Privacy & Asset Protection
Owning property and businesses directly in your name puts your ownership — and your other assets — into public view and within easy reach of opportunistic claims. Layered structures using LLCs, trusts, and Alabama-specific tools can place your ownership behind defensible barriers, without hiding from anyone with a legitimate right to know.
What you should know
- Standard property and business records are searchable by your name. That visibility can drive both solicitation and litigation toward you and the other assets you own.
- An LLC can isolate liability inside the business or property it holds. A series LLC, where Alabama allows, can hold multiple properties under one master structure with separate liability for each.
- A trust whose trustee is a law firm or an institutional fiduciary can make public-record searches show the trustee rather than the underlying owner — privacy from casual inquiry, without hiding from anyone with a legitimate right to know.
- Alabama’s Domestic Asset Protection Trust statute allows a self-settled, irrevocable trust designed to shield assets from future creditors while letting you keep meaningful benefits.
- These structures work only when set up before a known threat. Done in reaction to a known claim, they can be unwound as fraudulent transfers.
What it looks like for one family
The same holdings can be searchable under your name or shielded behind a private structure — set up before anyone comes looking.
Held openly in your own name
Your holdings invite attention
Bob Caldwell’s properties and business are recorded under his name. A quick public-records search shows everything he owns — drawing solicitation, and giving a potential plaintiff a roadmap.
Held through private, protective structures
Casual searches hit a wall
With LLCs, an institutional trustee, and a domestic asset protection trust set up in advance, public records show the entity or trustee — not Bob — and the assets sit behind a creditor shield built before any claim arose.
Bob, Peggy, and the Caldwell family are a composite example used to show how the choice plays out — not a real client. These structures work only when set up before a known threat.
How exposed are your name and your assets?
Eight quick questions about how your ownership shows up in public records. Brent reads your answer back to you at the end.
A 60-second guided check. See how visible your name and assets are — and where layering would help.