Smart Asset Protection For Property Owners

The fact of the matter is, if you own real property you understand the many benefits property ownership offers, whether it is just your own home or a vast real estate empire! But there is a down side, and as a property owner you are at risk!

At Smart Resources, we are devoted to providing information and educational resources that will help you to "Build Your Financial Fortress!" To that end, we are excited to introduce you to our latest publication, Smart Asset Protection for Property Owners, written by Bryan Adams. He has the experience to give you the inside story...

Most property owners give up all privacy and broadcast their wealth to the world. The result? They end up a sitting duck, just waiting to get picked off. Anyone can go to the courthouse, put your name in the computer and find out about every piece of property you own. Now, if someone owns stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Certificates of deposits, etc., they couldn't do that. But the investor who chooses the most lucrative investment vehicle, Real Estate, is exposed to the world!

Hold your property in a trust. Then you can choose any name you'd like to name your trust. And, once your property is titled in this way, if anyone went down and typed your name into the computer, nothing would pop up. You would look like a pauper? no assets! How juicy of a duck would you look like then? It may be that an attorney considering suing you might get a little discouraged if he did a preliminary search and could not readily find accessible assets.

The potential of being sued because of an injury on your property may be the number one fear that landlords and real estate investors experience. According to the author of Smart Asset Protection for Property Owners:

Here's the deal -- whenever a tenant, a tenant's friend, a tenant's friend's child, (even a trespasser or someone committing a crime on your property, in some cases!) is injured on your property, you could be slapped with a personal injury lawsuit. Premises liability is frequently the basis for high-dollar lawsuits in America! Many times these lawsuits are based in truth, but there have been cases of professional "slip-and-fall artists". Either way, you need to protect yourself, your assets and your family.

If you are the subject of a lawsuit because someone slipped on the steps at your property on Elm Street, you might not know that your rental homes at Main Street, Blue Water Drive and Green Grass Way are also at risk! If you're not careful, each and every one of your properties could become exposed to a lawsuit (or judgment).

You think Insurance will protect you? Insurance employees are paid to deny or delay claims, and policies are carefully drafted to include numerous exclusions you probably don't even know about.

Putting off estate planning is another enormous mistake property owners make! Smart Asset Protection for Property Owners is the first step. With the use of trusts, you can plan much of your estate as you go, protecting yourself in the process! But further planning can ensure that you do not give probate attorneys or the IRS a huge chunk of your kids' inheritance! Proper planning also provides peace of mind. We don't know what each day brings and each day, no matter what happens, you will feel more secure if you have provided for the future of your family. We can provide you with the information and education you need to understand current estate planning opportunities and how to take advantage of the current tax laws and legislation.

After a special interview with a contributor to Smart Asset Protection for Property Owners, this attorney quietly shared what can happen to any property owner. Here is, in essence, a recap of that conversation...

Let's Look At An Example of a Typical Scenario

Let's say one of your tenants slips and falls at your house on Elm Street. And let's assume that the tenant opens the yellow pages to the Attorney Section and calls one of those adds that promises injured people that they don't pay a dime unless that attorney gets them some cash (at which time, the lawyer gets a sizable cut of the winnings). When your tenant visits her lawyer and tells her story, the first thing the lawyer will do is determine whether it is worth his while to take her case... in other words, he asks (to himself) "how am I going to get paid?" Then he will check into (1) the homeowners' insurance and (2) the property owners' financial wherewithal. If the lawyer goes to his computer, types his potential client's landlord's name and up pops YOUR NAME as owner of that property -- or worse, owner of two, ten, twenty or more pieces of property! -- the lawyer has made his decision. He doesn't even worry about whether the insurance company denies the claim or is hard to deal with, because He's Already Hit Pay Dirt -- and You Are It!

How Do I Know This?

Because I Was A Personal Injury Attorney!

And I worked with a very prominent personal injury law firm in Florida... until I couldn't stomach it any longer.

But back to our Example: So this lawyer accepts your tenant's personal injury case and goes to work filing a lawsuit against you, demanding huge sums of money, and putting every single property you own at risk of being attached with a judgment. Yes, not just Elm Street, but every single property you own.

