Douglass Lodmell

Nations' leading asset protection expert. Founder of Lodmell & Lodmell, serving 3,500+ clients and safeguarding $4 billion+ in assets.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

Privacy is not protection.

Here's what actually happens when someone gets a judgment against you and you think your Wyoming LLC is keeping everything hidden.

They depose you under oath.

And you tell them exactly where everything is.

Every LLC.

Every trust.

Every account.

Every asset you thought nobody could find.

Privacy gets pierced the moment a judge gets involved.
The people selling privacy as a strategy are selling you a feeling. Feelings don't hold up in court.

What does work is a layered legal structure. Built so that even when they find the assets, and they will, they still can't touch them.

That's the gap most people don't see until it's too late.

Your LLC isn't the problem. Thinking it's enough is.

If you're not sure whether your structure is actually protecting you or just hiding things temporarily, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/a4QLQIYbto

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you're not sure whether your structure is actually protecting you or just hiding things temporarily, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

Asset protection isn't all or nothing.

You don't have to have everything. You just have to start somewhere.

Maybe that's an LLC. Maybe it's an LLC holding company. Maybe it's just reviewing your insurance coverage.

That's fine. Start there.

The bridge trust is for people who are more concerned or have already been sued. Not everyone needs that right now.

But everyone needs the basics. Insurance. LLC structures. A living trust. A holding company. It's not that expensive. It's not that complicated.

And a lot of times, insurance alone just makes problems go away. Especially with real estate. The insurance company deals with it and you may never have to get involved.

Walk through what you have. See where the gaps are. Do what makes sense for your situation and at what level.

That's it.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want to understand where your current structure actually stands in that scenario, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

Do you have umbrella insurance? If not, go buy some. Everyone should have one.

Claims today, especially car accidents, can easily hit $5 million. I carry a $5 million policy myself. About $2,500 a year. Worth every penny.

Beyond insurance, here are the questions I ask every client:

Do you have LLCs for your real estate? Are they isolated and segregated or is everything sitting in one basket?

Do you have a trust? Be specific. A revocable living trust is not an asset protection trust. Do you have an actual asset protection trust?

Do you have a holding company?

And then the exposure side:

Are personal assets held personally with no legal firewall? Is your real estate in separate LLCs or sitting exposed? Is your cash in a personal account, a holding company, or a qualified plan that's protected?

And what's your business risk? For anyone who owns a business, that's a big one.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want me to map out where risk actually flows in your current setup, then click here to book your free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

A domestic asset protection trust sounds good in theory.

But it fails on the two things that matter most: effectiveness and control.

Here's what happens when it gets tested.

Case 1. Alaska resident. $160k, all the money he had. Set up a DAP trust, then declared bankruptcy to wipe out medical expenses. Bankruptcy court broke right in. Trust company turned over assets within a week. Complete loss.

Case 2. 2008 real estate developer. Watched the market crash and set up an Alaska trust at the last second. Bankruptcy court said no. Complete loss.

Case 3. Stillman. Soil engineer in California. Set up a Nevada DAP trust before any lawsuit. California said the lawsuit was foreseeable and called it a fraudulent transfer. Nevada couldn't resist. Complete loss.

Case 4. Husband tried to shield assets before a divorce. Didn't work. Complete loss.

Four cases. Four complete losses.

A domestic trust is still in the US. Courts can break it through bankruptcy, Full Faith and Credit, Choice of Law, or simply because a judge wants a different result.

It has to work when tested. A domestic trust doesn't pass that test.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you're not sure whether your structure is actually protecting you or just hiding things temporarily, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

One of the most common mistakes I see: real estate sitting inside an S corp.

It's a big mistake. And it's more common than you'd think.

Here's why it matters.

Your holding company needs to be a limited partnership or an LLC taxed as a partnership. Never a corporation. Never an S corp.

Why?

With a limited partnership, everything passes through. The holding company files a 1065 partnership return and generates K-1s. No tax at the entity level. All income, losses, and depreciation flow straight to your personal return.

Bonus depreciation from real estate? Passes through. Step-up in basis at death? Preserved. All of it works exactly as if you owned the assets directly.

An S corp gives you none of that. No pass-through of liability basis. No step-up in basis. You lose two of the most powerful tax benefits in real estate.

And beyond taxes, the holding company gives you a second layer of charging order protection. The first layer sits at the LLC level. The second sits at the holding company level.

Two layers. Different jurisdictions. Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, and Alaska are the better states for the holding company.

Right structure. Right state. Right protection.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want to understand where your current structure actually stands in that scenario, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

An LLC has one job: limit the liability of its members.

Certain assets create risk. Real estate. Cars. Boats. Airplanes. Businesses. Anything with a key, a door, or an engine that can hurt somebody.

Each one goes into its own LLC. Separate baskets. Because if you put everything in one basket and it catches fire, everything burns.

Now here's how the LLC actually protects you. It's called charging order protection.

A creditor can't break into your LLC and force a distribution of the assets. What they can get is a charging order. A lien against your interest. But they cannot touch the underlying assets.

Which means you can hold them off. Indefinitely.

And from a tax standpoint, LLCs can be kept disregarded. No extra returns. No extra complexity.

