The Cascading Charging Order Explained

by Ted Sutton | Jan 31, 2024 | Articles, Asset Protection, Charging Order, CorporateDirect

Real estate investors and business owners always run the risk of being sued. If they’re not protected, a courtroom loss can lead to a loss of personal assets. Even if they use a strong LLC, the victor in a car wreck case, for example, may try to get a charging order. And if their holding LLC owns an operating LLC, that same winner may try and get a cascading charging order against one or more operating LLCs. If they succeed with this remedy, it could really harm business owners. But first, what are charging orders and cascading charging orders, and what do they do?

What is a Charging Order?

A charging order is simply a lien on distributions from a business. So, if any distributions are made to the LLC owner, the person with the charging order will get them instead. The court ‘charges’ the LLC owner to make distributions to the car wreck victim. But when would this apply? Here is a chart to help explain this concept:

In this chart, Joe owns a Wyoming LLC. That Wyoming LLC owns two operating LLCs. Wyoming is a stronger asset protection state, where the charging order is the exclusive remedy.

Now let’s say that Joe got into a car accident. If the car wreck victim were to sue Joe and win, they could get a charging order on Joe’s Wyoming LLC. The chart below explains this concept:

However, the charging order limits what that car wreck victim can do. They don’t have the right to manage Joe’s business. And they don’t have the right to demand or vote that Joe’s business pay them. The only way they get paid is if Joe makes a distribution from the entity. And if Joe doesn’t make any distributions, the car wreck victim doesn’t get paid. As you can see, the charging order is a very powerful tool for protection.

What is a Cascading Charging Order?

Now that we discussed what a charging order is, what exactly is a cascading charging order? And how does it differ from a regular charging order?

With a regular charging order, the car wreck victim can place it on any businesses that Joe directly owns. However, a cascading charging order is different. This applies where the car wreck victim tries to place a charging order on the operating companies that Joe indirectly owns.

While Joe doesn’t directly own the operating LLCs, the car wreck victim may still try to place a cascading charging order on it. This is because Joe indirectly owns the operating LLC through Joe’s direct ownership of the Wyoming LLC. The diagram below illustrates this concept:

But can the car wreck victim do this? One recent Texas case addressed this issue.

Bran v. Spectrum MH, LLC

One recent Texas case, Bran v. Spectrum MH LLC, dealt with this issue.[1] In Bran, the parties settled the dispute through arbitration. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Spectrum, and awarded a judgment worth $1.5 Million against Bran.

To collect this judgment, Spectrum appointed a receiver. What the receiver did next was deemed to be out of line. Instead of placing a charging order against the businesses that Bran directly owned, the receiver reached the accounts of businesses that Bran indirectly owned. Bran then filed an emergency appeal.

On appeal, the issue before the Texas Court of Appeals was whether the receiver could get a cascading charging order to reach the assets of the businesses that Bran indirectly owned.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the receiver could not. Instead, the receiver could only reach the assets that Bran directly owned. The court also noted that before the receiver could attach a charging order against a specific entity, Spectrum must prove that Bran had an ownership interest in those entities. This means that if Bran indirectly owned an interest in an entity, the receiver could not reach that entity’s assets.

In Bran, the cascading charging order was off limits. The court also mentioned that the charging order was the exclusive (or only) remedy that the receiver had. This means that the receiver could only collect the $1.5 Million judgment from assets that Bran directly owned.

What This Means For You

Many real estate investors and business owners have an entity structure where they directly own one holding entity, and that entity owns one or more operating entities. When the business owner is sued personally, some courts (like Texas) have held that a person can’t reach that second entity via the cascading charging order.

This structure that involves a Wyoming holding company is very advantageous for business owners, because it limits what a creditor can collect when they are personally sued. And because courts are beginning to block these cascading charging orders, having this structure is a great asset protection strategy.

[1] Bran v. Spectrum MH LLC, 2023 WL 5487421 (Tex.App., 14^th Distr,, August 24,. 2023).

The Difference Between Certificated And Uncertificated Securities

by Ted Sutton | Nov 27, 2023 | Articles, Asset Protection, CorporateDirect

By: Ted Sutton, Esq.

A security refers to an ownership interest in a business or a financial instrument. These ownership interests can be in a private LLC, or corporation, or in a publicly traded stock or bond. There are two choices for holding ownership interests in a security. You can either own it either as a certificated security, or as an uncertificated security. In this article, we will walk you through the differences between the two, and when it’s best to use each one.

Uncertificated Security

An uncertificated security is a security whose ownership is not represented by a physical stock certificate. These security interests are registered on the books of the issuer, and are tracked electronically. Given technology’s role today, this is how most securities are held. Other names for uncertificated securities include book-entry securities and electronic securities.

Pros of Uncertificated Securities

Securities can be bought and sold electronically. There are many different trading platforms today that you can buy and sell from, and given the ease of trading uncertificated securities, it is the faster, more efficient option.

The advantage is that there is no need for filling out and transferring paperwork, which reduces the overall cost of buying and selling stocks. And because uncertificated securities aren’t in paper form, there is little risk that they can be lost or stolen.

Cons of Uncertificated Securities

While uncertificated securities are preferred in many situations, there are some downsides to using them. One of them is that its owners don’t have physical proof of ownership. This can be an issue when owners are perhaps concerned about hacking or a widespread loss of data. A physical certificate avoids such risks.

And most importantly, using uncertificated securities does not provide nearly as good asset protection. Courts treat uncertificated securities as “general intangibles.” General intangibles are non-physical assets, like electronic stock ownership, and courts in your state of residence can easily exercise jurisdiction over them. So, when an individual is sued in their home state, their home state court can exercise jurisdiction over their uncertificated security.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that you live in California and own an interest (that’s an uncertificated security) in a Wyoming LLC. You then get sued in California. Because your interest in the Wyoming LLC is a general intangible that follows you to California, California will apply their law to the dispute. In this case, Wyoming’s stronger charging order protection wouldn’t apply to protect your interest in the Wyoming LLC.

Certificated Security

A certificated security is a security that is represented by a physical certificate. When you buy a certificated security, you receive a physical paper evidencing your ownership. This stock certificate contains important information about the security, including the owner’s name, the number of shares owned, the date that the owner received the security certificate and any restrictions on transfer. When you sell the stock, you transfer the physical certificate to the buyer.

