The Supreme Court of Florida took away a key asset protection benefit in deciding Olmstead v. Federal Trade Commission (SC 01-109, Fla. June 24, 2010). Before the ruling a charging order was the exclusive remedy, whereby the judgment creditor (the person who won a lawsuit) could only receive distributions from the LLC. Now, a judgment creditor may directly seize the ownership interest of a member in a single member LLC.

The Olmstead decision allows Florida courts to order a judgment debtor to surrender all right, title and interest in the debtor’s single member Florida LLC to satisfy a judgment. Prior to the ruling many had believed that Florida law provided that the charging order was the exclusive creditor remedy.

            Not anymore.

Multi member Florida LLC owners should be very concerned by this decision. Writing a dissent in the 3-2 decision Justice Lewis warned that the Olmstead ruling means that the charging order is a non exclusive remedy for all LLCs, whether single or multi member.

Justice Lewis wrote: “The majority opinion now eliminates the charging order remedy for multi member LLCs under its theory of “nonexclusivity” which is a disaster for those entities.”

If you are using a Florida LLC to protect your assets you may want to reconsider your state of formation. Wyoming allows LLCs to easily reform themselves into Wyoming. The continuance process allows a Florida LLC to reorganize in Wyoming and keep the same formation date, EIN number and credit history. The advantage is that you now have a Wyoming LLC, which expressly recognizes the charging order as the exclusive remedy. Our office charges $750 plus filing fees to continue LLCs to the better asset protection state of Wyoming. Please call 1-800-600-1760 for more information.

And remember, asset protection is an ever changing area of the law. The Olmstead case was decided in a way that allowed another government agency – The Federal Trade Commission – to collect. Of course, the case now applies to the benefit of all creditors. In a dynamic field it is important to stay current on the latest cases, and move accordingly.



Gold, silver and other precious metals require asset protection. We live in a litigious and uncertain world, which is most likely one of the reasons you invested in precious metals in the first place. It is important to know that if gold, silver, platinum and other metals are held in your individual name, they too can be lost in a lawsuit.

By using an LLC to hold title to your precious metals you have much greater protection. With precious metal assets in an LLC, if you are sued individually a judgment creditor (the person who won the lawsuit) has to fight through the LLC to get at the assets. This is a difficult process.

By using a Wyoming LLC, all the judgment creditor can get (after hiring a Wyoming attorney to go to court in Wyoming) is a charging order. The charging order is a court order directing the judgment creditor to receive any distributions made from the LLC. This means they can't force you to sell the metals and give the money to them. All it allows is for monies - when distributed - to go to the judgment creditor. In the case of precious metals what distributions will be made? You typically would not be distributing your gold, silver or platinum. Instead, you are holding them in the LLC for protection. You are free to hold them in the LLC until the judgment creditor goes away or settles for pennies on the dollar. More importantly, by holding valuable precious metals in an LLC the claim may never be brought in the first place. LLCs offer gold asset protection, silver asset protection and precious metals asset protection.

Another important feature of the LLC is privacy. Wyoming law allows for nominee managers, whereby another person is listed as the manager, thus keeping your name off the public records. (It is both incredible and disturbing what people can find out about you on the internet.) 

Our nominee manager is a professional living outside the United States. She won't know about or have access to your precious metals. That is between you and your gold and silver dealer. But by using a nominee your name stays private, which is an excellent strategy these days.

Title to your gold and silver must be in the name of the LLC for you to have protection in place. There are two ways to do this. First, you can form the LLC and buy the precious metals in the name of the LLC. (We have LLCs already formed for this purpose if you are in a hurry.) By purchasing metals in the name of the LLC the chain of title is clear. Or, if you already own the metals in your name or now buy them in your name, you can later transfer title to your LLC. The preferred way to do this is a transfer agreement signed before a notary.

Wyoming and Nevada have the most protective LLC laws. The difference is price in the form of annual fees. Nevada is $325 per year versus only $50 a year for Wyoming. With our resident agent fee of $125 for either Nevada or Wyoming, total annual cost is $450 for Nevada versus $175 per year for Wyoming. Setting up the LLC (a one time fee) is $1,210 for Nevada and $830 for Wyoming. The difference is, again, state filing fees.

But unlike other situations where protection is also required - rental real estate, for example - with precious metals, you don't need to qualify to do business in the state where the assets are located. With precious metals your LLC's business is protecting assets not operating a business. And a Wyoming (or Nevada if you want) LLC is all you need, no matter what state you are in. That said, California can present challenges, so be sure and speak with an account representative about your specific situation.

Tax wise you won't pay any extra taxes by using an LLC to hold gold and silver. Since the LLC is a flow through tax vehicle, taxes on gains will be taxed to you personally, just as if you held it in your individual name. The difference is with an LLC you have asset protection. By holding gold and silver in your individual name (or even in your living trust) you are exposed. 

Many people are using IRAs to hold their gold and silver. There is a misperception that IRAs offer complete asset protection. In actuality, it is much more complicated. Federal law protects IRAs up to only $1 million but state laws can reduce that amount. For example, in Nevada only $500,000 in IRA accounts is protected. 

Click here to read article on Double IRA Protection (PDF).

The better practice is to have your self directed IRA form an LLC to hold the gold and silver. A graphic example is as follows:

Self Directed IRA
(owns LLC)

In this structure, if you were to be sued individually, a judgment creditor (or bankruptcy trustee) could seek your IRA assets. If they can get past the IRA they still have to fight to get through the LLC. You have much better protection using an LLC to hold your IRA assets.

All told, gold, silver and other precious metals deserve asset protection. At just $175 per year to maintain a Wyoming LLC, you are buying the best asset protection insurance possible.

For more information please click here or call 800-700-1430.

