How to Protect Your Real Estate Wealth in a Lawsuit-Happy World | Asset Protection Secrets

[00:00:00] Hey, welcome viewers and listeners today. I have an amazing podcast today. I'm excited you joined us. I've got the guest today, Brian Bradley. He's an attorney that focuses on asset protection. He's a bestselling author of Overexposed. And the thing about it is we always talk about creating wealth, expanding wealth, expanding your business, expanding your portfolio, your passive income, but we never talk about protecting it.

[00:00:27] Once in a while, I get questions from people about structuring businesses and investments into LLCs and things and versus putting in their own personal name, which I think is base level advice that most people want to give, but nowhere to the level of a seasoned expert and pro and expert. Brian is an asset protection attorney.

[00:00:45] Welcome to the Brick and Mortar Money Show, the podcast dedicated to helping business owners and professionals achieve wealth, autonomy, and control through commercial property

[00:00:57] ownership. Join us as we unlock the power of real estate to transform your business and investment strategies. Whether you're seeking to expand, invest, or gain more freedom in your entrepreneurial journey, this is your destination for insightful stories, expert advice, and actionable strategies. Welcome.

[00:01:21] So, Brian, welcome to the show. I'm excited about digging into this today, man.

[00:01:25] Yeah, no, thanks, Paul. Thanks for the nice intro. This is going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to try to keep it not legal yeast and just talk about like we're out at a bonfire having some drinks or something.

[00:01:35] We're going to go over some changes in the law. I want to try to do a lot of myth busting and maybe even defining what this word asset protection means and going to go into some layers.

[00:01:44] And all that stuff that we're going to be talking about today are in my, like you mentioned, my number one bestselling book, Overexposed, which is the overall horn book of asset protection, where I break down the whole world of asset protection and how we got to the point of this crazy, messed up legal and tort system that we're living in and that we're investing in and how to protect ourselves from it while we're continuing building our businesses and building our portfolios.

[00:02:10] And then like on a, on a side note of it, besides my firm, my, my soon to be wife and I also started a coaching business, blending both of our expertise.

[00:02:19] So we're now offering also certified disc assessments and 360 degree feedbacks and pretty soon Hogan evaluations and a lot more other things to optimize talent and leadership skills training.

[00:02:31] But today we're going to be focusing, talking about the fun world of asset protection and keeping what we got.

[00:02:37] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will say it's, it's probably not fun to us, but it's something that you got to have in place, right? If you want to, you're building your wealth for a reason.

[00:02:47] It's hopefully to enjoy it and then maybe pass it on to the generations, your kids and whatnot. And being in such a litigious world that we're in today, when people can sue for virtually anything and they do, it seems to me that it needs to be a critical piece of the overall strategy and plan, right? Going forward, if you're thinking about building wealth.

[00:03:08] Absolutely. And that's how I transitioned into even practicing into asset protection. Like I actually started on the litigation side as one of the top trial lawyers in the nation, which is different.

[00:03:20] Generally you hear about some people going into asset protection from like the contract side or real estate side or estate planning side. We got contract attorneys and, but the problem there is like their knowledge is just limited.

[00:03:31] And it generally ends with, but I took a continuing legal education course on LLC. So I'm good to go. And they didn't actually take the time to do the deep dive into what actually this area of law is. And we're not taught it in law school. We're not tested on it for the bar exam.

[00:03:43] And there's a lot of different types of trust, which we'll break down later on. So a lot of people are just lost. And while I was going through litigation and trials, I just had a lot of clients being sued in their lives, just turned completely upside down because they purchased a false sense of security and just getting really bad advice on what to do from attorneys that were practicing the area of asset protection law. And they're just way outside their specialty and scope.

[00:04:09] So as an investor, even myself and a business owner, I started doing a deep dive into this topic 15 years ago in the world of asset protection, started working and affiliating with the top two firms in the nation on it. And I just fell in love with it and then transitioned my firm to 100% asset protection because it really just combines all the areas of law personally that I just liked with like litigation, financing, taxes, as well as the investment side and making money.

