GO TO YOUR BANK AND ASK FOR A NUMBERED ACCOUNT
Walk into a bank and ask for a numbered account with password access only. You’d be laughed out of the bank. We don’t have that anymore, probably no where in the world do we have that. But what if you wanted that kind of anonymity in today’s surveillance state?
WHY ARE YOU STILL USING A PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNT?
Let’s look at the elements of a bank account. There is the signer and then the name of the account holder. Personal bank accounts have the signer as also the account holder, most people use this type of account, but why? This type of account discloses the relationship that the signer has to the account holder’s interest in the account’s money.
It is the interest in the money that creates problems. If the signer has all the interest in the money, then that interest can be exercised by creditors and the money taken… I call it for “unfriendly purposes”.
GET AN INVISIBLE ACCOUNT WITH SECRET PROPERTY RIGHTS
The equivalent of a numbered account allows you to use a bank account but with a secret interest in the money. The signer can appear to have no legal interest in the account money, such as the signer for a trust or corporation (e.g. church or homeowners association).
I have to get a bit technical here so you can understand how it’s possible, so let me use the example of how rich people actually create this situation.
HOW TO RICH PEOPLE AVOID BANK LEVIES?
If you owe me money and refuse to pay, I can ask a judge to give me permission to take it from you, simple enough, right? This only works as long as you have the money, or more specifically, the rights to the money (or property).
Let’s consider what is arguably the most unfair collection law we have in America, the IRS levy. Section 6331 of title 26 in the United States Code states that “… a levy shall extend only to property possessed and obligations existing at the time thereof. In any case in which the Secretary may levy upon property or rights to property, he may seize and sell such property or rights to property (whether real or personal, tangible or intangible).”
The IRS may administratively (without a court order) take your property, but only if you owe, and only if you have the property to be taken, or have the rights to the property to be taken. (Pay no attention to whom this actually applies to in paragraph a, it’s ignored by the courts as well.) This is the worst case scenario if you owe money and the collection of judgment liens work the same way, it’s just that the creditor has to go through the court system first.
IT CAN’T BE TAKEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT
I believe this gives us all of the information we need in order to protect ourselves from this or any debt collection. As it turns out, the law is the same in every country, especially the western world. Only that which you have rights over can be taken from you. If you don’t have any rights over it, then it’s not yours and cannot be taken from you to satisfy any of your debts.
How do we create this situation? Well, let’s ask some rich people. Rich people have more to lose than those with little or nothing and in fact, they have figured out how to protect what they have, but not having it. If I’m the beneficiary of a trust that is revocable, the IRS can seize the portion to which I am entitled; however, if my ownership interests are conveyed to a group in which no one member of the group has any exclusive rights to the property, only the entire group could be levied upon, if the entire group owed. The entire group could not be levied against for one of its members. An example would be an accountant who is the signer on a bank account for a publicly traded corporation, his personal debts would not attach to the corporate money in the account, or other corporate property or rights to property.
The same situation occurs when someone signs for a bank account or property title in the name of a homeowners association or church. There are several ways you can create this situation for yourself, and you don’t need much money. The two simplest and most effective that I will explain here are commonly known as a limited liability company (LLC) and a special purpose or settlement trust.
In some jurisdictions, such as Canada, the LLC is not recognized, so it must be created with a more complex organization of other structures, not impossible, just a little more complicated. In the states, a limited liability company can be used to divest its members’ exclusive rights to property. It requires a properly written operating agreement so that none of its members’ personal liability can attach to the LLC property. A single member LLC or an LLC in which the only members are married does not divest its members from having the LLC property attached for the personal debts of its members. A properly written operating agreement creates a separate person out of an LLC and that “person” has rights, the rights given to it by its members. Those rights are established by the manner in which the LLC is used. If it’s my LLC and my partner and I are members, as per the operating agreement, then money paid to the LLC is not my money and it’s not my partners. The only time a personal debt would attach is when, or if, money or property is disbursed to one of the members. Membership is not necessary in order to get these types of benefits, but most people prefer to set it up this way.
This is known as “charging order protection”. A charging order is a writ from a court ordering the attachment of property against a debtor. An LLC specifically has protection against this writ, provided the operating agreement is written properly. A diligent creditor (its attorney) would subpoena the operating agreement first, before he asks for a charging order. But this is not likely. The reason it’s not likely is because even if the creditor obtains a writ, it them becomes liable for taxes for all UN-collected amounts based upon the face value of the writ. If the writ was for $1,000, and the creditor only collected $250, the creditor that obtained the writ would have to pay taxes on the other $750… and the attorney would probably be fired. This is why most attorneys would not recommend this process when an LLC is standing between the creditor and debtor.
The LLC also provides “tax flow-through” and “deferment” attributes, this means it doesn’t pay federal or state income taxes as long as it does not realize a gain after December 31st of the end of its fiscal year. This is easily managed by passing its income through to other payees or reinvesting in assets. When used properly, the LLC does not create new tax consequences for itself. While many accountants may advise you to file an information return, this also is not necessary, provided you disburse the funds properly, a very easy habit to adopt.
All states offer LLC charters, Wyoming being the oldest, and Nevada having the most popular brand, and New Mexico being the least costly and having the greatest privacy. There are registered agent fees for these LLC organizations, unless you are the registered agent. There are some planning considerations to get the best situation and also considerations about where the LLC is situated because of banking requirements, but these are easily solved with a short consultation. There are some jurisdictions such as Delaware and California that really make using any incorporated entity cost prohibitive unless you are running a small business that makes over $5,000,000 annually.
In order to get the benefits of escaping writs of attachment for personal debts, you can use a settlement trust instead of the LLC, there are slight differences. If you wanted these benefits in California, just for the protection of the cash and cash flow, an LLC registration is at least $800, and you possibly have to pay registered agent annual fees, and then you’re in view of the dreaded California Franchise Tax Board. It’s far less costly to simply use a settlement trust for the purpose of clearing funds in your name, and then transfer those funds to a better structure in another jurisdiction.
The settlement trust does not require any registered agent and you don’t have to pay the state for incorporation, you simply form the trust, get an EIN and open a bank account. You can be the trustee and the signer, but not the beneficiary. The difference between this and a personal bank account is that if you have an active levy for example, no money would be taken from your settlement trust because it’s legally not your money, even though it’s in your name and you are the signer.
The most important aspect here is that the money is not “hidden” per se, it’s just that your relationship to the money is legally concealed (a secret) with a time-tested strategy that gives you privacy, something we don’t usually have today. Privacy is your friend when you want to protect money and property. The LLC with a properly written operating agreement and the settlement trust (a special purpose trust) are the two most effective tools that allow you to escape any asset seizure just like the super rich have been doing for hundreds of years.