Pros of Certificated Securities

The advantages to having certificated securities is greater asset protection, as discussed below.

Cons of Certificated Securities

There are more obvious cons to owning a certificated security. Selling a certificated security is more difficult and time consuming. Given how easy it is to buy and sell uncertificated securities online, trading certificated securities for public companies is not the best option for investors. Another downside is the cost associated with physically transferring the security certificate from a seller to a buyer. And because they’re in paper form, these certificated securities can easily be lost or stolen. But for your own personal investments let’s consider Armor-8.

Armor-8

At Corporate Direct we offer certificated securities for your own personally held Wyoming LLCs with our Armor-8 protection.

There are many states that offer weak asset protection (like California). However, if you are a resident of one of those states, there is a little wrinkle in the law that can protect you. Under the UCC Article 8, if the certificated security is delivered and kept in one state, then that state’s law will apply to how a creditor can reach its assets. Said another way, this means that if the security certificate is delivered and kept in Wyoming, then the out of state court must apply Wyoming’s charging order, a much stronger asset protection remedy.

We have a safe deposit box at a Wyoming bank to ensure that the security certificate is delivered and kept in Wyoming. This places the security certificate out of reach from your home state creditors. And the only way for them to reach it is to have a lawyer in Wyoming get a court order to release the paper certificate. This is a cumbersome process for an attorney on a contingency fee. The hassle factor gives you better asset protection.

Conclusion

Holding a certificated security can come in handy when you don’t want to sell your interest and want to protect your assets. However, uncertificated securities are helpful where they are regularly bought and sold on an exchange. Knowing this difference may be able to help you before you set up your business.

We here at Corporate Direct can help you protect your assets with our Armor-8 protection. This will provide you with a certificated security interest held in Wyoming for your protection from creditors.

For more information on our Armor-8 protection, schedule a consultation with us.

Corporate Direct has a weekly YouTube segment called Direct Answers from Corporate Direct

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Five Reasons Why We Don’t Recommend DAO LLCs

by Ted Sutton | Aug 15, 2023 | Articles, Asset Protection, CorporateDirect

By: Ted Sutton, Esq.

Over the last few years, the use of blockchain technology has exploded onto the scene. DAOs have grown in popularity alongside it.

So, what exactly is a DAO? A DAO is a new entity form that stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. What’s unique about them is how they can be managed. Like other entities, individual members can manage DAOs. What makes them different is that they can also be managed by a smart contract on the blockchain ledger. This new and unique form of management has encouraged people to form them as partnerships, which offer no protection. Because of this, a better vehicle was needed.

In response to this demand, some states have already enacted new laws. Wyoming has passed legislation allowing for DAOs to be formed as “DAO LLCs.” Tennessee has passed a similar law allowing for Decentralized Organizations, or “DO’s.” These entities can be formed with the Secretary of State and provide the same asset protection as LLCs. Utah also passed a similar act that allows for the creation of “limited liability decentralized autonomous organizations,” or “LLDs” for short.

Proponents say that this smart contract management makes the DAO easier to be managed remotely, more efficient to govern, and removes any management conflicts between humans. While these things may be true, there are five reasons why we here at Corporate Direct do not recommend forming DAOs for our clients.

1. The Smart Contract is open-sourced

The first reason is that the smart contract is available for public view. Because the smart contract is on the blockchain ledger, anyone can see how your DAO is being managed. On top of this, the Wyoming Secretary of State requires DAO applicants to include the smart contract’s public identifier when forming the DAO LLC. So anyone can see your LLC’s roadmap. Do you want the world knowing how you distribute profits? Unlike a DAO’s smart contract, an LLC’s operating agreement or a Corporation’s bylaws are not available for public view. Every other entity provides this type of privacy. DAOs do not, which is why we stay away from them.

1. The DAOs can still be hacked

Second, DAOs can still be hacked, even with a smart contract in place. This happened in the California case of Sarcuni v. bZx DAO. In Sarcuni, people deposited digital tokens into the bZx DAO in exchange for membership interests. Over time, the DAO accumulated over $50 million worth of these tokens.

One day, one of the members received a phishing email from a hacker. After the member opened the email, the hacker was able to access the member’s private key and take $55 million worth of funds from the DAO. One would think that the DAO’s smart contract would have stopped this transfer. But that was not the case. In fact, the DAO had lost $9 million in three previous hacks.

On top of this, the court also found that because the DAO is not a recognized entity type under California law, DAO’s are treated as general partnerships. This means that if the DAO is sued, each of its members are personally on the hook for any liability. Was anyone sued personally for the loss of $64 million in the Sarcuni case? Under California law, they could be.

Given the recent rise in computer scams, any business can be a victim to them. But because DAOs with smart contracts face these same risks, they are a much less appealing option. Even worse, if your state doesn’t recognize DAOs, any member is individually liable for any claims brought after the DAO has been hacked.

1. The law still applies to DAOs and their owners

We also don’t recommend the DAO since they may still be subject to other regulatory requirements, even when its owners try to avoid them. This happened in the case of Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Ooki DAO. In Ooki, BZero X LLC operated a trading platform where people would exchange virtual currencies on the blockchain network. In an attempt to avoid regulatory oversight from the CFTC, BZeroX transferred their protocol into the Ooki DAO. After this move, the CFTC filed suit against Ooki.

The court found that because the DAO traded commodities, the DAO was subject to regulation under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). On top of this, the court found that under the CEA, DAOs are treated as unincorporated associations. Like general partnerships, this also means that Ooki’s members are subject to personal liability.

While people may think that they can use DAOs as a conduit to avoid the law, they are sorely mistaken. You are much better off using a traditional LLC.

1. DAO owners can be personally liable if the DAO is sued

In states that do not have DAO legislation on the books, DAO owners can be personally liable if the DAO gets sued.

The Sarcuni court found that DAOs are treated like general partnerships. In addition, the Ooki court found that DAOs are treated like unincorporated associations under California and Federal law. In both of these cases, after the DAO was sued, all of its owners were personally liable for any judgment entered against each DAO.

From a liability standpoint, this is disastrous for every DAO member. However, members of properly formed LLCs and Corporations do not have to face this issue. If those entities are sued, their owner’s liability is limited to their capital contributions. Not so in states that don’t recognize the DAO as its own entity.

