Insurance will always remain your first line of defense anyway and to echo @Jeff Holst's comment you should have an umbrella because there are things that can happen on the back end that have nothing to do with the LLC and still affect you personally.  

Now you've got the SEC on your back...You need to get your business structure, paperwork and processes looked at carefully by a good real estate and business attorney... and get ahead of this.. before you're paying big fees on defense attorneys.However, be careful when you market your deal to an end buyer or investor.

the challenge of course is going to be to find the right replacements and fit into the identification calendar as well as the potential nightmare for funding approval given the moving pieces.If that proves daunting you could also think about buying one or two properties for cash and then refinancing them immediately after the 1031 to access the money for the next two.And yet another option that a lot of our clients are choosing these days is to separate the cash and debt as a form of defensive investing. 

On my investment projects I look at DIRT FIRST(location), then building, then tenant.You already need a defensive plan going in and a WHAT IF for options that pencil out and still make a profit.A harder one I have seen is a Sonic.

from my point of view if your an individual and not partnering with folks who ever is going to sue you is going to name you personally.. this is where you need good insurance to take up your defense as your first line of defense.whether they have the right to sue you is immaterial.. or whether they will prevail is immaterial.. if your operating as a group or partnership and have clean records this can limit your exposure to your ownership.other than that  retirement accounts should be maxed out they basically cant be touched... certain trusts.but just LLC labyrinths like you mention.. those are not going to do it for most or.. you will spend a ton of dough fighting to make the position they can't sue you. when suits happen everyone is named .. that's when you need good insurance to handle your defense.

You buy properties playing defense going in and (what if) strategies.

This is definitely an overlooked area that has some accelerating growth associated with the defense industry.

His wife will probably get off with a slap on the wrist using the cuteness defense ('I'm cute so obviously I didn't know what was going on').

That will kinda blow that defense

Time to play offense and not defense.