[00:04:35] And then God forbid where businesses are growing, we're accumulating more assets. Oh, what happens if I get sued? I don't want all my hard work, time, energy and labor to just disappear for nothing.

[00:04:44] Yeah, no, that's fascinating though, that you fell into it through from a steered into a fellow to whatever through the litigation route. Because I would imagine I don't come from any kind of a legal background at all other than I did watch the paper chase and I do have some attorneys.

[00:05:01] It seems like if you're litigating, you're on the front lines and you're going deep and you're learning things, discovering things thrown at you like you're on the firing line. And so you learn fast, right?

[00:05:17] You are and you have to. And the reason I got obsessed and became really good at asset protection is as a trial lawyer and litigator, I have to tell stories and do things through case law, right?

[00:05:30] Because whatever I present, I have to have some sort of legal backing for. And so when I started investing in myself and I was starting to ask questions, I realized, okay, show me the case law.

[00:05:39] And no attorneys or firms or people saying they're doing this asset protection side of things had any case law or backing on what they were saying.

[00:05:47] And so you just got a jumbled mess and a lot of misconceptions. And when I started trying to research, okay, what books can I buy? What horn books exist? There really wasn't any.

[00:05:57] It was just whatever product that specific attorney or firm were pitching. And that was it.

[00:06:02] And so that's actually ended up being where my book came about overexposed because I realized there was not a one-stop resource of here's the landscape.

[00:06:10] Here's all the different things that we can do. Here's the different layers of how we combine them and the starting points for each stage.

[00:06:17] And I realized what the book doesn't exist. I'm just going to write the book myself and put it out and then let people at least have a strong foundation of where to start.

[00:06:24] So when they start questioning attorneys, they can ask, ask better questions. They get through a bunch of BS.

[00:06:30] Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome, man. That's clearly the entrepreneur in you coming out, finding a problem, identifying it and offering a solution because it is complex.

[00:06:39] And it's intimidating to us lay people that don't know the law. You just know that, okay, I need to find somebody who does and I'll pay them money.

[00:06:49] And presumably the advice they give me is rock solid and I'll be protected. And so then we move on.

[00:06:58] But the reality is might not be a bad, a good choice there.

[00:07:02] No, I get a lot of clients coming in with buyer's remorse. They heard my podcast that I was talking on too late or a lot of it, which will break down maybe what is the world of asset protection.

[00:07:13] And like some key takeaways is a good segue here is they come to me too late.

[00:07:18] It's like generally it's almost like, why don't we go and get an estate plans until basically like somebody dies because we don't think about our own mortality or like the negative side of things on the business side, the investing side.

[00:07:30] We're accumulating, buying, closing deals, looking for more.

[00:07:33] We're not thinking about the demise, the downfall, the deal falling apart, something happening where I'm going to lose it.

[00:07:38] We don't think about the estate plan because we don't want to think about our own mortality.

[00:07:42] So all these things end up coming after the fact when it's too late.

[00:07:46] And so I think like when we're talking about the role of asset protection, it's really good to just, I think, identify the term and when it's appropriate to even start this.

[00:07:54] I don't know about you. Maybe that's a good like jumping off point.

[00:07:57] Let's do it. Let's jump off. I think that's great.

[00:07:59] Yeah, it's really simple. Asset protection is simply placing a legal barrier between your assets and your potential creditor, right?

[00:08:08] Like the person suing you. Here's the key word, big quotes, right? Before it's needed. That's it.

[00:08:13] It's just a barrier like a safe that you're going to hold your guns in or your valuables, your gold.

[00:08:19] Anything of value you're going to want to put behind the legal barrier and out of your personal name so that's not easily attached with a lien or reached.

[00:08:27] It's not hiding money or moving assets to not pay or avoid paying taxes.

[00:08:32] I get this call all the time. Like, I want to set up an asset protection system. I don't want to pay taxes anymore.

[00:08:37] Sorry, that's not asset protection. You're taxed on your worldwide income if you're a U.S. resident.

[00:08:44] And it's also not estate planning, right? Like your revocable living trust will not protect you.