1. There is too much legal uncertainty with DAOs

The fifth and final reason for DAO avoidance is that there is too much legal uncertainty associated with them. Only three states have DAO laws on the books. Because of this, there are neither enough regulations nor enough case law to regard DAOs as a safe entity to recommend to our clients.

There are simply too many unknowns at this point in time. And we don’t want our clients to be the test cases.

Conclusion

There is a chance that some of these things may change in the future. Additional states could pass legislation that treat DAOs like LLCs with their own liability protections. Smart contracts could do a better job of stopping hackers. Lawmakers and agencies may also enact clearer regulations regarding DAOs. But because people face these issues when forming DAOs now, we do not recommend them for our clients.

Corporate Direct has a weekly YouTube segment called Direct Answers from Corporate Direct

In this segment, we educate people on corporate law, business formation, real estate, wealth building, and asset protection. And if you have any general questions about something, please feel free to leave a comment on one of our videos!

For more of these updates, click the link below and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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How LLCs Can Protect Doctors

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Dec 28, 2022 | Asset Protection, Forming an LLC

By: Ted Sutton

Doctors are frequent targets of medical malpractice suits. This is why many of them have malpractice insurance to cover these claims. But what happens when the insurance does not cover the full amount? In this situation, the last thing doctors want is to have their personal assets exposed. Fortunately, doctors have a few options to protect their assets.

Forming an LLC for their Practice

The first thing doctors can do is set up an entity for their practice. The entity must be formed in the state where the doctor is licensed to practice, and each state has different requirements. Some states allow doctors to simply form an LLC for their practice. Others such as California require doctors to set up a Professional Corporation (PC). A third group of states, including Illinois, require doctors to set up a Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC). For the latter two categories, entity owners must be licensed members of their respective profession.

Forming an LLC for their personal assets

Using an entity for a medical practice is useful to protect against a slip and fall or other accidents on the premises. But what happens when the doctor is sued personally? A malpractice claim is personal, meaning the doctor can’t hide behind the entity. The patient, after collecting against malpractice coverage, can reach the doctor’s personal assets. Having a separate LLC for personal assets can prevent an easy taking.

To insulate from personal liability, many doctors use LLCs to hold title to personal assets, including stock portfolios and real estate holdings. But the patient may still attach the doctor’s interest in the LLC to pay their claim. Choosing which state to form the LLC makes the biggest difference in what the patient can collect.

Form an LLC in a Strong State

Some states, including Wyoming, offer better protection for one simple reason: the charging order. This order only allows the patient to collect any distributions the doctor may receive, and gives them no right to participate in the LLC’s management.

In Wyoming, the charging order is the only way that the patient can collect anything from the LLC. You do not have to make any distributions from a stock portfolio. So if no distributions from the LLC are made, the patient collects nothing. This can aid doctors, especially if the LLC holds valuable assets.

Other states, including California, have weaker protections. Contrary to only allowing the patient to receive distributions, a California court may force the sale of the doctor’s LLC to pay the claim. Do doctors want this to happen? Of course not, and fortunately, this scenario can be minimized. By forming the LLC in a state with better protection, the doctor is better protected.

Conclusion

Doctors must not only consider an entity for their practice, but also an LLC for their personal assets. When faced with a claim, these considerations make the difference between how much or how little a claimant can collect.

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How to Set Up Single Member LLCs

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Dec 26, 2021 | CorporateDirect, Entity Types, Forming an LLC, Maintaining Your LLCs, Start a Business

You must be very careful when you are the only owner of your LLC. Single member LLCs require extra planning and special language in the operating agreement.

One example: What happens when the single owner/member passes? Who takes over? It may be months before that is sorted out, and your business will falter without a clear leader.

Difficulties of Owning a Single Member LLC

You want the asset protection benefits of a limited liability company. But what if you don’t want any partners? What if you want to be the sole owner of your own LLC?

You can do that with a single owner LLC (sometimes known as a single member LLC).

But you have to be careful.

Before we discuss how to properly set up and use a single owner LLC we must acknowledge a nationwide trend. Courts are starting to deny sole owner LLCs the same protection as multiple member LLCs. The reason has to do with the charging order.

The charging order is a court order providing a judgment creditor (someone who has already won in court and is now trying to collect) a lien on distributions. A chart helps to illustrate:

Illustration showing typical multi-member LLC structure

John was in a car wreck. Moe does not have a claim against XYZ, LLC itself. The wreck had nothing to do with the duplex. Instead, Moe wants to collect against John’s assets, which is a 50% interest in XYZ, LLC. Courts have said it is not fair to Mary, the other 50% owner of XYZ, to let Moe come crashing into the LLC as a new partner. Instead, the courts give Moe a charging order, meaning that if any distributions (think profits) flow from XYZ, LLC to John then Moe is charged with receiving them.

Moe is not a partner, can’t make decisions or demands, and has to wait until John gets paid. If John never gets paid, neither does Moe. The charging order not only protects Mary but is a useful deterrent to frivolous litigation brought against John. Attorneys don’t like to wait around to get paid.

But what if there is only a single owner?

Illustration that shows a single member LLC structure

In this illustration there is no Mary to protect. It’s just John. Is it fair to Moe to only offer the charging order remedy? Or should other remedies be allowed?

How the Court Has Ruled Against LLCs With One Member

In June of 2010, the Florida Supreme Court decided the Olmstead vs. FTC case on these grounds. In a single owner LLC there are no other members to protect. The court allowed the FTC to seize Mr. Olmstead’s membership interests in order to collect. Other states have followed the trend.

Interestingly, even two of the strongest LLC states have denied charging order protection to single owner LLCs in limited circumstances.

In September of 2014, the US District Court in Nevada decided the bankruptcy case of In re: Cleveland.

The court held that the charging order did not protect a single member LLC owner in bankruptcy. Instead, the bankruptcy trustee could step into the shoes of the single owner and manage the LLC. This is not surprising since bankruptcy trustees have unique and far reaching powers, which are routinely upheld by the courts. (But know that, incredibly enough, a bankruptcy trustee can’t get control of the shares of a Nevada corporation. This is a special planning opportunity available to Nevada residents – or those who may become Nevada residents.)

In November of 2014, the Wyoming Supreme Court rendered a surprising verdict in the Greenhunter case.

