Stopping The Asset Protection Crooks In Their Tracks.

Date : 07-Feb-2008

We live in a dirty, dangerous world. If you have money, I can guarantee that for every person who wishes you well, there is another who just can’t wait to figure out how to get his or her hands on your money.

As all my loyal readers know, I have a bunch of rules that I ask my clients to live by. Each and every one of these rules is designed to avoid problems and to help you keep control of your hard earned savings.

One of my pet peeves concerns the many crooked promoters of Asset Protection Plans. Hardly a month goes by when there isn’t a new report of some crook taking a group of doe-eyed customers for everything they are worth. Well, the good news is that this never has to happen to you.

My favorite crook is Robert Vesco. He is now in jail in Cuba. Since his time, there have been many others, such as Harris and Reed, following in his footsteps. The latest is a well-mannered Christian gentleman and former lawyer named Troy Titus. He is small potatoes compared to a Vesco or a Harris, but he still took the life savings of scores of clients who trusted him to set up Asset Protection Plans. To read the details, check out this article in the Virginia-Pilot. By March or April, I am sure to hear more stories from some other well-mannered crook masquerading as an Asset Protection Guru.

All of the people who lose their savings to these crooks are forgetting one of the most important rules: NEVER EVER TRUST ANYONE WITH YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. Simple as that.

All of the people who lost money to these jerks made the same mistake: They decided to trust the crooks with their savings. This act was never necessary. You should always assume that your trust company is crooked. This is not to say that most trust companies are crooked. In fact, in nearly 20 years of doing this, I have not had the misfortune of dealing with a single dishonest trust company. I am not saying, don’t deal with trust companies. I am saying don’t hand over the reigns to them when you do not have to.

Provided the financial seas are completely calm when you put an Asset Protection Plan in place, there is absolutely no reason to simply hand over your funds to anyone, especially some trustee in a far away country. You should always retain enough control, provided creditors aren’t beating down your door, to prevent theft. This is often done by retaining sufficient control over protected assets so that the assets cannot be moved (stolen) without the concurrence of you or an unrelated fiduciary. If you do this and also make sure that your funds are placed in a Fortune 500 level banking institution (always avoid the boutique banks) you should be OK.

So as long as you keep sufficient control and only allow your money to be with the majors, you should be well on your way to avoiding the many crooks out there like Titus. There’s no need for you to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Have a safe and happy week,
Rob Lambert

ABOUT THIS EDITOR:

Rob Lambert, Founder and former law professor is considered to be foremost expert on tax compliant asset protection structures. A contributing editor to Lexus Nexus debtor creditors series of law books Rob's passion is implement client wealth plans that stand the test of time and hold up under duress.

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