Asset Protection Lawyer?

[Kitty Lee]

I'm in NY, just starting out, haven't actually done any real estate investments yet. I'm interested in BRRRR but want to take sufficient precautions to protect my current assets before I start (home, 401k, etc.) Should I consult an Asset Protection Lawyer? If so, can anyone advise on the questions I should ask and give me an idea how much I should expect to pay?

[William Gordon]

Howdy Kitty,

If you met with the Asset Protection Lawyer, what questions did you end up asking?

[Costin I.]

@Kitty Lee @William Gordon - here are some of the questions you might want to ask when selecting an Asset Protection Attorney:
- how many RE investors have you worked with?
- how many were sued and what were the outcomes?
- are you a RE Investor?
- are you working with a preferred CPA?
- how many asset protection structures did you setup?
- how many did you litigated for defense?
- how many successful?
- Ever litigated for plaintiffs (against an asset protection structure)?
- how you ensure my proposed structure is accurate, flexible and relevant, so that aren’t any things that will come down the road and increase my taxation, or possibly hurt overall ability to further engage in business planning?

As for the cost, that depends on too many factors for an easy answer - but I can tell you my opinion: apply the "Asspro rule of 2%" (© Costin 2018) - the cost of setting up and maintaining your asset protection should be less than 2% of equity(!) you are trying to protect. Let's say, it costs you 1.5K to get your structures in place (holding LLC or Series-LLC, with or without land trusts, with or without separate operations LLC) and 0.5K per year (for maintaining the LLC properly, bookkeeping, lawyer and CPA, etc.) for a total of 2K. You should have 100K or more in equity to protect before it makes sense to spend that money - compare that with how much you spend in annual insurance for the same property/equity (on the same FEAR principles, just in case your property might burn down).

[William Gordon]

Thank you @Costin I.for you help.