[00:08:51] They're not designed to. We'll talk about the different types of trust real quick later on when we dive into that world.

[00:08:57] But the two big takeaways for asset protection is that it's not to avoid paying taxes.

[00:09:03] So please don't call me saying you want an asset protection plan because you don't want to pay taxes.

[00:09:08] That's not happening. And it must be done before you're being sued.

[00:09:13] And I talk about the timing of creating an asset protection plan and fraud in my book a lot because these are the critical elements and times and stages for an asset protection plan to even work and to be effective.

[00:09:24] And if you don't mind, I can break it down through a great case as an example.

[00:09:28] Yeah, perfect.

[00:09:29] Yeah. So it's demonstrated really well in a 2010 case called SEC versus Solo.

[00:09:35] This is a situation where the wife, Ms. Solo's trust, was attacked by the SEC to collect her husband's fines from engaging in a fraudulent trading scheme.

[00:09:45] So just essentially like bad person doing bad thing, right?

[00:09:48] They're the villains in the story.

[00:09:50] The court found that the husband made a fraudulent transfer after the SEC judgment was entered against him.

[00:09:57] So what he did was he assigned his assets over to his wife's trust to protect them after the judgment.

[00:10:04] This is just no bueno.

[00:10:05] This is just straight up fraud.

[00:10:07] Now, Mr. Solo was held in contempt of court, but and this is a really big but here, 100% of his assets were protected.

[00:10:15] And so I use this case to demonstrate two things at the same time.

[00:10:18] One is the power of using an offshore trust when it's applicable, and we'll break that down later.

[00:10:23] But even though Mr. Solo was blatantly wrong, his assets were safe.

[00:10:28] The SEC couldn't get to them.

[00:10:30] So that just shows the power of using an offshore trust.

[00:10:33] Like it worked.

[00:10:34] That's point number one.

[00:10:35] But what sucks is he was held in contempt of court.

[00:10:38] So the question is, but why did what did he do wrong?

[00:10:42] The second point is that the case also goes to the timing of when you're setting up your asset protection plan.

[00:10:49] He transferred the assets too late.

[00:10:51] He was late to the game.

[00:10:52] He did this after the fact, after the lawsuit, after the judgment.

[00:10:55] And that was fraudulent.

[00:10:56] And that then opened up the door for the courts to hold him in civil contempt of court.

[00:11:00] So the big takeaway here is the planning has to be set up before the lawsuit, not after the fact.

[00:11:07] And so when people call me asking me, please help me.

[00:11:10] I just got sued.

[00:11:11] Sorry, it's too late.

[00:11:13] You're too far down the rabbit hole.

[00:11:14] I'm going to have to exempt the lawsuit and set this up for the future.

[00:11:17] It has to be set up beforehand.

[00:11:19] Yeah, that makes total sense.

[00:11:20] It's like buying insurance for your car after you get in an accident.

[00:11:23] No, we're not going to pay out today.

[00:11:24] Oh, my house burnt down.

[00:11:25] Can I get fire insurance now on it to cover it?

[00:11:27] No, I'm sorry.

[00:11:28] It's something that had to have been in place beforehand.

[00:11:31] A lot of calls for flood insurance after the hurricane comes through.

[00:11:35] People don't realize they don't have flood coverage on their normal policy.

[00:11:38] They're like, oh, I want flood insurance.

[00:11:40] Yeah, sorry.

[00:11:41] Too late.

[00:11:41] That makes total sense.

[00:11:43] So, A, you're not going to avoid paying taxes.

[00:11:44] That's two things you can't avoid while you live.

[00:11:47] That's paying taxes and dying.

[00:11:49] So you'll eventually pay them.

[00:11:50] And it's got to be done in advance.

[00:11:53] Now, you talked about different types of trust and layering protection.

[00:11:57] I don't know if it's layering trust, but layering protection.

[00:11:59] So let's dig into that a little bit.

[00:12:01] What does this look like?

[00:12:03] Yeah.

[00:12:03] So let's break down the layers, right?

