Today's blog entry is about some of the things I'm studying right now - land trusts, living trusts and property rights you have on your property that you may not know exists!
Let's take them one at a time and I'll chat briefly on each, then look for your comments on which one(s) I should expand on in the near future...
- Living Trusts
Living Trusts are the best tool for eliminating probate. In case you don't know what probate is, it's the process that automatically happens to your estate when you die, if you don't set up something different.
It's kinda like having a sole propritership in your business - it's the 'default' method and the government sets it up for you, where you pay the most out of pocket to someone else...
Nope, probate is not the way to go!
The way around it is to set up and live within a Living Trust. Setting one up is not difficult, although it does take a bit of time to go through and make the decisions on all your 'stuff' (your assets) as to which one(s) go to what person (your heirs and beneficiaries).
If you think that sounds like a Will, you are somewhat right. A Trust contains your Will, as well as many other things.
And, there's a lot of reasons to have the Trust over/above the Will (there's one of those things you could comment on.... ;) - all of them reasons that help your heirs and beneficiaries not go through probate while it also keeps them from 'bickering' about who gets what once you are gone!
Ok, enough for now on Living Trusts.
Let's touch a bit on Land Trusts.
I have never been a big fan of Land Trusts - mostly because of the 'buzz' about how to get around paying taxes, secretly transfering title to get around the due-on-sale clause, etc. I simply feel that 'getting around' something can lead to other challenges in the future that I prefer to avoid.
That being said, though, Land Trusts DO allow for those things and, when used properly and for the right reasons, I believe they have their place.
You see, I, too, continue to learn about things - all the time and I've spent the last few days expanding my knowledge a lot about different kinds of Trusts from a home-study course I got from one of my mentors, JJ Childers.
Something I have learned outside of what JJ teaches (currently - I'm actually going to talk with him about it in the coming weeks...) is about specific rights on your property that most people don't know you have.
Being introduced to this concept about a month ago, I have gone NUTS with it and have not only put all my properties into it, I have signed up several other people into it and covered their properties, too! Plus, some of the people have decided to help others as well and have signed up as agents, getting the home-study course I designed as well (yes, I really like this thing - enough to make a course on it and have teleseminars, training and support for everyone...)
It's not for everyone and I'm not going to 'unveil' it publicly for several weeks (I've been asked by the people that own the patent to keep it 'silent' for now) - in fact, the first 'public' view of this will be in my Be Your Own Bank Working Laboratory in February.
In the meantime, I am talking with developers, big wholesalers and clients with large portfolios to help establish a base of understanding on this fantastic concept. If you fit into that level (or personally know someone very well that does), let's chat.
This is a new concept (started in 2005) and we are keeping this 'real estate secret' somewhat under wraps, for now. We know that when we release it to everyone, we'll be flooded with requests on individual properties, which will cause a paperwork jam that we simply must staff up for. That's the biggest reason we are only working with large projects right now.
OK, that's it for today.
Time for your comments!
Learn, Apply, Zero tax, Your wealth will grow!
Steve Majors - The Lazy Investor
http://TheLazyInvestor.com
702-568-7194 ext. 854