The court held that the veil of a single owner LLC could be pierced. The issue centered on a Texas company’s use of a Wyoming LLC it solely owned. The LLC was undercapitalized (meaning not enough money was put into it) and it incurred all sorts of obligations. It wasn’t fair for the Texas company for the single owner to hide behind the LLC. The fact that a single owner LLC was involved was a material issue. The court pierced through the LLC and held the Texas company liable for the LLC’s debts.

Even though these are fairly narrow cases, both Nevada and Wyoming have held against single member LLCs. Again, this is the trend.

Luckily there are some things you can do to protect your assets as a single member LLC…

Strategies for Protecting Your Assets

One strategy is to set up a multi-member LLC structured in a way that gives the intended single member all of the decision making power. For example, parents can have adult children over 18 become member(s) or for those under 18 you can use a Uniform Gift to Minors Act designation. You may want to use an irrevocable spendthrift trust for children or others. A local estate planning attorney can help you set these up correctly.

But what is the smallest percentage you have to give up for the second member? Could you give up just 1/100th of 1 percent? Most practitioners feel that the percentage should not be inordinately low and that 5% is a suitable second member holding. So the ideal structure would be that John owns 95% of the LLC and the other 5% is owned by a child (or other family member) and/or an irrevocable trust.

Accordingly, in a state that doesn’t protect single owner LLCs, you have an excellent argument for charging order protection. There is a legitimate second member to protect. To further that legitimacy it is useful to have the second member participate in the affairs of the LLC. Attending meetings and making suggestions recorded into the meeting minutes is a good way to show such involvement.

But what if you don’t want to bring in a second member?

There are plenty of good reasons to set up a sole owner LLC. Other owners can bring a loss of privacy and protection. And if you paid 100% for the whole asset, why should you bring in another member anyway? Or, what if you don’t have any children or other family members that you want to bring in?

If a single member LLC is truly the best fit for you, there are three key factors to know and deal with.

1. The Corporate Veil

Many states’ LLC laws do not require annual meetings or written documents. Some see this as a benefit but it is actually a curse.

If you don’t follow the corporate formalities (which now apply to LLCs) a creditor can pierce the veil of protection and reach your personal assts. With a single owner LLC this is especially problematic. Because you are in complete management control it may appear that you aren’t respecting the entity’s separate existence or that you are comingling the LLC’s assets with your own personal assets. Without a clear distinction of the LLC’s separate identity, a creditor could successfully hold you personally responsible for the debts of the LLC (as they did in Wyoming’s Greenhunter case above.) Maintaining proper financial books and records and keeping LLC minutes can help demonstrate a definitive and separate identity for your single owner LLC. You must work with a company which appreciates the importance of this for single owner LLCs.

2. Different State Laws

LLC laws vary from state to state. Some states offer single owner LLCs very little protection. The states of California, Georgia, Florida, Utah, New York, Oregon, Colorado and Kansas, among others, deny the charging order protection to single owner LLCs.

Other states offer single owner LLCs a very high level of protection in traditional circumstances. So we have to pick our state of formation very carefully. In order to deal with this trend against protection, we use the states that do protect single member LLCs.

Wyoming, Nevada, Delaware, South Dakota and Alaska (collectively “the strong states”), have amended their LLC laws to state that the charging order in standard collection matters is the exclusive remedy for judgment creditors – even against single owner LLCs.

So how do we use these state laws to our advantage? Let’s consider an example:

A chart showing a properly structured single member LLC

In this example, John owns a fourplex in Georgia and a duplex in Utah. Each property is held in an in-state LLC (as required to operate in the state). The Georgia and Utah LLCs are in turn held by one Wyoming LLC. (This structure works in every state except California, which requires extra planning. Be sure to take advantage of our free 15-minute consultation if you are operating or residing in California).

I break down potential lawsuits into two different types of attacks: Attack #1, the inside attack and Attack #2, the outside attack.

In Attack #1, the inside attack, a tenant sues over a problem at the fourplex owned by GEORGIA, LLC. They have a claim against the equity inside that LLC. Whether GEORGIA, LLC is a single owner or multi-owner LLC doesn’t matter. The tenant’s claim is against GEORGIA, LLC itself. Importantly, the tenant can’t get at the assets inside UTAH, LLC or WYOMING, LLC. They are shielded since the tenants only claim is against GEORGIA, LLC.

The benefit of this structure comes in Attack #2, the outside attack. If John gets in a car wreck, it has nothing to do with GEORGIA, LLC or UTAH, LLC. But, the car wreck victim would like to get at those properties to collect on the judgment. If John held GEORGIA, LLC and UTAH, LLC directly in his name, the judgment creditor could force a sale of the fourplex and duplex since neither state protects single owner LLCs.

However, since John is the sole owner of WYOMING, LLC he is protected by Wyoming’s strong laws. The attacker can only get at WYOMING, LLC and gets a charging order, which means they have to wait until John gets a distribution and therefore could possibly never get paid. If John doesn’t take any distributions, there’s no way for the attacker (or his attorney) to collect. A strong state LLC offers a real deterrent to litigation, even for single owner LLCs.

3. Operating Agreement

Like bylaws for a corporation, the Operating Agreement is the road map for the LLC. While some states don’t require them, they are an absolute must for proper governance and protection. A single owner LLC operating agreement is very different than a multi-member operating agreement.

For example, if a single owner transfers their interest in the LLC, inadvertent dissolution of the entire LLC can occur. This is not good. Or, again, what if the sole owner passes? Who takes over? Our Single Member Operating Agreement provides for a Successor Manager (a person you pick ahead of time) to step in.

The best way to deal with these issues, as well as others, is to have a specially drafted operating agreement to properly govern your Single Member LLC. Corporate Direct provides such a tailored document for our clients. When it comes to business and investments, you must do it the right way.

LLC vs Corporation

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Mar 27, 2021 | Entity Types, Start a Business, Starting a Business

Which is Best?

Choosing the right entity can be one of the most important decisions a business makes. Business owners and investors may find themselves asking which to pick, LLC vs Corporation. To help make your decision a little easier, we’ve compiled a list of helpful comparisons that will teach you the basic differences among entity types.

Who should use which entity?

LLC

LLCs are great for people who want an entity to hold real estate or other appreciating assets. They are a popular choice for investors and entrepreneurs because of the flexible taxation and great asset protection.

Corporation

C Corporations are great for businesses that sell products, have a storefront and have employees. Businesses that offer services may find the taxes of a C Corp to be too high because of specific tax laws applied to Personal Service Corporations (PSC). It’s also advised not to hold appreciating assets in a C Corp because of the tax treatment of asset sales.

