Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

A family member has their name on the deed to my real estate. I want to have him sign a Quit Claim Deed but I don't want the property in my name. What trust or corporation can I create to have my property in that name to keep creditors from placing liens on it?


Asked on 10/30/13, 12:03 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

William Christian Rodi Pollock

I higly doubt many attorneys will want to advise you as to how to defraud creditors.

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Answered on 10/30/13, 1:37 pm

You clearly don't understand how asset protection works. You can protect yourself from personal liability for what happens on a property by holding it in a trust or corporation, but you can't protect the property from your personal creditors and liabilities that way, unless you completely or at least essentially give it away, and even then only before the liability arises. If you give it away after the liability has been incurred, the transaction is voidable as a fraudulent transfer, which will not only get you sued for that on top of anything else, it will get the person you transferred it to sued as well. The problem with putting an asset in a corporation or trust is that it is backward to the way the liability protection flows. If a creditor gets a judgment against you and you have your property in, say, a corporation, they just lien your ownership of the corporation, take control, and then have the corporation give them the property. The same with a trust if you are trustee and beneficiary, and certainly if it is a revocable trust, they just get an order that the trust be revoked and take the property. Only if the trust is irrevocable and you are not the beneficiary is it protected, but that is no different than giving it away. Trusts and corporations, LLC's, etc., protect you from liability for the operation of the trust or business, but if you have personal liability to a creditor, everything you have can potentially be seized to pay the debt, no matter how you hold it. They just take your interest in the trust or business entity instead of the asset directly.

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Answered on 10/30/13, 2:25 pm


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