're going to be presumed high net worth if you have $1 million or more in equity. When we think about the world of trust, trusts come in lots of different flavors and types Each type of trust has its own purpose and each state is going to determine how it will interpret or recognize two very important terms for asset protection, which is irrevocability and self settled. So to list a few of the heavy hitter trusts that you're going to come across, we have the standard 101 trust that everybody's familiar with. The family Revocable living trust, your estate plan. This is for transferring assets, right? Medical and financial directives, naming beneficiaries and avoiding probate once you pass. All very important things. Part of adulting, we all need one, especially if you own anything. We got to get one. But we also need to realize that is not an asset protection trust. So we're going to need both. They have no ability, the estate plans, to protect your assets from lawsuits whatsoever because they don't have the teeth in them, which I'll explain in a minute. Then you have land trusts for real estate that you hold your land in and you connect them to LLCs. But land trusts don't have any protection in and of themselves. They're only as strong as the LLC that they connect to. Land trusts are just a privacy mechanism. They're not a protection mechanism, which is probably a shock to most of you. When the LLC gets pierced, it falls apart. We then have other tax mitigation strategy trusts that Ashley kind of mentioned one of them. And then we have trusts like Wealth Generational Skipping Trust, New York Spousal Trust, Wyoming Statutory Trust, Delaware Statutory Trust, other trusts with different names but for similar tax mitigation goals. Most of these are for tax or inheritance purposes, so they don't offer much protection for yourself when you're actually getting sued. From there we have higher levels of trust and one of the most important types of trust for asset protection is called an irrevocable asset protection trust. An asset protection trust is a unique type of self settled spendthrift trust. All this means is that it is designed for you, by you and allowing you to be your own beneficiary. And a key feature is that they have very important spendthrift provisions in them. They are provisions that allow you to protect your assets from creditors like the person suing you while you are living. They're the actual teeth behind asset protection trust. And for those teeth to work, the trust has to be not revocable, which means I can change it whenever I want want, but irrevocable. So it's a very different type of trust.

A (23:25)

I have two follow ups on that. The first is, you know, you mentioned the different trust are you going to a specific attorney to do the asset protection? Like if I'm saying, you know what, this sounds good, Brian, I don't understand still the types of trust. I, I need to talk more with an attorney. What kind of attorney are you looking to use in this situation?

B (23:47)

If it comes down to I am concerned about lawsuits for my assets and getting sued and the legal liability, you have to go to an asset protection attorney. That's what we do.

A (23:57)

My second follow up is the irrevocable trust. So the only experience I have with this is I have a friend who had this trust set up and they had it set up for like 15 years. It's been now. And he was married and both people were the owners of the trust and they divorced and there was nothing that could be done with the trust. They were told that they just had to keep owning it together. Then the children are the beneficiaries. The children are now suing the trust and they want full disclosure of all the accounting, everything that has been going on. So this is a very complicated family matter, obviously. But is that something with it irrevocable trust that like you have to be careful of as to who you're involving in the trust? And some of these, since it is irrevocable, some of these things could happen throughout your life.

B (24:52)