[00:12:05] And then we'll see what time we have and which layer you want to break down.

[00:12:09] But when we think about the role of asset protection,

[00:12:12] I think of that as key concepts and tools that we use.

[00:12:16] And then the different layers that we're going to add as our wealth grows and our exposure grows.

[00:12:21] These tools are LLCs, right?

[00:12:23] Limited liability companies, limited partnerships as management companies,

[00:12:27] and an asset protection trust.

[00:12:29] Where you are going to land in this scale depends on your risk profile,

[00:12:34] your net worth, and what you own, what you do, like what's your story.

[00:12:38] And to quickly break each layer down,

[00:12:40] I want you and your listeners to think about winter, all right?

[00:12:44] When it comes to asset protection, we have different layers,

[00:12:48] just like when we dress to go outside on a ski trip.

[00:12:50] The first entry layer is your base layer.

[00:12:53] This is a thin shirt that sits on your skin.

[00:12:56] This is an LLC in insurance, right?

[00:12:58] Like we're just starting out investing.

[00:12:59] We have nothing or we have maybe three units.

[00:13:02] Or we're just starting out a business venture.

[00:13:04] Our exposed net worth is around 250 or below, 250,000 or below.

[00:13:09] You're really just a greenhorn in investing.

[00:13:11] You're just starting.

[00:13:12] And then as you grow and you start adding more assets and you hit that four unit mark,

[00:13:17] maybe you're investing in multiple states.

[00:13:19] You have multiple LLCs in different states.

[00:13:21] You have around 500 to 700,000 of net exposed assets.

[00:13:25] You're going to want a mid layer, which is a little bit thicker,

[00:13:29] generally made out of a moreno wool sweatshirt for us guys, a Carnegie for you ladies.

[00:13:33] This is a management company, right?

[00:13:35] We use limited partnerships for this mid layer.

[00:13:37] I don't think we're going to have time to break down the reasons why we use a limited partnership,

[00:13:41] but you can get that in the book or maybe we'll do it on another time.

[00:13:44] And then when you hit around that 1 million net worth mark,

[00:13:48] you're going to want an outer shell waterproof layer.

[00:13:50] This is your bad weather layer.

[00:13:52] This keeps you nice and dry and warm when the weather is really bad.

[00:13:55] This is your doomsday lawsuit protection layer.

[00:13:58] This is your asset protection trust and more specifically a hybrid bridge trust.

[00:14:01] But by layering, you're now more flexible.

[00:14:04] You can adjust to make yourself more comfortable.

[00:14:07] You can take the layer one off.

[00:14:09] You can take the mid layer off.

[00:14:10] You can take your jacket off.

[00:14:11] We want the same thing for our asset protection plan.

[00:14:14] We want to be able to be flexible.

[00:14:15] So as clients call, I want everyone to think of this acronym ECC.

[00:14:22] One is you want an effective plan.

[00:14:24] Two, you want to control your plan.

[00:14:27] Three, you want reasonable and sustainable costs.

[00:14:29] And four, you want a plan that you can maintain compliance with the IRS on.

[00:14:34] So as you go to evaluate different strategies, really just think about EC, effectiveness, control,

[00:14:40] cost, and compliance.

[00:14:40] And the goal is to try to check off each one of those boxes that you can.

[00:14:46] Okay.

[00:14:47] Wow.

[00:14:47] Lot in there.

[00:14:48] So I get the analogy.

[00:14:50] The multiple layers makes total sense.

[00:14:52] As your net worth and exposure grows, you can add additional layers, which add additional

[00:14:59] barriers and protection.

[00:15:00] But you can also then be flexible as your situation changes and evolves over time.

[00:15:06] But your ECCC, so these are the key tenants and characteristics of a good plan.

[00:15:12] Is that what you're saying?

[00:15:13] That you want it to be effective?

[00:15:14] Correct.

[00:15:15] Yeah.

[00:15:15] And each layer is going to have a box checked or not.

[00:15:19] For example, not everything's going to be effective.

[00:15:21] As we were to, if we were to break down the analogy, LLCs, right?

