Pro Asset Protection

Attorney Ike Devji

  • Articles
  • Contact
  • Facts and FAQ’s
  • Asset Protection Attorney Ike Devji – Bio
  • Home
  • Off the Record
  • Reputation and Recognition

Asset Protection for Your Home – Bad Legal Advice is the Norm

September 6, 2011 by Ike Devji, Asset Protection Lawyer Leave a Comment

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
John Howard Payne (1791 – 1852)

A good part of the American dream and the largest single asset many people own is their home. Whether shelter or showpiece, the sanctuary it provides and the investment we make in our homes is among the largest in the Western world yet surprisingly little thought goes into protecting that investment.

In some states the equity in your home, should you be fortunate enough to have any left at this point, is completely protected by law, typically homestead statutes. In other states that protection is so low that it is virtually non-existent and requires you to take action to protect your investment. Knowing what the homestead limits in your state are and when they apply, (i.e. only in bankruptcy or only on a dwelling actually occupied by you) is a good start.

 The key is simple: You do not need to hold personal title to your home to use, control and enjoy it the way you want to.

We see many physicians and other business owners transfer their primary residence to a spouse, child, or other relative for safekeeping, a common amateur mistake that fails to protect the asset in any competent way. All this achieves is the substitution of your liability for that of another individual that drives a car, interacts with public in some way, and may have their own professional liability issues. Even worse, if that person has only one or few assets, the home you transferred to them may be the only asset they have available to satisfy any kind of liability or judgment. Example? A physician in the Northwest does some Internet “research” (yikes!) and decides to transfer his paid-for $2.9 million home to his adult college-aged son to protect it from his professional liability. Within a year the son was involved in a car accident that killed another driver, the family home was his only asset.

Another common error involves the assumption that your home, or any other asset, is protected by having it titled in your Revocable Living Trust. As the first word implies, the trust is revocable during your lifetime and you can be ordered to convey it to a judgment creditor by the courts. Having your home adequately protected by an irrevocable trust on the other hand is a better option and may allow you to keep mortgage interest deductions and capital gains benefits in certain scenarios. These tools must be chosen appropriately and by experienced counsel as they have serious tax, title, and use implications that will affect your rights to use and hold the property.

Many estate planners use tools like qualified personal residence trusts (aka QPRTs) that are not age- and use-appropriate outside their intended purpose, making a real gift of your home to your heirs. Make sure you are working with counsel that understands that you may want to upsize, downsize, or equity strip the property to make an investment of some kind and that the tools they are proposing you will allow you to do so. Having your money in a “safe” is worthless if you can’t get it open when you want it.

Likewise, business attorneys often make the mistake of using “business” tools for “personal” assets, such as putting the home you live in into an LLC (or limited partnership, corporation, etc.) under the false impression that this somehow protects it. To be protective the vehicle has to meet all formalities of business entities, including separate bank accounts, records, and tax reporting. Further, it needs to have a legitimate business purpose, like property management or real estate investing and if you live in it you need to pay commercially reasonable rent to the entity that owns the home.

Given this only partial list of the details and hurdles involved you can see that, “Put your personal residence in an LLC,” is both bad and incomplete advice for most people and such a transfer to a corporate entity can also cost you the capital gains benefit and mortgage interest deductions if not handled the right way.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: arizona real esate, Asset Protection, Asset Protection for Your Home, asset protection trusts, dentists, Doctors, FINANCIAL ISSUES FOR DOCTORS, financial literacy, homeowner's liability, Wealth Transfer Strategies Tagged With: Asset Protection, buying a home, homestead, Ike Devji, luxury home

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

See Ike’s Work In Action

· Ike Devji on Acrimoney.com
· Ike Devji on CFO ADVISORS
· Ike Devji on Infosec Island
· Ike Devji on Risk and Threat Management

Money Matters Interview

Recent Posts

  • The Business Roundtable Podcast: Asset Protection
  • The Risks of Doing Business With Family Members
  • Campaign Contributions: What Business Owners Need to Know
  • Recession Asset Protection – Is My Bank Safe?
  • Asset Protection for Pain Management Doctors and Anesthesiologists

