"Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left." - Hubert Humphrey

As difficult as it might be right now, let's project forward to next year.

Let's cross our fingers and believe that we all get through this donkey of a year that is 2020.

Maybe you have a business that clung to life, and you're headed towards recovery in 2021. You took the PPP, or perhaps the EIDL (or both). Or perhaps you had to take unemployment for a period of time, but are slowly (but surely) getting back on your feet. The economic stimulus checks helped.

But then ... taxes are due.

Uh oh.

W
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Over the last year, I have seen a dramatic rise in “hard money” lending not only among investors, but by friends and family of investors. Almost all are doing so without understanding there are rules and risks with lending. To understand these rules and risks, we’ll start with defining lending terms.

Private lending is any loan between a borrower and a non-institutional lender. This could be a loan from your father for the purchase of a car or education. Private loans can be unsecured or secured on things like vehicles, personal property or inventory. Private loans are generally not regulated.

Hard money lending is a private loan that is secured on a hard asset like real estate through a trust deed. Also, these loans are often referred to as “mortgage” loans. Mortgage loans are regulated. And may require a license to provide!

A closed-end mortgage is a loan for a fixed principal amount that is paid down, like most mortgages you think of. An open-end mortgage has no fixed principal. A HELOC is an example of an open-e
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"The only way around is through." - Robert Frost

With unemployment numbers through the roof (officially at 14.7 %, though the real numbers are likely to be  Read More...

The asset protection trust is more accurately called the Domestic Asset Protection Trust or “DAPT.” It is a highly protective, irrevocable trust and less than 20 states even allow them. Utah is one of the! Assets owned by this kind of trust can be protected from lawsuits, debt collection, judgments, bankruptcies and even divorce.

This is a different kind of trust than the family trust. In the family trust, you leave your assets to beneficiaries, like your children. In the DAPT, you actually leave the assets to yourself as beneficiary! That means they are still your assets; but they receive the protection as if you’ve already given them to someone else. That’s the key difference. However, it’s not for everyone.

First, this is a complicated and detailed trust. It’s usually more expensive to create and maintain than the other two types of trusts. Second, while you do have access to the income from trust assets, you cannot take “regular” distributions. So, if you need that income to live on and pay monthly bills, you can’t put those assets in this trust. There are also restrictions
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I've written a fair amount over the past few weeks about all of the specific provisions in the CARES Act, related to economic stimulus checks, various tax savings strategies, financial implications, and then some.

And I will continue to be covering these topics in the weeks ahead.

But today I want to address you around this particular social moment we're in right now.

Yes, I'm a tax professional -- I'm not a counselor, religious leader or a psychiatrist, obviously -- but in the course of the last couple months, I have had the privilege to speak with MANY people about their finances, their mindset, and how they are responding to all of this.

Because you can pick your problem -- there are PLENTY all
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The family trust is to most common type of trust used in the United States. Most people have at least heard of this kind of trust and many have created one. The first thing I want to say is that EVERYONE needs a family trust! Whether you’re single or married, with or without children, or have small or large estate, you need a family trust.

The family trust is the core of your overall family protection plan because it is designed to own, control and allocate your assets after you die. Without a trust, your estate will end up in probate even if you have a will. Probate is an expensive, public court process. It typically costs more than a family trust. Your estate and property become public information. And the court will end up dictating who receives your assets.

Most family trusts come in an estate plan package of documents. You’ll get a “pour-over will” that works in coordination with the trust, powers-of-attorney and the health care directive. This last document is also called the “living” will that provides end-of-life instructions to family and doctors in the event you’re on l
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It feels to me that we're all in need of some good news.

I have some great news for the young (ish) and the old (ish), but before I get there, I'd like to encourage EVERY person who is reading this:

Keep your head in the game.

Yes -- we can so easily get caught up in seemingly nefarious schemes on every side. Whether you are Team ReOpen or Team StayLockedDown ... there are data points and new stories plentifully available to bolster your case.

But what are you doing about what YOU can control?

That's the game right now.

Many people receive these emails that I send out. But of all of them, in point of fact, there might be only a small handful that have actual power to enact change by influencing minds or implementing action.<
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This article continues our discussion of trusts, specifically the real estate trust. First, only a couple of states, like Florida and Illinois, have true “land” trusts. I won’t get into the legal details on how they are different, as that gets complicated. Just know that unless you live in these states you are NOT using a land trust. This gets confusing as many investors attend educational events where these trusts are taught or sold without distinguishing them.

The rest of us have something a little different. We call these trusts real estate trusts, asset holding trusts, property trusts or the like. They are really just simple living trusts but should be created by a knowledgeable attorney. They are designed to hold title for privacy purposes and facilitate transactions such as wholesaling or even selling real estate.

Trusts are a kind of legal entity (like LLC) that can own things. They can be a named buyer on a purchase contract and be named on county land records. Because trusts are not registered with the state, no one will
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All investors will certainly hear about the use of trusts in their real estate business. Most investors may encounter these trusts in some way. A few will use them regularly. The fact is, there are a number of different kinds of trust used both in real estate and our personal lives. This set of 4 articles will highlight the types of trusts most commonly encountered by real estate investors. Here we generally cover the 3 trusts used in REI, and then we’ll follow up with an article on each one.

The first one is most commonly called a “land” trust. This is not super accurate! Only a few states actually have true land trusts as they are very specific types of trusts authorized by the state. For the rest of us, we use property trusts, real estate trusts, holding trusts or the like. These are simple revocable (changeable) trusts designed to simply own real estate—either by contract or title. These trusts are used for privacy purposes and to facilitate many REI transactions.

The second trust is the standard family living trust. This is a much larger and complicated trust as it’s design
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Anytime (like now) that there is a rollout of government assistance, you can count on two things:

1)    Bumps in the road (it's hard to manage many millions of people needing help)

2)    SCAMS

I haven't yet heard of any of my clients or friends being taken in by this stuff, but I did want to alert you to this dynamic.

How to make sure your check is the right check.

Most of the Economic Impact Payments (i.e. stimulus checks) have been direct deposited by now. So if you have NOT received it, you might want to check the status using the tool the IRS has set up here:

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments

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