[00:15:25] Limited liability companies, they can be easily pierced.

[00:15:28] Their corporate veils can be pierced or they can just be blatantly ignored by judges.

[00:15:31] So they're the lowest level of protection, right?

[00:15:34] So are they really that effective?

[00:15:36] Eh, not really.

[00:15:37] They give you some limited, some charging order protection, but they're not like the

[00:15:41] smoking gun strength.

[00:15:42] But they're cost effective, right?

[00:15:44] They're cheaper.

[00:15:45] Compliance is easy on them.

[00:15:47] If we go in the world of domestic trusts, domestic trusts are just being pierced left and

[00:15:51] right.

[00:15:52] There's tons of case law coming against just purely domestic asset protection trust.

[00:15:55] So they're cheaper to start, easier to maintain compliance on with the IRS, but they're

[00:16:01] not effective at all.

[00:16:02] Because if it's not going to be upheld in court and the judges are piercing them, then

[00:16:05] I just wasted a bunch of money.

[00:16:07] And then you can go on the opposite side of it.

[00:16:09] The most extreme strongest trust in the world, the famous offshore Cook Islands trust, right?

[00:16:14] It's effective as heck.

[00:16:15] Statutory non-recognition from any court order judgments in the world.

[00:16:19] Check the box on effectiveness, but IRS compliance, very expensive and difficult.

[00:16:24] So no, we're not checking that box off.

[00:16:26] Costs, very expensive, probably 50,000 to set up.

[00:16:29] And so we're not checking that box off, right?

[00:16:32] So the idea is what are we creating?

[00:16:35] What are we willing to sacrifice or not?

[00:16:38] Or is there a way to create everything together and check up all the boxes?

[00:16:42] And that's where a hybrid trust comes into play.

[00:16:45] Because when we're using a hybrid trust, we're combining offshore strength with domestic

[00:16:49] ease.

[00:16:50] So we're checking the box off of effectiveness.

[00:16:52] We're checking the box off on costs.

[00:16:54] We don't have any IRS compliance because the IRS classifies it as a domestic trust.

[00:16:58] We're checking that box off.

[00:17:00] And then what was it?

[00:17:02] Cost is cheaper, right?

[00:17:03] So we're checking off all the boxes.

[00:17:05] And that is just a matter of what level the client comes in at and what are their needs

[00:17:11] at that moment in time.

[00:17:13] Got it.

[00:17:14] Okay.

[00:17:14] All right.

[00:17:14] So we want to check the boxes with all these.

[00:17:16] We have a little time here.

[00:17:17] I think a lot of people have heard about the base layer, the LLC and the insurance.

[00:17:22] That's pretty common knowledge.

[00:17:23] But let's go up a little bit to the mid-layer and then this hybrid bridge trust.

[00:17:27] I want to understand a little bit more about how those are generally applied in the thought

[00:17:32] process around those.

[00:17:33] Yeah.

[00:17:33] Just because I know we're short on time.

[00:17:35] The reason we use the next layers is because what?

[00:17:38] LLCs can be pierced.

[00:17:39] And now states, especially the Supreme Court case, Mallory versus Norfolk, you can't just

[00:17:44] create an out-of-state LLC and then expect to bring that state's laws to the state that you're

[00:17:48] getting sued in.

[00:17:49] So we need more layers.

[00:17:50] So the next layer would be a management company, generally a limited partnership.

[00:17:54] Why a limited partnership and not another LLC?

[00:17:57] There's actually more you can do with limited partnerships than LLCs.

[00:18:00] The big one is that by statute, by nature, limited partnerships split ownership from management,

[00:18:07] right?

[00:18:08] There's a nice delineation between the two, which you just do not have with LLCs.

[00:18:12] You can try to get creative with LLCs through operating agreements.

[00:18:15] The problem is when you get sued, you got to submit those operating agreements for a judicial

[00:18:20] review and the judge will determine if he agrees with it or not.

[00:18:22] And since LLCs are not set up to separate managers from owners, it's most likely not going

[00:18:28] to be held up.