Facing government resistance at every turn and increased costs of doing business, foreign banks are now ever more hesitant to operate in America.

Compliance costs for handling U.S. accounts are already so high that many banks are simply refusing to open new accounts for U.S. individuals. If HR 4213, which passed the House of Representatives in December 2009, is approved by the Senate in the coming weeks even more banks will terminate their U.S. clients. The bill, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Reporting Act (or FATCAT), will essentially close the door to many foreign banks. There’s more…

Coming to a tax haven near you: The IRS Criminal Investigation Division is opening offices in a dozen foreign countries. The disgruntled banker in Switzerland or Panama who wants to provide offshore banking information to the IRS can now just walk into their local IRS office. The informant commission incentives are there – but they are to be questioned.

UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld turned IRS informant and brought his Swiss bank to the brink with the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice. The case, which was recently featured on 60 Minutes, was egregious. UBS bankers were flying to America to recruit and assist U.S. citizens in evading their U.S. tax obligations. Did Birkenfeld get millions for his whistleblowing activities? No, the Department of Justice found fault in a related matter. So not only is Birkenfeld out his bounty but he is serving a 40-month prison sentence. No one else in the entire UBS scandal is serving one day of time. Just the informant. One wonders how many potential whistleblowers will actually show up at these new IRS offices.

Still, the IRS is expanding its reach. It has joined the Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre. The U.S., Australia, Japan, Canada and Britain are coming together to conduct simultaneous tax audits of wealthy individuals. So not only will an audit mean your U.S. activities are questioned, but those activities in all the aforementioned countries may also be scrutinized. Now Americans will get to see how IRS audit agents stack up against their British and Japanese counterparts.

Is all of this a good thing?

We have been suspicious and even critical of offshore banking for years. But the one positive aspect of it all cannot be denied. These institutions place and manage a great deal of non-U.S. money into the U.S. stock market. They trade and hold U.S. dollars. But with compliance costs so high, and the challenge of greater regulations on the horizon, these banks are now and will be pulling their money out of the U.S. At a time when we need as much liquidity as possible, beating up on offshore banks may prove costly to America in the long run.



Contact: Jackie Shelton, 775-772-6543
jackie@realifemarketing.com

For Immediate Release: Local Attorney Featured Speaker at Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Real Estate Summit” Also featured contributor in Kiyosaki’s “The Real Book of Real Estate” Reno, NV -- Local attorney and author, Garrett Sutton will be a featured speaker at Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Real Estate Summit,” taking place in Scottsdale, September 12 and 13. He is also one of the featured contributors to Kiyosaki's newly released The Real Book of Real Estate, which is part of the Rich Dad series. "As one of the foremost experts in real estate investing, Garrett has helped thousands of people make money (and save money) in real estate,” said Kiyosaki. “And with five titles and more than 700,000 in book sales he is also one of the most successful authors in the law for the layman genre in publishing history. I’m very pleased that Garrett was able to contribute to The Real Book of Real Estate.”

"This book gives real estate investors - both novice and seasoned - the chance to learn from real, real estate investors and advisors - people who have been through the ups and the downs of the markets and who walk their talk,” Kiyosaki says. “These real estate experts share relevant stories and proven strategies.”

Robert Kiyosaki, while often viewed as a bit of a contrarian, has the reputation for delivering financial education principles that enable people to process the financial information we are bombarded with 24/7. That is one of the reason Rich Dad Poor Dad is the #1 Personal Finance book of all time and a long-running international bestseller.

In 1997 Robert wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad and said that your house is not an asset. Fast forward to 2005. In an interview on KTLA in Los Angeles he talked about the real estate market crash that was coming. Fast forward, again to 2008, when KTLA replayed that 2005 interview and marveled at Kiyosaki's vision and command of history and trends.

In The Real Book of Real Estate, Robert Kiyosaki and the 22 experts who have collaborated in the writing of the book (including Donald Trump, Garrett Sutton and Ken McElroy) deliver real strategies that every investor can use, regardless of market conditions or economic turbulence.

Sutton is the author of Own Your Own Corporation, How to Buy and Sell a Business, The ABC's of Getting Out Of Debt, The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans, and the co-author of Real Estate Advantages, all in the Rich Dad series. In The Real Book of Real Estate Sutton focuses on real estate asset protection. Sutton has more than 25 years experience assisting and advising entrepreneurs, families and businesses in selecting the appropriate corporate structures to limit their liability, protect their assets and advance their personal and financial goals through real estate investments and other means of wealth creation. The Real Book of Real Estate is available in bookstores everywhere and online at www.sutlaw.com and www.amazon.com. For more information on the seminar, click here!

What Happens When You Sell an Exchange Property at a Loss In today’s real estate market? This is a great question that commonly arises: "What does happen if you sell a property bought in a 1031 exchange at a loss?" Let’s say, for example, you have a buyer with cash in hand offering you $175,000 for a rental property you paid $200,000 for as part of a 1031 exchange you did three years ago.

Read this article:http://expert1031.com/1031facts/articles/crej021809.html

Using 1031 Exchanges to Shift Gain Recognition Between Years.
As we start to wind down towards the end of the year, now is a good time to point out that 1031 exchanges are a great vehicle to use in shifting gain between two tax years. For example, if Fred and Sue sell their purple duplex on December 1, 2008, their 45-day identification deadline for their exchange is January 14, 2009. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code requires that they send a list of potential acquisition properties to their intermediary no later than, in this example, this date. Failure to do so will terminate their exchange, causing the gain from the sale of their purple duplex to be taxable.

Read this article: http://expert1031.com/1031facts/articles/crej101508.html

Purchase Gary Gorman's book: Exchanging Up at Successdna.com! Half price at $12.95