And that's where kind of the talk is, is heading towards is irrevocability means different things for different types of trust. So for asset protection, it means something different than versus like if I'm in New York and I create like an irrevocable spousal trust or something like that. Irrevocability when it comes to asset protection trusts is very different. So the problem with purely domestic US based asset protection trust is that courts are constantly piercing them. So judges are just ignoring the choice of law clause and using their superpowers and piercing domestic trust on violations of those state public policies. And we see this in numerous cases when we create asset protection trusts, they all need to be irrevocable and we want them to be irrevocable because we don't want to judge in a lawsuit to say, all right, Ashley, we know you have this trust, revoke it and give the assets to Bob who's suing you. Otherwise we're going to hold you in civil contempt of court. That's the importance of having asset protection trust as irrevocable. Is the power to say, no, I'm not. The downfall if it's a purely domestic case is there's no teeth behind that because judges can just say, do it or I'm going to hold you in civil contempt of court because it's your decision. If it's an offshore trust is completely different. If you use, like the Cook Islands, it's no longer in your authority for that situation. That's where the offshore trustee can say no. Talk to the hand. Here's the big middle finger. We're not doing it because it's under duress. And you can't be held in civil contempt of court because it's not you saying no, it's the offshore trustee. And the US has no control or authority over them. So it goes back to like, creating the peril. You didn't create the peril. You set this up beforehand. It's not your fault that the offshore trustee is doing their job protecting the asset. So that's the difference of how irrevocability plays out for asset protection trust when it comes to domestic versus offshore. And as you can tell, it's pretty clear that this is going to be a complex and nuanced topic with plenty of case law on this. And so you got to be really particular on the type of attorney that you go to, because your standard estate planning attorney, they're not going to know these nuances, especially state by state and what works for asset protection purposes. And so you're probably listening this and hearing the limitations, and you're starting to feel pretty hopeless. But you shouldn't, right? There's light at the end of the tunnel. And that solution is hybrid asset protection trusts and how they play out.

A (27:15)

I saw this post. Someone had commented on a real estate rookie YouTube video, and I don't remember exactly what the video was about, but I saw their comment pop up and it was like, okay, great. To get my first property, I need a bookkeeper, I need an attorney, I need a cpa. And it was like, all these things. And so that person can add to the list an estate attorney and an asset protection attorney to that long list.

B (27:39)

Well, and that's the thing, is a lot of people want to cut corners. And when you're investing, you really got to start thinking about, like, all right, everything's peachy and fine. When, when there's no problems, what happens when I get punched in the face and I'm potentially going to get sued here? Did the corners that I cut and the team members that I didn't involve in this, was that a good decision? So you need to have a good cpa, you need to have a good wealth manager, you need to have an estate plan. And then if you're owning assets, we have to protect them. But we can't just protect them cheap and janky. We got to protect them properly, which means creating proper LLCs, which is going to cost a little bit, which means having proper management companies, which means creating the proper asset protection trust in the proper way in the state that you're at. That's actually going to work. If, God forbid, a big lawsuit were to come your way. The whole reason you're creating this is for it to work under duress.

A (28:33)

Well, Brian, thank you so much for coming on today to share your knowledge and experience. Experience. Can you let people know where they can find out more information about you?

B (28:42)

Yeah, absolutely. Just feel free Jump on my website www.btblegal.com I have a lot of free educational resources including video slide presentations and legal resource blogs and over 70 published articles on various asset protection topics and and break down a lot of the main states that we went over on that.

A (29:06)

Well, Brian, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining us and it's always great to have you on the BiggerPockets podcast. I'm Ashley and thank you so much for joining me for this episode and I'll see you guys around.

D (29:18)

Thank you all for listening to the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian K, copywriting is by Calico, content and editing is by Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. the content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk, so use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing. You should only risk capital you can afford to lose and remember, past performance is not indicative of future results. BiggerPockets, LLC disclaims all liability for direct, indirect, consequential or other damages arising from a reliance on information presented in this podcast. Everyone, my favorite event of the year is almost here, the BiggerPockets conference, and we just added two new sessions to the event that you are not going to want to miss. We have Doug Bryan, super bowl champion turned real estate strategist, who's going to share the playbook he used after 2008 to scale to 17,000 single family rentals. We also have Andy Gill, full time investor and tech pro who's going to share the exact AI prompts he uses to save hours on contracts, deal analysis and operations. Said it before, but it is worth repeating. The next wave of opportunity in real estate is already forming. And I believe that the investors who get ahead of that won't be the luckiest, they'll be the most prepared. And that's why I want to see you at bpcon with over 40 sessions packed with real tactics for today's market. You'll leave ready to act. But the real magic, it happens in the hallways. Connecting with other investors, swapping ideas, and building relationships that last long after you leave Vegas. October 5th is right around the corner. So if you've been on the fence, now's the time. Grab your ticket at biggerpockets.com Vegas that's biggerpockets.com Vegas.