LAND TO LEGACY · EPISODE 66
Protect What You Build
Set up the ownership structure before a claim limits your options.
Attorney and Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner Matthew Meredith joins me to discuss how real estate owners can think about asset protection before buying, developing, leasing, transferring, or refinancing property.
We talk about trusts, holding companies, LLCs, personal guarantees, due-on-sale clauses, anonymous ownership, and the work required to keep a structure current. We also discuss why operations and real estate assets are often separated.
MAIN POINTS
What to take back to your team.
- 01
Review the ownership structure before a purchase, transfer, guarantee, or claim limits the available options.
- 02
Separating operations from real estate assets may reduce exposure, but a personal guarantee can change the practical result.
- 03
The structure also has to work with financing, taxes, succession, and day-to-day administration.
- 04
As a portfolio changes, legal and financial advisers should review whether the structure still fits.
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR TEAM
Questions raised by the episode.
Which assets and operations should remain separate?
How would a personal guarantee affect the protection plan?
Should the ownership structure be established before a transfer or refinance?
What administration will the proposed structure require each year?
CHAPTERS
Jump to a section.
01:33Matthew Meredith joins Land to Legacy04:18What owners should address before a project begins05:58Why protection must precede a claim11:06Trust-owned businesses and holding companies13:50Separating operations from real estate assets25:26The limits of protection when a loan has a personal guarantee37:52How trust structures affect real estate financing40:41Due-on-sale clauses and structuring before a transferFREE WORKING GUIDE
Work through your own project.
Use the worksheet to write down the owner's goal, the assumption that needs testing, who will check it, and the result that would make the team continue, pause, or stop.
This conversation is for general information and does not constitute legal, tax, investment, lending, or insurance advice.
Next episode guide: When Cheap Houses Get Expensive