Now you are faced with hiring your own lawyer to defend yourself. And defense lawyers don't offer contingent fees -- you will have to come out of pocket for your lawyer's time and all the court fees and administrative costs that go along with the wonderful world of lawsuits. Not to mention your blood pressure, sleep patterns and marital harmony that are jeopardized because you are now a defendant in a lawsuit and all of your personal assets are at immediate risk.

Now let's say, for the purposes of this example, that you took the steps you thought you needed to take to protect yourself from liability, and all of your properties are owned by your corporation. You've put all of your eggs in one basket - the corporation - and now all of the eggs would be exposed to the pending lawsuit. OOPS! All of your work could be snatched because a clumsy tenant slipped and fell on the corporation's property.

But What About Insurance?

Why Won't That Protect You?

You definitely should have an insurance policy with liability coverage on every property you own. But know this: Insurance companies hire hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people whose job it is to pick apart every line of your insurance policy and, if at all possible, Deny The Claim! That will leave you on the hook -- alone. Even when insurance claim adjusters know that a policy should protect the property owner, and that the policy provides coverage for the incident under question, they are not personally effected in any way, shape, or form -- they are an employee and have no personal incentive to pay that claim in a timely manner. In fact, their employer may have provided tangible incentives to drag the claim process out for as long as possible, many times allowing the lawsuit to continue on for a very long time. There may even be times when an insurance company's attorney can advise the company to pay the claim and end the lawsuit, and the insurance company simply ignores their attorney's advise, refusing to settle the claim for what their own attorney has advised would be a reasonable amount!

How Do I Know This?

Because I Was Also An Insurance Defense Attorney!

And I worked for a very respected insurance defense law firm... until I couldn't stomach THAT any longer, either! Look, the bottom line with insurance is, you must have it! But don't count on the insurance company or the insurance company's attorney to stand by your side and work to protect your every interest when you've been named in a premises liability action. YOU need to look out for your own best interest. The world ain't gonna do it for you.

Smart Asset Protection for Property Owners is written by a successful investor that has learned the hard way. Also contributing to the book is an ex-personal injury attorney with excellent academic and real-world credentials, and you should expect the same from any professional educational product (or face-to-face dealings with professionals):

The author is a professional with excellent academic credentials. Whether considering an author or a personal consultation, seek out an attorney who graduated from an ABA accredited law school with honors, preferably in the top 5% of his class. Also look for someone who was awarded prestigious law school honors like Law Review member, Law Review Editor, Moot Court member, publication in the top law review journal as a student (and who has published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals since graduating from law school!).

The author has had experience working with a Plaintiff's Personal Injury Attorney with a large, respected plaintiff's law firm. The author is intimately familiar with the way a "PI" attorney thinks when they are considering whether to take a case, and how they prepare and prosecute a case once they accept the client.

The author has had experience working with an Insurance Defense Attorney representing some major insurance carriers in the United States. Again, this is critical, as this lawyer will have an inside track to understanding insurance attorneys and insurance claims adjusters. This kind of experience is invaluable when drafting legal documents meant to provide excellent asset protection.

The author has trial experience, both jury trials and bench trials (where only the judge hears the case), so that you're comfortable that they know battle in a courtroom. But this author is committed to Litigation Avoidance! Be careful with estate planning attorneys that push you to complete a will (without discussing other estate planning options) -- he just might be more interested in ultimately serving as your family's probate attorney, rather than doing what is best for you TODAY (which very well may be AVOIDING probate altogether!)

Just Take A Look. All Smart Wealth Resource Products Carry A "Rock Solid Guarantee"!

Thirty days. Get the book, and read it twice. Take the book to your attorney and your CPA. Print out some of the counseling forms and begin to design your plan. Internalize the documentation for the next two months and two days. If it isn't even more valuable than you expect -- full refund. All of it. Every cent. Smart Resources stands behind every product, and we want you to be absolutely thrilled with your purchases, to send your friends and family to our site, and use our resources again and again!

Warmest wishes and Successful Planning,

Smart Resources, LLC

P.S. You really can't afford NOT to invest in protecting you family and your wealth. You must be pro-active and take action now -- none of knows what tomorrow will bring...


This and all Smart Resources publications are offered with the understanding that neither the publisher nor the author(s) is engaged in rendering legal, tax, or other professional services via this web page or anywhere on the internet. If legal, tax, or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

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