Categories

  • 2012 Economy (3)
  • 2013 Economy (3)
  • 2020 Recession (1)
  • 529 and College Savings Plans (1)
  • abusive tax schemes (13)
  • APT (3)
  • Arizona (19)
  • arizona anti-deficiency statutes (5)
  • Arizona Asset Protection (33)
  • arizona bankruptcy (4)
  • arizona economy (13)
  • Arizona Estate Planning (11)
  • arizona forclosure (8)
  • arizona real esate (12)
  • Asset Protection (174)
  • Asset Protection Education (16)
  • Asset Protection for Doctors (36)
  • Asset Protection for Your Home (7)
  • Asset Protection Fraud and Failures (22)
  • asset protection law (25)
  • asset protection strategies (42)
  • asset protection trusts (33)
  • Baby Boomers (5)
  • Banking and Bank Solvency (5)
  • Bankruptcy (8)
  • Best Money Market rates (1)
  • brokers (1)
  • Business Asset Protection (3)
  • business law (3)
  • business legal planning (72)
  • business owner and entrepreneur (15)
  • Business Owners (28)
  • business survival (48)
  • business valuation (6)
  • buy sell agreement (5)
  • captive insurance company (8)
  • Cars and Automobile Liability (4)
  • Cash Alernatives (2)
  • CEO (27)
  • children (8)
  • chiropractors (35)
  • CIO (1)
  • closely held business (30)
  • commercial real estate (8)
  • Coronavirus (2)
  • cpa (20)
  • creditor negotiation (4)
  • creditor protected cash alternatives (5)
  • Crisis Management Planning (7)
  • CTO (1)
  • DAPT (3)
  • debt (4)
  • deficiency judgment (2)
  • defined benefit plans (2)
  • dentists (57)
  • Director and Officer Liability (10)
  • disability insurance (2)
  • Divorce (5)
  • doctor sued (44)
  • Doctors (54)
  • Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (2)
  • Due Dilligence (11)
  • economy (9)
  • employee social media usage (3)
  • Employment law (25)
  • Entrepreneurs (5)
  • equity (1)
  • ESTATE MANAGEMENT (2)
  • estate planning (29)
  • estate tax (12)
  • estate taxes (3)
  • Expatriation (1)
  • face book (3)
  • family business (19)
  • Family Legal Planning (7)
  • family liability (11)
  • family limited partnership (4)
  • Family Office (8)
  • FAMILY OFFICE ISSUES (6)
  • FDIC Insurance Limits (2)
  • finacial advisors (7)
  • Finance (12)
  • financial advisors (23)
  • FINANCIAL ISSUES FOR DOCTORS (47)
  • financial literacy (56)
  • financing (6)
  • firearms (5)
  • forclosure (2)
  • foreclosure (3)
  • foreign bank accounts (7)
  • fraud (18)
  • fraudulent conveyance (3)
  • funding (3)
  • Geri Custer (1)
  • gifting (1)
  • Gifting – Wealth Transfer (4)
  • Greg George (5)
  • GTI ADVISORS (5)
  • Gun trusts (1)
  • guns (7)
  • HEALTH CARE LAW (6)
  • high net worth (17)
  • HIPPA violations (1)
  • homeowner's liability (13)
  • HR (3)
  • IAPT (2)
  • id theft (4)
  • Ike Devji (100)
  • Ike Devji – Asset Protection Expert (5)
  • ILIT (2)
  • information security (5)
  • intangible assets (3)
  • intellectual property (1)
  • investing (12)
  • investment exposure (14)
  • IRA creditor protection (1)
  • IRA Trusts (1)
  • Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (3)
  • IRS (7)
  • Jeff Christenson (4)
  • Jumbo CD Rates (1)
  • kids (6)
  • lawsuit awards (23)
  • lawyers (8)
  • Leadership & Management (12)
  • leading wealth and legal advisors (2)
  • legal documents and records (3)
  • Legal Strategies (19)
  • liability (46)
  • liability insurance (35)
  • Life Insurance (13)
  • life Insurance conversions (1)
  • LIFE INSURANCE CREDITOR PROTECTION (2)
  • Life Insurnace Conversions (2)
  • Limited Liability Companies (2)
  • Limited Partnerships and FLPs (1)
  • linkedIn (1)
  • LLC Asset Protection (3)
  • LLC Myths (2)
  • Loan default (4)
  • Lotzer Law Group (1)
  • malpractice (14)
  • malpractice insurance (2)
  • marketing and reputataion management (2)
  • Marriage and Family (2)
  • Medical Marijuana (1)
  • Medical Practice Management (23)
  • medical practice mangement (31)
  • Medical Practice Risk Management (14)
  • mexican real estate (1)
  • Mortgage (1)
  • Municipal Bonds (2)
  • Nevada (1)
  • offshore (16)
  • offshore banking (9)
  • offshore trusts (13)
  • parenting (7)
  • partnerships (2)
  • personal finance (2)
  • personal injury (8)
  • personal security (9)
  • physicians (41)
  • physicians personal finance (3)
  • privacy and identity (2)
  • professional athletes (27)
  • professional entertainers (17)
  • property insurance (7)
  • rachel weiss (5)
  • Raisng Capital and Funding Your Business (1)
  • real estate investing (14)
  • recession (12)
  • recession lawsuits (13)
  • recession survival (32)
  • Reputation and Recognition (1)
  • reputation management (1)
  • Retirement Plan Creditor Protection (2)
  • retirement plan funding (2)
  • Richard Arnold (1)
  • risk management (11)
  • scams (13)
  • Scottsdale (1)
  • Sean Shepherd (3)
  • SEC (1)
  • secret bank accounts (6)
  • SECURITY (5)
  • shelf corporations (1)
  • small business (3)
  • social media (5)
  • start-ups (7)
  • startup (5)
  • Strategic Default (4)
  • Succession and Transition Planning (5)
  • Surgeons and Surgical Centers (5)
  • tax deductions (19)
  • tax fraud (7)
  • taxation (17)
  • taxes (23)
  • THE VAULT (2)
  • Trisha Lotzer (1)
  • trusts (4)
  • twitter (1)
  • Uncategorized (52)
  • up front fees (1)
  • Urgent Care Centers (1)
  • vacant real estate liability (4)
  • venture capital (6)
  • wealth transfer (5)
  • Wealth Transfer Strategies (13)
  • women & money (8)
  • Workplace Violence (2)
  • worth magazine (4)

Copyright © 2021 · Dynamik-Gen on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in