[00:18:29] So then that LLC is going to get pierced.

[00:18:31] It's not like that with limited partnerships.

[00:18:34] There's only one way to create a limited partnership, the GP and the LP.

[00:18:38] The GP is the managing member.

[00:18:39] The LP owns it.

[00:18:40] So you and your spouse would be the general partners managing your assets.

[00:18:45] What would own that limited partnership would be your trust and asset protection trust.

[00:18:50] And we start breaking down the world of trust, right?

[00:18:53] That's your real bad weather outer shell layer.

[00:18:55] I want people to think about the world of trust like Baskin Robbins, right?

[00:18:59] Trust comes in lots of different flavors and types, just like 31 flavors.

[00:19:04] We got chocolate, vanilla, and all of that.

[00:19:06] So when you say, I have a trust, I'm good to go.

[00:19:08] No, it just depends on the type of trust you have.

[00:19:10] Don't confuse this, your standard 101 revocable living trust with an asset protection trust.

[00:19:15] They're used completely different.

[00:19:17] Revocable living trust estate plans are for when you die, to avoid probate, and to pass

[00:19:22] on assets, who gets what, when, where, how, and why.

[00:19:24] If you're investing in real estate, you're going to hear about land trust, right?

[00:19:28] Land trusts are good for privacy, but they can't protect you.

[00:19:31] They have to be connected to an LLC and they get their strength to the LLC.

[00:19:34] If the LLC gets pierced, it's not very effective.

[00:19:38] All it did was give you some privacy, which goes out the door once you get sued.

[00:19:42] There's other like Delaware statutory trust, Wyoming trust.

[00:19:46] They're not asset protection strategies or tax mitigation strategies to avoid paying franchise

[00:19:51] tax.

[00:19:52] So it's not the best thing to be setting up just to avoid paying $800 in franchise tax

[00:19:56] to avoid getting sued like lawsuits, right?

[00:19:59] That's where the role of asset protection comes in.

[00:20:02] And that's where we have different types of trust for asset protection.

[00:20:05] And so just realize when you're looking to set up a system, we got to be able to ask

[00:20:09] the right questions and understand what's effective.

[00:20:12] What is this trust actually doing for me?

[00:20:14] And then combining the different pieces together.

[00:20:17] Interesting.

[00:20:18] Interesting.

[00:20:19] Okay.

[00:20:19] Yeah.

[00:20:19] That is a fascinating concept.

[00:20:21] And it makes sense just hearing you talk about it.

[00:20:24] Obviously, it can be fairly complex when getting into the minutia and the detail.

[00:20:29] And that's why you were there and you have your book and your expertise.

[00:20:32] Here's the question that comes to my mind when I think about this.

[00:20:37] And I think it probably comes to other people's minds, Brian, when they think about asset protection.

[00:20:41] And since you were a litigator and you've lived in the space, you have a unique position to tell us some stories.

[00:20:49] How are people getting sued?

[00:20:51] What are they getting sued for today?

[00:20:52] You're real estate investors.

[00:20:54] What things can happen if you have four units or eight units or a couple of multifamily or some commercial properties?

[00:21:01] What's happening in the real world?

[00:21:03] Yeah.

[00:21:03] One is not even so much what's happening inside the properties.

[00:21:06] A lot of lawsuits are when the partnerships and invest fall apart and each other suing each other, especially if they're on big deals.

[00:21:12] And most of the time, your investment idea, especially if you're new, is going to fall apart.

[00:21:18] Deals fall apart all the time.

[00:21:19] So you got to protect yourselves from each other.

[00:21:22] Number one.

[00:21:23] Two, mold issues are huge.

[00:21:25] Like you can get a massive multimillion dollar issue from a mold issue.

[00:21:29] I've had clients where there was a California doctor who owned a property on a jersey.

[00:21:36] Was renting it out.

[00:21:37] Didn't know he was renting it out to a gang member.

[00:21:39] A fight broke out.

[00:21:40] A gang fight broke out.

[00:21:41] People started getting shot.

[00:21:43] Someone got shot and killed.

