I want to make sure my assets are protected so I would like to know some opinions on what types of insurance I should have and when it makes sense to transition to a LLC because I currently own the properties personally.

I would love insight, help, thoughts, opinions, do's and don'ts ideas!

I guess it’s hard to ask opinions if others aren’t familiar with area.

So I am wondering if this is a legitimate asset protection strategy and would highly value any mortgage lenders or attorneys opinions. 

Yes, you need to tweak your strategies some but money is there to be made always, and in my opinion, I have always made more money in down markets. 

Perhaps Forbes should've just sent a survey out for opinions from their Forbes 400 list since many of them are RE investors and arguably all of them should have some state/national macroeconomic awareness.

You won't find much of that opinion on this website, but that's your prerogative.

Obviously everything here is purely my opinion and speculation.

Are you just looking for opinions on which markets within the country will show the largest growth?

In my humble opinion, opening up a Mortgage Brokerage was a much more involved process than opening up a real estate brokerage, but well worth it in the long term.