S Corporations are a good choice for people who would like the protection and structure of a corporation, but would be classified as a PSC by the IRS. They are also great for businesses that have significant start-up costs because of their flow-through taxation.

Taxes

LLC

LLCs can choose how to be taxed – either as a disregarded single member entity (where the tax reporting flows directly onto the sole owner’s personal return) or as a multiple member partnership. LLCs can also be taxed as an S Corporation or C Corporation. No other entity has this flexibility.

Corporation

C Corporations

A C Corporation has the widest range of deductions and expenses out of all the various entity types. This is especially true in the case of employee fringe benefits. If you own a C Corporation, you can set up medical reimbursement and other employee benefits and deduct the costs associated with running these programs from your corporate taxes. It’s also worth noting that as a C Corporation you pay an initial rate of 15% on earnings up to $50,000.

While you have access to a wide range of deductions and the ability to set up fringe benefits without taxation, the biggest tax disadvantage of C Corporation is the “double-taxation” issue. Double-taxation can occur when a C Corp has a profit at the end of the year that it would like to distribute to its shareholders. The C Corp has paid taxes on the profit, but once it gets distributed to the shareholders, they also have to declare the dividends they receive on their personal tax returns at their own tax rate.

You may also want to consider an S Corporation if your company’s primary product is services to the public, as you will be taxed as a PSC with an initial rate of 35% instead of the 15%. The IRS does this to stop people from using a corporation to pay less in taxes for what is essentially a salary.

S Corporations

S Corporations are what is called a flow-through entity (similar to an LLC). Unlike a C Corporation, an S Corporation pays no tax on the corporate level. The shareholders only have to pay taxes on the individual level. This can be beneficial in some cases, but shareholders who make a high income from distributions will pay higher taxes. As far as benefits are concerned, S Corps may still write off the cost of benefits, but shareholders who control more than 2% of the entity must pay taxes on the benefits they receive.

S Corporations are commonly used to avoid the PSC tax rate set by the IRS. A corporation is considered to be a Personal Service Corporations (PSC) by the IRS if more than 20% of the corporation’s compensation cost for its activities of performing personal services is for personal services performed by employee-owners and the employee-owner owns 10% or more of the stock. Personal services include any activity performed in the fields of accounting, actuarial science, architecture, consulting, engineering, health (including veterinary services), law, and the performing arts.

Since an S Corporation is a flow-through entity and shareholders pay taxes on the individual level, a modest salary with passive income may mean lower taxation. To determine what’s best for you and your business, you should always talk with your CPA or legal advisor.

Shareholders and Owners

LLC

An LLC does not issue shares, but it can have multiple owners (called members) who all share a percentage of the company.

Corporation

C Corporations

C Corporations allow for an unlimited number of shareholders, there is no limitation on who can hold shares and no restrictions on what types of shares can be held (such as preferred vs. common). A C Corp is perfect for a company looking to go public.

S Corporations

S Corporations are a bit more restricting. All shareholders of an S Corp must be Individuals (not entities) and they must be U.S. citizens. The company can only have 100 shares issued, and the shares can only be of one type.

Asset Protection

LLC

A key feature of the LLC is charging order protection. In strong states like Nevada or Wyoming, if the owner of a business gets sued, an attacker can only get a charging order (a lien to the distributions of the LLC). If there are no distributions, the attacker gets nothing. The charging order in most cases is contingent on the entity having at least two owners, but Nevada and Wyoming have protections for the single member LLC.

It should be noted that in some states, like California, Georgia and New York, the court may still order a sale of the businesses assets.

Corporation

A Corporation is an entirely separate and independent legal entity from its owners (or shareholders) and there is a separation between ownership and management. As such, the management and shareholders of a Corporation generally are protected from personal liability for the Corporation’s liabilities and obligations. Although shareholders of a Corporation may be liable for the amount they have invested in the Corporation, their own personal assets usually are protected. This limited liability feature also applies to directors, officers, and employees of a C Corporation.

However, there is an issue in the asset protection of a Corporation. If you own shares in a corporation and are sued personally (i.e. after a car wreck), a judgment creditor can reach your shares in the corporation. If you are the majority owner, the attacker now controls your business by virtue of share control. Nevada is the only state that extends charging order protection (as in an LLC) to corporate shares.

Foreign Investors

LLC

In general, whether you’re a foreign real estate investor or one in the U.S., the limited liability company is the best entity. The LLC is great for both asset protection and has flow-through taxation, and they are affordable to set up and maintain. Since they have flexible taxation, they can be set up for easier taxation management too. Often Canadians will use an LLC taxed as a C Corporation for ease of use, and Australians use them as-is for real estate investment of their retirement monies. It’s always best to consult your accountant about which taxation system would best fit your business.

Corporation

C Corporations

C Corporations are a good to foreign owners for the same reasons stated in the sections above, but It may be more popular with countries that have similar taxation. For example, most Canadians prefer to use a C Corporation because the taxation of a C Corporation most closely resembles that of their home country. When the systems are closely related, it makes them easier to manage.

S Corporations

S Corporations are the only U.S. entity that cannot be used by a foreign investor.

Questions?

Determining which entity is right for you can be challenging. You want to ensure that you are getting set up properly right from the start.

If you need help figuring out what entity is right for your business, set up a free 15-minute consultation with an Incorporating Specialist.

Schedule a Consultation

Garrett Sutton Recognized for Lifetime Achievement Member by America’s Top 100 Attorneys

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Mar 27, 2021 | Blog

On March 23, 2018 America’s Top 100 Attorneys announced the Lifetime Achievement selection of Garrett Sutton, Esq. among America’s Top 100 Attorneys®. Lifetime Achievement selection to America’s Top 100 Attorneys® is by invitation only and is reserved to identify the nation’s most exceptional attorneys whose accomplishments and impact on the legal profession merit a Lifetime Achievement award.

Garrett Sutton Top 100 Attorney

Selection is not achieved based on a single accomplishment or a single great year of success, but rather on a lifetime of hard work, ethical standards, and community enriching accomplishments that are inspiring among the legal profession. To help ensure that all attorneys selected for membership meet the very high standards expected for selection, candidates for lifetime membership are carefully screened through comprehensive Qualitative Comparative Analysis based on a broad array of criteria, including the candidate’s professional experience, lifetime achievements, significant case results, peer reputation, and community impact. With these extremely high standards for selection to America’s Top 100 Attorneys®, less than one-half percent (0.5%) of active attorneys in the United States will receive this honor — truly the most exclusive and elite level of attorneys in the community.