[00:21:44] And they actually sued the owner of the property, the doctor in California for negligence for renting it out to a gang member.

[00:21:50] So now he is getting sued for negligent death.

[00:21:53] There's also if you're a doctor, for example, another doctor one, and somebody dies on your table.

[00:22:00] And now we're getting gross over coverage claims.

[00:22:04] And insurance companies just completely walking away from claims altogether and not covering the malpractice.

[00:22:09] So there's a lot of ways that people can get sued.

[00:22:12] It just depends on the avenue.

[00:22:14] And generally it's through negligent claims now.

[00:22:16] And that's a big distinction that people need to realize is the other weakness of LLCs.

[00:22:22] And just relying on them is when you're getting sued for these type of issues, you're not getting sued through business law.

[00:22:28] You're getting sued through tort and personal injury law.

[00:22:30] If Paul and I here were to go create a business and we want to go sell widgets nationally.

[00:22:36] Yeah, we can go create like a Delaware, Wyoming, Nevada LLC, right?

[00:22:39] And have really strong charging order protections and operating enforcement strength through the business, right?

[00:22:46] Internal disputes and affairs of the business.

[00:22:48] That's perfectly fine.

[00:22:50] Now, when we're getting sued for damage claims, right?

[00:22:55] That's not an internal dispute of a business.

[00:22:57] That's a personal injury.

[00:22:59] That's a tort liability.

[00:23:00] That's state specific.

[00:23:01] And that has nothing to do with internal disputes and affairs of the business.

[00:23:04] So it's a completely different area of law that you're getting sued in.

[00:23:07] And so that in those situations, you're not going to be able to rely on saying, I got this Wyoming LLC and they have better charging water protection, your honor.

[00:23:15] So I'm just going to rely on Wyoming charging water protection.

[00:23:17] They're going to say, this is a tort liability in California.

[00:23:21] And this is a completely different state and area of law.

[00:23:23] Sorry, that's not going to work here.

[00:23:25] And that's a big distinction that we have to realize is what are we doing?

[00:23:28] What are we creating these systems and entities for to protect anyways?

[00:23:33] Wow.

[00:23:34] Wow.

[00:23:34] Yeah.

[00:23:34] Again, it's an area that you, people, they move into these spaces.

[00:23:40] They want to invest.

[00:23:41] They want to grow their assets.

[00:23:42] That's what we're all trying to do to create this lifestyle and this freedom.

[00:23:46] Not knowing that if we don't structure it correctly, we could be setting ourselves up for a fall.

[00:23:51] I wouldn't have thought of mold as a possible source of a lawsuit or get, I could see maybe getting a bad tenant in there.

[00:23:58] But you think we're talking about hurricanes, right?

[00:24:00] I had a over $40 million lawsuit on the development on Lake Michigan where the contractor put in the wrong grade of windows.

[00:24:10] And they didn't realize that when I lived in Michigan for a while, Lake Michigan has hurricane grade level winds coming off the lake.

[00:24:18] And so when it's whipping through a storm and you don't have hurricane grade level windows on there, now your buildings are saturated with water.

[00:24:25] And it ended up being a $40 million legal dispute.

[00:24:28] And so what are we going to do from that?

[00:24:30] So you can get sued if you're the sponsor of the deal.

[00:24:32] It's really dangerous, especially being the sponsor of syndications.

[00:24:36] Passively, if you're investing in something, you've got negligence of your own life, right?

[00:24:39] Driving my car, my business.

[00:24:41] The way we can get sued is a lot of different ways.

[00:24:44] I think we'd be here until tomorrow listing them all.

[00:24:46] I think it's just a matter of realizing we need to take an assessment of what we own and what our day jobs are and the negligence we carry in our life.

[00:24:54] Create a risk profile and then plan beforehand, not after the fact.

[00:25:01] I think that's sage wisdom.

[00:25:03] So one last question on that as we're coming out of time is, so when you set this up, let's say I work with you, Brian, you set this up with me.

[00:25:12] So how often is this a dynamic situation?