One asset. One LLC. One basket.

If it catches fire, only that basket burns.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want me to map out where risk actually flows in your current setup, then click here to book your free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

Most people jump straight to structures when thinking about asset protection.

But the first layer is already there. You just have to know what you have.

It's called exemption planning. And you get it automatically.

Here's what's already protected:

Federal retirement plans. 401ks, defined benefit plans, anything that qualifies under ERISA. Fully protected from creditors. All of it.

Your home. Depending on your state, you may already have significant or even unlimited protection. Florida is unlimited. California protects up to $500k in equity.

Life insurance and annuities. In many states, the cash value is fully exempt from creditors. We're talking policies worth millions.

OJ Simpson had an $11 million civil judgment against him for wrongful death. His only two assets were a home in Florida and his NFL retirement plan. The Goldmans couldn't collect a dollar. Exemptions.

That's how powerful this is.

Now here's the difference between exemption planning and proactive asset protection.

Exemptions are automatic. You get them just by living in your state. No structures. No filings. Nothing to do.

Proactive planning, LLCs, limited partnerships, trusts, requires action. You have to build it.

Best practice? Maximize your exemptions first. Then move to proactive planning for everything else.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you're not sure whether your structure is actually protecting you or just hiding things temporarily, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

What actually happens when the Bridge Trust gets triggered?

The protector declares an event of duress. The bridge unlocks. The offshore trustee takes over, moves assets offshore, and secures everything.

And here's what most people don't expect. You can trigger it even after you've been sued.

Why? Because the trust was already funded before the lawsuit. When you trigger, you're not changing legal title. Everything is already owned by the trust. You're just changing who controls it and where you bank.

No title changes. No giving assets away. Just moving them out of reach.

Now how does it score?

Effectiveness: as effective as a foreign trust. Because it is one.
Control: you keep it until there's a real crisis.
Cost: much less expensive to set up and maintain.
Compliance: almost nothing. Disregarded until triggered.

Effective. In control. Low cost. Zero compliance burden.

Until you need it.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want to understand where your current structure actually stands in that scenario, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

Do you have to redo your estate plan when you set up a bridge trust?

Almost never.

If you already have a revocable living trust, keep it. But don't fund it. There is no asset protection inside a revocable living trust.

If it's already funded, we unfund it. Assets move into the limited partnership or directly into the bridge trust. Everything sits inside the asset protection structure.

The revocable living trust doesn't go away. It just has a different job.

During your life, the bridge trust holds everything. At your death, the revocable living trust becomes the beneficiary of the bridge trust. Assets distribute down.

Why keep them separate?

Estate planning is state-specific. Your local attorney handles that. Asset protection is federal and offshore. That's a completely different job.

We connect the two trusts only at death. During life, we almost never touch the estate plan.

And setting up the bridge trust never limits your future options. SLATs, charitable trusts, children's trusts. All still on the table. You can always move money out of the bridge trust to fund them.

No estate plan yet? That's okay. You still need one. And if you don't have an attorney, we have a network that knows both our structure and your state.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you want me to map out where risk actually flows in your current setup, then click here to book your free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

The Bridge Trust makes sense 95% of the time. Here's why.

It's a hybrid. Drafted like a foreign asset protection trust. But treated as domestic by the IRS.

The IRS uses a simple two-part test to determine if a trust is foreign or domestic. The court test and the control test. As long as a US court has primary supervision and a US person is the trustee, it's domestic. Even if it's registered offshore.

So the Bridge Trust holds two passports.

Registered offshore. Bridged back. Treated as domestic.

Before any problem hits, here's what that means for you:

No form 3520. No foreign account compliance. No IRS headaches. Just a simple 1041 with a grantor trust letter. Your CPA writes zero and picks up the income on your personal return. Five minutes.

Your assets stay in the US inside your limited partnership. You stay in control. You can actually be your own trustee.

The foreign trustee? On standby. No active role. You never have to ask permission to manage your own assets.

98% of the time, you start as the trustee and you die as the trustee.

Nothing changes unless a catastrophic liability forces it.

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

If you're not sure whether your structure is actually protecting you or just hiding things temporarily, then click this link to Book your Free Asset Protection Analysis today: https://t.co/18UPCUnp9Q

[Douglass Lodmell @Lodmell]

What does a complete asset protection structure actually look like?

At the center is your limited partnership. The holding company.

Underneath it, separate LLCs. Each one holds a specific asset. Rental property. A boat. 15 different pockets of real estate. Whatever you own, it gets isolated into its own entity.

Cash, stocks, bonds, and crypto sit directly inside the holding company. You control everything as the general partner.

Above it sits the Bridge Trust. It owns 98 to 99 percent of the holding company, creating the separation that gives the structure its protection.

Alongside everything, your revocable living trust handles the estate planning side. If you already have one, I keep it. If you don't, I recommend one.

From there, only two outcomes matter.

One: you never need the protection. You pass away, and everything transfers smoothly through the revocable living trust. No probate. No court battles.

Two: a catastrophic lawsuit hits. The Bridge Trust activates, and the assets move offshore.

Control when life is stable.

Protection when it isn't.