Summary of Privacy Trust

Information about your financial life is a valuable commodity. With limited exceptions, public and private entities that have information about you use it to market products or sell it to others who do the marketing. County and state governments sell real estate ownership data, driving records, and court filings to list vendors and information brokers. Financial firms use sophisticated software to analyze your saving and spending patterns and target investment products you are likely to buy.

As a result, information about your real estate ownership is directly available for public view and financial accounts are immediately accessible by hundreds or hundreds of thousands of company employees and hired sales forces. From there, it is only a small step into the hands of a lawyer, business competitor, or a determined ex-spouse—armed and eager to use this information for personal advantage.

Since we cannot control the flow of personal information from the bank or brokerage firm, our approach is to restrict access in the first instance. If your name or identification number is on the record, you have provided valuable information about yourself that is subject to widespread dissemination. Instead, we recommend that you limit access to your ownership records and details by using a Privacy Trust to hold property and financial accounts.

A Privacy Trust can be created solely for the legitimate purpose of concealing the ownership of assets from public view in order to avoid privacy intrusions. This is often an important part of a sound plan for both business and personal reasons. The Privacy Trust–Plan #1 is designed to directly own your home and savings accounts, and to provide a convenient and cost effective strategy to accomplish privacy goals.

The Privacy Trust–Plan #2 is designed to add particular asset protection features to the overall plan. Property may be owned by an asset protection vehicle such as a corporation, Family Limited Partnership, or Limited Liability Company to shield Dangerous Assets from each other and from Safe Assets. The ownership of the entity is then held by the Privacy Trust. In chapters 9, 10, and 11, we will familiarize you with popular offshore strategies for privacy and asset protection. We’ll debunk some of the myths and examine the real advantages and disadvantages presented by these techniques.