[00:25:14] Every six months we have to review, every year is every two, three years.

[00:25:17] What is the frequency of this kind of engagement?

[00:25:20] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:25:22] We do annual reviews and it's more or less just what's changed.

[00:25:25] What have you bought?

[00:25:26] What have you sold?

[00:25:27] Anything that I didn't know coming down the pipeline.

[00:25:29] If you hit somebody with your car, call me that day.

[00:25:31] You're not telling me right away.

[00:25:33] Don't wait till you get sued on a letter in the mail because then you're shorting the time of what we can do.

[00:25:38] And so we do an annual fee to maintain the system.

[00:25:41] I don't want to just create a very strong system and then hand it over to you and said, spread your wings and fly.

[00:25:46] Don't mess it up.

[00:25:47] Good luck, right?

[00:25:48] This is where attorneys maintaining the system come into play.

[00:25:51] It's very important.

[00:25:52] So for us, it's annually.

[00:25:53] And then I think that people should get together with their CPAs at least quarterly and talk to their CPAs and plan that financial part of it as well.

[00:26:02] Yeah.

[00:26:02] Yeah.

[00:26:02] That makes total sense to me.

[00:26:03] It's something that you have to revisit.

[00:26:05] Your life does change.

[00:26:06] A lot happens in a year.

[00:26:07] And, but it's not that frequent.

[00:26:09] You got to get your haircut every month or so.

[00:26:12] Going to meet with your attorney on this protection plan for an hour or whatever, an hour or two, whatever it takes to me seems pretty minimal.

[00:26:18] Once you get it set up, it's probably then just checking the boxes, right?

[00:26:22] At the end of the day.

[00:26:23] Yeah.

[00:26:24] Awesome.

[00:26:25] Awesome.

[00:26:25] Hey, Brian, this has been really informational and eye-opening and fascinating.

[00:26:31] So talk about your book again and how people can get up with you.

[00:26:34] Yeah.

[00:26:35] Thanks for having me on.

[00:26:36] And, you know, you can get a copy of my book.

[00:26:38] You can go on Amazon or the easy way is just to click the link on my website, www.btblegal.com.

[00:26:45] And it has a hyperlink straight to it.

[00:26:47] Feel free to shoot me an email, brian at btblegal.com.

[00:26:51] I offer a free initial consultation for the asset protection side of things.

[00:26:54] And again, on the non-legal side of things, if you were looking to optimize your talent and employee development, we created that side business coaching business with certified disk assessments where we affiliate with TTI and a lot more to unlock your business and employees potential.

[00:27:10] Like at the end of the day, if it's through asset protection or business development, I don't care what it is.

[00:27:15] I just want people to succeed, to grow, to find financial freedom, and then just protect and keep what you got.

[00:27:21] I can't think of a better mission than that, my friend.

[00:27:23] I appreciate it.

[00:27:24] I thank you for your time and being on and have an amazing holiday weekend.

[00:27:29] Yeah, you too.

[00:27:30] Thank you.

[00:27:30] Hey, gang.

[00:27:31] Just winding down here today.

[00:27:32] Thanks for listening to the show.

[00:27:33] And as always, if you need capital to grow your business, you're looking to purchase commercial real estate or build a building or invest in commercial real estate, or you're looking to acquire a business or a competitor or just need growth capital, we'd love to talk to you.

[00:27:49] We fund businesses all day long.

[00:27:51] Our mission is to help entrepreneurs win and to fund their businesses and fund their dreams so that they can make an impact in their community.

[00:27:59] Reach out to me today, go to our website, click the button, schedule a 20 minute conversation, discovery call.

[00:28:04] We'll have a quick conversation.

[00:28:06] See if there's a need, see if there's a fit and we can take it from there.

[00:28:09] The website is VPC, Victor Paul Charlie dot capital.

[00:28:15] That's VPC dot capital.

[00:28:19] All right.

[00:28:20] There's no dot com on that.

[00:28:21] It's VPC dot capital.

[00:28:23] As always, keep crushing it and hope to see you soon around here.

[00:28:27] Take care.