For more than 30 years, Garrett Sutton has run his practice assisting entrepreneurs and real estate investors in protecting their assets and maximizing their financial goals through sound management and asset protection strategies. The companies he founded, Corporate Direct and Sutton Law Center, have helped more than 12,000 clients protect their assets and incorporate their businesses.

Garrett also serves as a member of the elite group of “Rich Dad Advisors” for bestselling author Robert Kiyosaki. A number of the books Garrett Sutton has authored are part of the bestselling Rich Dad, Poor Dad wealth-building book series.

Garrett attended Colorado College and the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a B.S. in Business Administration in 1975. He graduated with a J.D. in 1978 from Hastings College of Law, the University of California’s law school in San Francisco. Garrett is licensed in Nevada and California. Garrett is a member of the State Bar of Nevada, the State Bar of California, and the American Bar Association. He has written numerous professional articles and has served on the Publication Committee of the State Bar of Nevada. Additionally, He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, TIME, Credit.com and other publications.

He serves on the boards of The American Baseball Foundation, based in Birmingham, Alabama and The Nevada Museum of Art and Sierra Kids Foundation, both based in Reno, Nevada.

Garrett and his law firm, Sutton Law Center, have offices in Reno and Minden, Nevada, Jackson Hole, and Wyoming. The firm represents thousands of corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships and individuals in their real estate and business-related law matters, including incorporations, contracts, and ongoing business-related legal advice and accepts new clients. The firm also assists its clients to find and analyze appropriate real estate projects.

Garrett enjoys speaking with entrepreneurs and real estate investors on the advantages of forming business entities. He is a frequent lecturer for small business groups as well as the Rich Dad Advisors series.

Distributing LLC Money

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Dec 10, 2020 | Asset Protection Resources, Forming an LLC, Maintaining Your LLCs, Real Estate

You’ve set up your LLC. Now it’s time to make money, and flow the profits into your bank account. It’s time to think about how you will be distributing LLC Money between bank accounts. In the example we’ll use in this article, you have transferred title in a real estate rental property (a duplex) into your new LLC, which is called XYZ, LLC. You have also, as is required to follow the corporate formalities, set up a bank account in the name of XYZ, LLC. You haven’t hired a property management company yet as you are going to try managing the property yourself.

In the first month, your two duplex tenants pay the rent on time. You are thinking to yourself: “This is good. This is how it’s supposed to work.” You deposit the rent checks, which are properly made out to XYZ, LLC, into the new XYZ, LLC bank account. You have a mortgage and trash pick-up payment to make, so you write two checks against the new LLC bank account to cover those obligations.

Glory be, after those payments, at the end of the month you have a profit! What do you do?

You could pull some of the money out, transferring it from XYZ, LLC to your personal account, knowing that you’ll have to pay taxes on a portion of it at some point. More likely, you may leave the money in XYZ, LLC and build up a reserve of cash to be able to cover any unforeseen issues. Some owners may leave the money in the LLC account until near the end of the year. After speaking with their CPA to understand how much income is sheltered by depreciation and how much tax they’ll owe they will pull enough money out of XYZ, LLC to pay their tax obligation, if any, as well as take a profits distribution for themselves at the end of the year.

Things are working well and you decide to invest in another rental property, a fourplex. You’ve heard that by putting your new fourplex into XYZ, LLC you are creating a target rich LLC. If a tenant at the duplex sues XYZ, LLC for a faulty condition they could not only reach the equity in the duplex but also in the new fourplex. They have a claim against the LLC and on an inside attack they can get what is inside XYZ, LLC, which would be both the duplex and fourplex. You don’t want to do that.

So you set up ABC, LLC to take title to the fourplex. Following what you did with XYZ, LLC you set up a new LLC bank account for ABC, LLC and deposit tenant checks made out to that LLC into the new ABC, LLC bank account.

Along the way you come to appreciate that the state in which ABC, LLC and XYZ, LLC were formed offers weak asset protection for the outside attack. The inside attack, where a tenant sues the LLC directly, offers the same protection in all states. But the outside attack where, for example, a car wreck victim has a personal claim against you and is suing from the outside to get at your assets, varies from state to state. California, New York and Utah are weak states. The car wreck victim and their attorneys can get at your valuable real estate to satisfy a claim. Wyoming, Nevada and Delaware are strong states featuring charging order protection, which is briefly described in this short video. For more detail, see my book, Loopholes of Real Estate.

LoopholesRE Sutton.Front Cover.Final .HiRes .2019

For now, we want you to focus on distributing LLC money through this new structure. As before, the new holding LLC we form in Wyoming opens its own bank account under the name Padre, LLC.

The profits you generate from the two title holding LLCs on the top line will, whenever you want, be distributed to the new Wyoming holding LLC. We don’t want to directly distribute to your personal bank account moneys from XYZ, LLC and ABC, LLC because you don’t personally own them anymore. Instead, you own Padre, LLC, which in turn owns XYZ, LLC and ABC, LLC. So the money flows from XYZ, LLC and ABC, LLC to Padre, LLC. Whenever you want to take a distribution you will take it from Padre, LLC, which is the entity you directly own. XYZ, LLC and ABC, LLC are technically owned by Padre, LLC and not you. But that is good, because it provides excellent asset protection when a strong state is used. As well, Padre, LLC is a good place to hold money because it is asset protected in Wyoming. If you hold the money in your personal bank account you are not as protected.

Some people will complain that in the structure example above, a total of three bank accounts is not needed. Two points are critical here. First, it is useful to know that with online banking and fairly low minimum balance requirements the use of three separate accounts is neither burdensome nor expensive. Second, and more importantly, by not using separate bank accounts you run the risk of a creditor seeking to pierce the veil of your entity. You must not commingle money between personal and separate business accounts. There must be a clear line of money flows from duplex tenants into XYZ, LLC, from that entity into Padre, LLC and from the Wyoming holding LLC into your personal bank account. You cannot skip a step and risk being held personally liable for a claim.

