Please help! Title issues - Columbus, OH

[Account Closed]

Hi there

I'm hoping to tap into the collective wisdom here to help me solve a title issue. 

I've purchased 4 Homes all in Columbus. One has closed and title hasn't been taken properly.. The others seems like they will be problematic also. 

I'm buying / taking title in a land trust and for whatever reason the title companies seem to really struggle with the concept. 

On the one I closed on, the title company eventually did it the way I request and then when we checked the Franklin County auditors site the name there is simply the trustee's name. 

Instead of listing the trust name, it just has his name. This completely defeats the point as my trustee will be listed as an owner rather than tj trust name. As he is in a number of properties this makes the asset protection strategy of obscuring ownership pointless. 

The trust name on title is 'the 123 main street Columbus Ohio Franklin County Trust, ABC xyz as trustee' 

I used a long naming convention in the hope the trustee name being at the end would be truncated or cut off. Thereby making it even harder to search for the title. 

Anyway, I'm a bit stuck. Im new to this stuff but am confident of the structure and why it's wise to buy this way. I do need some help please on how to ensure the county at least lists some more info / trust name. 

Any help would be much appreciated especially from those that buy in Columbus, OH. 

Many thanks! 

Rudi 

[Ed W.]

@Account Closed

Your statement of the facts isn't crystal clear so I'll give you the central point of what I believe you're trying to state as the problem.  FWIW, my company has been the beneficiary of many, many, many land trusts in Ohio and has both purchased and sold beneficial interests in trusts.  That said, I'm not an attorney and this information is provided to give you a basis upon which to have a discussion with a knowledgeable attorney who can confirm or refute what I say here.  

Here's the deal.  In Ohio, a trust CANNOT own property.  A trust is merely a contract between the trustee and another party called a settlor.  The settlor may or may not be a beneficiary of the trust. (It's late and I'm not taking the time to double check the facts but I can tell you that the 2nd sentence of this paragraph is gospel while the 3rd and 4th may be off a bit if my brain isn't fully functioning.)

People as well as LLC's and corporations (which are legal entities and sort of the functional equivalent of people) can legally own property. Contracts (again, trusts are merely contracts) are NOT legal entities and cannot own property. The trustee being a person (or a legal entity) can be and is the owner of the trust property(ies).

The county is supposed to record the owners name and it is the trustee whose name is typically seen.  Yes, you can sometimes "trick" the county and have the trust name be recorded first but, so what.  The deeds are public record and the trustee has to appear as the owner;  i.e., the grantee on the deed.  If the trustee is not shown as the grantee on the deed (i.e., you make the trust the grantee), you've created a defective deed with a grantee who can't legally hold title.  

The way you bolster anonymity is to use trustees with common names and to (usually) have the title held using their first initial and last name (using out of state trustees adds a level of anonymity) but it starts with the name being pretty common. You can also use LLC's and/or corporations as trustees (they're the functional equivalent of people for these purposes) and the more anonymity you create with them, the more anonymity you have. My practice is to always use out of state trustees for major assets.

If Hillary Clinton or Elipthoria Papadantanockus will be trustees they'll be pretty easy to find in the U.S.  One is well known and the other has a rare name.  There must be a gazillion J. Smith's and M. Berger's.  Finding the correct one is a chore - especially if they reside out of state, don't correspond with you through Facebook, or otherwise have easy to trace connections to you.

Also, I'd use multiple trustees and not rely on only one.