Liens against individuals

[jp2861]

After digging around a little bit on the Internet it seems these guys are some type of Asset Protection group. I couldn't find any information about liens on individuals, as many here have stated. I think these guys are in the business of helping millionaires protect their assets, and are now trying to branch this out into the bankruptcy world. Maybe they have some way of protecting bank accounts in their scheme. Thanks for the replies!

[HHM]

I did a post on this a while back, but I can't find it.

In any event, asset protection is all about protecting your assets from the jurisdiction of a U.S. Court. In short, if your assets are located within the U.S. or within a country with which the U.S. has a proper treaty, then those assets are within reach of a U.S. court, and hence, your creditors.

Here is how asset protection works.

First off, asset protection only works for CASH or FINANCIAL assets (i.e. cash, money markets, stocks, bonds, etc). To protect financial assets, you set up an offshore "Trust" in the Cook Islands and transfer all your financial assets to that trust. Then you create an LLC in Nevis (an Island country in the Caribbean)...the LLC is designated as the owner of the Trust in the Cook Islands. You are named as the "manager" of the LLC in Nevis. As manager, you have full control of the LLC, and all its assets, namely, the offshore asset protection trust in the Cook Islands. Thus, you control your financial assets in the same manner as you did before transfer. The actual assets are usually held in offshore banks, typically Swiss banks. Because of the lack of treaties between the US and these various countries, no U.S. court, and hence no creditor, can seize your financial assets (not even the Federal Govt.).

Unfortunately, you cannot protect hard assets in this fashion (i.e. cars, real estate, etc) because those assets are within the confines of the U.S., any asset within the U.S. is subject to the jurisdiction of a U.S. court and therefore can be obtainable by your creditors...hence, this is why most states have exemption laws. There is a way to deal with real estate however. Again, you need an offshore trust in the Cook Islands. A bank in Nevis mortgages your property (usually up to 85-95% of current market value; why do they mortgage the property, to get rid of non-exempt equity); however, the proceeds of the loan are deposited into the Trust company in the Cook Islands which immediately issues your offshore trust a CD (a certificate of deposit) that pays 1% more interest than the mortgage note's interest rate. The interest on the CD pays your monthly mortgage payment and the bank in Nevis has both a security interest in your real estate and the CD in the Cook Islands (this tactic is used by many doctors in Florida, and O.J. Simpson).

However, realize, these tactics are expensive. The average offshore trust costs about $30K to set up, and again, you can only protect "cash assets". (not income from a job, etc, nor hard assets). To protect real estate in this matter is even more expensive. Most asset protection attorney's won't even talk to someone about these tools unless they have at least $250K (but $500K is more typical) in cash/securities and at least $500K IN EQUITY in real estate.