Again, distributing LLC money correctly is not going to be a burden. And even if it was it is required for you to maintain your asset protection edge, so just do it. Work with your CPA on the timing of distributions and payment of taxes and all will be fine.

Besides, it’s how everyone else does it anyway.

10 Rules for Asset Protection Planning

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Dec 1, 2019 | Asset Protection Resources, Forming an LLC, Maintaining Your LLCs, Real Estate, Running a Business

Asset protection planning defends your assets from future creditors, divorce, lawsuits or judgments. How can you best plan to protect your personal and business assets? Here are some guidelines to implement strong asset protection.

Plan Your Asset Protection Strategy BEFORE You’re Sued
Once a lawsuit has arrived, it’s too late to put protections in place and there is little you can do. Take action before a claim or liability arises. In fact, a strong asset protection structure can discourage lawsuits because the better protected your assets are, the stronger a deterrent it is.
Keep Your Personal and Business Assets Separate
If you don’t insulate your own assets from those of your business, you could be in trouble. If you operate your business in the form of a sole proprietorship or as a general partnership, these businesses are not registered entities, which means that your personal assets are not insulated from those of your business.
It’s Risky to Be A Sole Proprietor
As an example, if you’re a sole proprietor and an angry customer sues you, any assets you own such as your house or car are not protected. Nor are financial assets such as your bank account. These can all be taken should a judgment be found against you.
A Two-Man Partnership is Double the Risk
Maybe you have thought about forming two-man partnership with your friend. This may perhaps be an even worse idea than operating as a sole proprietorship. What this means is that you are as liable for your friend’s errors as you are for your own. You are also liable for anything purchased in the name of your partnership. Remember that one partner’s signature is enough to bind both partners to a debt or other type of obligation. Again, this leaves you unprotected and without any recourse should something happen; you could be left holding the bag.
Use a Registered Corporate Entity for Asset Protection
To protect yourself, use a registered corporate entity. Most people don’t realize there’s a risk in keeping assets and property in your name, which also means keeping the liability and the risk. To succeed in business, to protect your assets and to limit your liability, you want to select from one of the good entities / structures that are truly separate legal beings. They are:
- C Corporations
- S Corporations
- Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
- Limited Partnerships (LPs)
Each one has it’s own advantages and specific uses. Each one is utilized by the rich and knowledgeable in their business and personal financial affairs. And, depending on your state’s fees, each one can be formed for $800 or less so that you can achieve the same benefits and protections that sophisticated business people have enjoyed for centuries.
Meet Annual Requirements so That Legal Protection Remains Intact
You’ll need to keep your company’s registration up-to-date, hold annual meetings and keep annual minutes, keep business funds separate from your own, and avoid signing any business-related documentation in your name. This is known as maintaining the corporate veil and we provide this service to many of our clients. This keeps your own assets separate from those of your business. By the same token, you are also protected from any debts or disasters incurred by your business.
Protect Your Business Assets in a Business Entity
You need to protect your business and real estate assets from yourself. A limited liability company is an excellent way to help protect key assets. (Learn how to become incorporated now.) For example, if you have a rental property, you should hold assets either in a limited partnership or in an LLC. These protect you from personal liability if anything should happen on the property and it also provides you another advantage. Should someone become injured on your property, you are protected from being sued directly by the tenant. Remember that the business’s assets are still at risk of suit should the tenant decide to sue. However, if you have adequate insurance, you can help protect yourself from having the claimant lay claim to your assets so as to satisfy your obligation. This strategy comes with a caveat though.
Ensure You Have a Comprehensive Commercial Insurance Policy
A comprehensive commercial insurance policy can help you keep the property instead of having it end up as a part of a court-ordered settlement. What should you look for?
- The liability insurance should cover injuries to third parties on your property.
- It should cover trespassing, especially if you have undeveloped or vacant land.
- If you have people working on your property as your employees, you should also have Worker’s Compensation insurance.
- The insurance should also have “increased cost of construction” additions if your building should become damaged or require reconstruction. That means you’ll be covered at today’s construction prices instead of those of previous years.
- If you are a landlord, “loss of rents” riders can help you recover costs in the event your building is damaged and uninhabitable so that you can pay relocation costs or receive income from the property while it’s being rebuilt to offset right losses.
- A final consideration is a “higher limits” rider, so that you have extra protection in the event a catastrophic claim is filed in one of these categories.
Use Entities as a Second Line of Defense
It is extremely important to carry adequate and proper insurance coverage, but as we know, insurance companies have an economic incentive to avoid covering all claims. They find reasons to deny coverage. So while you will have insurance you will use entities as a second line of defense to protect your personal assets from your business claims.
Avoid Incorporation Scams
You need to know that there are a number of other corporate information scams in the marketplace. A popular one is the $99 incorporation. For just $99, they claim you will be bulletproofed and asset-protected. “C’mon down. We’ll set you right up”, they say.

We have tested such services to see how they could possibly do all the work necessary to completely and properly form and document a corporation or LLC for just $99. These providers fall into two camps.
1. The first camp does the minimal work needed to form an entity. They file the articles. That’s it. Once you pay the $99 they will no longer take your phone calls or questions. Eventually you will be sent a document with a state seal on it indicating that you are incorporated. But you will not be sent the minutes, the bylaws, or any issued stock – all of the other components necessary to be a complete corporation. Of course, if you hadn’t read this article, you would probably think in your blissful ignorance that for just $99 you were protected. You are not.
2. The second camp uses the $99 as a come-on. They offer an a la carte menu in which the $99 is just for the filing of the articles. The bylaws are another $350. The meeting minutes are $250, and so on. By the time you are done they have gained your confidence and that $99 has ballooned up to $2,000 to $3,000 for just one entity.

Guardianship Abuse: Are Your Parents Protected From a State Sanctioned Nightmare?

by Garrett Sutton, Esq | Jan 1, 2019 | Asset Protection Resources

By Ted Sutton

Imagine your elderly parents living a peaceful and happy life after having retired from the workforce. Both of them are staying active whether that includes traveling to new places or taking part in community activities with others their age. They may need some assistance from you or a paid nurse, but they live a happy life free of any health issues that require serious attention.

Then all of a sudden, somebody comes to your parents’ door with a court order mandating that they be moved into an assisted nursing care facility. They are told to drop everything, pack their belongings, and are then forced to leave their house without notice or any counsel from family members or anyone else. Their lives would change immediately, and ultimately for the worse. After being removed from the life that they knew and loved, your parents would have no control over any of the decisions affecting their lives. It would take a serious emotional toll on not only them, but everyone else in the family as well. This horror story of elder abuse sounds like hyperbolic fiction, but the sad reality is that stories like these happen frequently right here in the United States.

