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A solid introduction to the topic of protecting your assets from taxes and lawsuits

Customer Rating:
The only thing The Donald supplies to this book is his powerful brand and two generic paragraphs for all this books in this series. There really is no thoughtful forward or anything to do with his insights. That being said, this is a pretty good beginners guide to the whys, whats, and hows of protecting your assets from the various income taxes, business taxes, estate taxes (the death tax), and lawsuits.

The author, J. J. Childers, is an attorney but writes clearly and simply enough for regular folks. The book's 17 chapters are presented in five parts. Part I covers the problem of excessive spending and a too passive approach to paying taxes. You can't build wealth that way. Childers shows you some basic principles on understanding the tax code and ways to use exemptions and deductions to keep more of your money. He also talks to you about the power of having your own business and the right structures to use to manage the risks involved.

Part II covers protecting yourself from lawsuits and carefully explains why this matters to you and matters more and more as your wealth grows. He presents you with some basic principles of using corporations to protect your assets and using multiple entities to match risk and assets rather than leaving all your assets in one pot vulnerable to a single catastrophic suit. Part III cover estates and death taxes. He introduces you to trusts and why they are essential to you and why a will simply does not provide you any protection from probate. Part IV shows you how to think like the wealth. Childers calls this the Mogul Mindset. He also takes you through the process of creating an asset protection team and what professional expertise you simply must have. As the author says, you may think you don't have enough wealth to worry about these things, but when you start adding it up, you can get surprised in a hurry. Don't let anyone simply take it from you because you failed to act.

Part V provides you with various resources such as a list of common deductions, which business structures provide various kinds of protection, a state by state guide to which assets you can protect during bankruptcy and a glossary of business and legal terms.

As with any 101 basic course, this is introductory and you will need to study more and dig deeper to master the topics in this field. But this can certainly get you started in the right direction.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Very well written and sound advice

Customer Rating:
This is an extremely informative and well-written book. Building wealth is vitally dependent on legally reducing your taxes by forming companies and properly structuring your income between earned income and passive income. The author covers the various forms of company entities such as general and limited partnerships, S Corps, C Corps, and LLCs. I've read several books about corporate entities and this is the first one I've found with practical, real-world examples that explain why an S Corp is better in one situation, while a C Corp is better in another, and an LLC is better in other circumstances. I came away believing (rightly or wrongly!) that I actually understand the differences now. The author then builds on that and explain how you can use multiple entities of different types to create a solid asset protection plan. He gives an excellent example of how a actively traded investment account can be structured as a limited partnership (with brokerage accounts held inside it) and whose general partner is a corporation. I've noticed this same structure when reading annual reports over the years, and now I understand why this structure reduces liability and has very significant tax advantages.

There is much more than what I've covered here. I highlighted text on almost every page in the book. My highlighting ratio is the predominant factor of how high I will rate a book. I will continue to pull this book off the shelf and refer back to it.

Learn just how much you don't know

Customer Rating:
I was really taken by just how vulnerable many of us are to attacks by lawsuits and other events. Asset Protection showed me a world that I never knew existed a world where greedy lawyers (who should be disbarred in my opinion) sue for a living. Actually targeting companies and individuals not because they did something wrong but simply because their assets were easy to get at. Once that target is found then an "offense" is "created".

A lot of the concepts I have heard of before but this book broke them down and made them simple to understand. I have already begun to shape my assets in line with the models in this book by working with my Lawyer and my Accountant both of whom have since bought a copy of this book and have begun to use it to discuss options with their clients. The list of missed tax deductions alone is worth a hundred times the cost of this book and I can not recommend it highly enough.

So much more than I expected!

Customer Rating:
I know a little about business entities since I own a small business. I was worried that this book would either be over my head, or too basic. I found that it did a fantastic job of covering the basics without seeming to talk down to me. I also got some great ideas and strategies to really increase my protection and dramatically cut my taxes. JJ Childers manages to make complex strategies digestible for those not versed in legal jargon, yet doesn't talk down to anyone with familiarity in the areas he covers. Since studying JJ's strategies, I find I can understand and speak with my CPA and attorney with more confidence and comprehension. I have also found that I can make better tax and legal decisions with my new knowledge and my tax and legal advisors were impressed with my understanding of the topics of asset protection, estate planning and tax reduction. Thanks, Mr. Childers!

Everyone should read!

Customer Rating:
Asset Protection 101 is a book that everyone should read. We all know about corporations, LLC's, Revocable Living Trusts etc and we all know about law suits and being sued - but this book puts it altogether in an easy to read format that anyone can understand. If you want to save money on your taxes, if you want to keep from losing everything in a lawsuit, if you want to be able to pass on your estate to your family, without probate and with the least amount of taxes - then Asset Protection 101 is a "must reading" for everyone.