Protecting Assets
I am new to this and have been doing much reading and talking to people about it. Before I get going in REI, I want to protect my personal residence from anyone wishing to sue me.
I went to a seminar where I was told to put my house in a land trust and then create a living trust. I understand that the land trust hides the beneficiary from lawyers doing searches against my name.
I live in Illinois and just recently found out that the law states that beneficiaries of the trust must be disclosed. I was told that the way around this was to double trust. I do not understand how this is going to protect me.
If I say I am beneficiary of Trust A and Trust A is beneficiary of Trust B, then what is to stop anyone from going up the ladder and finding me ?
If I was looking at Trust B and saw Trust A was beneficiary, what is to stop me from looking at Trust A and seeing its beneficiary as real owner ?
I also talked to my friend/realtor and he said to change my deed on house from Joint Tenancy to Tenancy by Entirety. He gave me the number of his lawyer and I asked her what was better...to put in a trust or to change to Tenancy by Entirety. She said Tenancy by Entirety but I kind of expected her to say that.
Anyone in Illinois or that knows about trusts in Illinois that can give me an insight here ?
I'm new to this too so view my advice in this light. I cannot respond directly to your question, but as another measure of protection, have you looked into homesteading your property? I have heard that this protects so of the equity in your property, and it is very inexpensive to setup. I do not know the laws in IL, but perhaps somebody at TCI could shed some light on this option.
Good luck, and happy investing!
Of course, the first thing to do is purchase the property, though you should be able to place it in a LLC. That should give you the protection you would need....
Also, you could get a 1,000,000 general liability policy which would help. They are pretty inexpensive, all things considered.
Good luck