In October of 2017, The New Yorker published a shocking article that detailed a case of elder abuse involving Rudy and Rennie North, a couple who lived in a retirement community in Las Vegas. The Norths were a couple in their sixties and had a nurse that visited five times a week. One day in 2013, a woman named April Parks came to their house with a court order that forced the Norths into an assisted living facility without any prior notice.

After they were moved into the facility, the Norths would watch their human rights get stripped away from them. Parks, who was now their guardian, would make their decisions for them. Parks would then go on to overcharge the Norths’ estate for guardian fees, give them new doctors that prescribed stronger, mind-numbing medications, withhold medical information from their family members, and sell their belongings from their old house, which monies were used to pay Parks for her “services”. The worst part of all is that Parks had the right to do all of these things under the then current laws of the state of Nevada.

The New Yorker exposition details how easy it was for doctors to deem seniors medically unfit, judges to order senior citizens into nursing care facilities, and the authorities to ultimately take control of seniors’ lives. While this article brought to light a situation that has seldom been reported, there are many other cases of this abuse of power that happen in other parts of the country.

I had the opportunity to speak with a family from Massachusetts who had a similar encounter with that state involving their elderly parents. Understandably, they requested that their identities not be revealed.

One evening while returning from dinner, the mother, who is an octogenarian, was driving on the wrong side of the road and had to be corrected by the father. Her daughter, who is very involved with her parents, and the father, both made the decision that she should stop driving. This is where most stories would end, but this is only just the beginning.

The mother and father had home health aides who were there seven days a week. When the father had told the aide about his wife’s incident, it was then reported to a nurse, who reported it to others. A slew of events followed shortly thereafter. Once Adult Protective Services (APS) caught word of the incident, they decided to contact the local police, the rescue squad, the family doctor, and an attempt was made to move the elderly parents out of their home by launching an investigation into the retired couple.

The local police then sent an officer to the parents’ home the next day requesting that the mother revoke her driver’s license. The father and daughter both reassured the officer that she would not drive again. However, the police decided to take it one step further by suggesting that the parents’ vehicles be disposed of. The rescue squad showed up on the same day as the police and found no issues with the mother when they checked her out. When the family doctor was notified, the APS suggested that the mother undergo a psychiatric evaluation. All of this left the daughter with her hands full when she was coming to visit a few days later. Instead of spending quality time with her family, she would be making every effort to fight for her parents against the state, fronting for guardians who benefit greatly from senior incarcerations and asset sales.

The first thing she did was take her mother to a local neurologist for a psychiatric evaluation. Although she passed with flying colors, APS still came to their house later in the day. They did not feel that it was safe for her to live in her own home, contrary to what the doctor and the family believed. This undesirable encounter prompted the daughter to make a visit to the law library, where she was advised to buy a no trespassing sign and inform the local police of the posting. After she bought the sign and went to the police station, she discovered something even more appalling.

A police officer at the station called APS to inquire about her parent’s history. Instead of the one aforementioned report, the daughter found out that APS had filed five reports on her parents. A missed dose of medication and forgetting to use the shower were reported as horrific lapses. Worse yet, one of the reports filed mentioned a fire taking place at her parents’ house. The actual event was a cooking incident where food stuck to the bottom of a cooking pan and turned black. Nevertheless, the parents’ aides still reported it to APS, which lead to another false report. In truth, the fire department had never been called.

After all of this came to light, the daughter decided to take action. She called the Massachusetts Department of Aging to file a complaint, and she was given a contact at APS. The daughter asked her brother to get involved, and he decided to write a letter to APS threatening legal action against the agency if they continued to harass the family. Three days later, APS contacted the family stating that their case was closed. Not every family is so lucky.

In the face of negative publicity, some state governments have taken steps to deter guardianship abuse. Nevada, where the North family’s case took place, has become more aware of problems and has acted quickly, even before The New Yorker article appeared. In 2017, the Nevada Supreme Court created a Permanent Guardianship Commission that includes a Guardianship Compliance Office and has drafted the Protected Person’s Bill of Rights. The Nevada Attorney General’s office launched a task force between his office and local agencies to investigate and prosecute any cases that involve the abuse and exploitation of senior citizens.

James Hardesty, a Justice on the Nevada Supreme Court and chair of the Nevada Supreme Court Permanent Guardianship Commission, is pleased with the results of the reforms. “Over the past year”, said Justice Hardesty, “we have seen dramatic improvements with how guardianship abuse cases are handled,” giving potential wards the right to an attorney, creating a new set of more productive statutes for both child and adult guardianships, and staffing the Guardianship Compliance Office with an accountant to review each estate. The amendments proposed by Justice Hardesty and the Commission were passed unanimously in Nevada’s 2017 legislative session.

Nevada’s measures are being considered in other states. But, as in Massachusetts, the issue continues to be unreported in many jurisdictions. While listening to the Massachusetts family’s story, it became clear that they were not the only ones who was dealing with this issue. The doctor who gave the mother her psychiatric evaluation had seen hundreds of cases like hers and was completely beside himself when he had yet another government sanctioned evaluation to complete. The family, now attuned to the problem, discussed similar cases that her friends were dealing with in other states.

It is clear that more judicial and legislative changes are needed. In some cases, basic estate planning whereby a living trust appoints a guardian when needed can be used to limit state intrusions. Absent such foresight, given the actions already taken and the actions yet to come, there is hope that Americans can come together and make changes in order to protect our elder family members and friends from these types of guardianship abuses.

LLC Strategy Tip for Protecting Against Guardianship Abuse

Consider holding your parents’ assets (brokerage accounts, real estate and/or personal residence) in one or more LLC’s. Your parents will serve as managers of these LLC’s. However, if a guardianship is later imposed, a specially drafted Operating Agreement can provide that the children or a trusted advisor (and not the state or any of their appointees) become the managers. From this position your successor manager will be better able to fight the guardian’s attempts to improperly sell assets. You may contact Corporate Direct at 800.600.1760 or at corporatedirect.com for more on this strategy.

Guardianship Abuse: Are Your Parents Protected from a State Sanctioned Nightmare?