Land trust is a type of entity that can make it more difficult for tenants and lawyers to come after you. Nowadays, the Internet has made it too easy in determining who the owner of a particular property is.
A land trust, also known as an Illinois land trust, was first used back in the 1920s in Illinois. There are around ten states that recognize the land trusts by having specific statutes that enables the trust such as Illinois, Florida and Indiana. Most of the other states recognize the land trust as a revocable or living trust.
A land trust has a trustee and beneficiaries. In basic terms, the trustee hold legal title to the trust, which means they basically own whatever properties in the trust. The beneficiaries control the property and keep any income it generates. The trustee of a land trust can only act when it receives written instructions from the beneficiaries who control the trust.
The trustee keeps control of the trust records and the trust documents are not recorded anywhere and cannot reveal the beneficiaries without a subpoena.
Having a land trust itself may not protect you completely from litigation or creditors. The land trust merely helps make it more difficult to identify you as the owner of real property.
Using a combination of land trust and a corporation can protect your personal assets in case of lawsuits but nothing will ever protect the property conveyed in the land trust itself. The trust and the corporation would prevent the liability to spread to any other properties you may own.
Creating a land trust is rather very easy once you have the proper documents. The documents can be found online but some of them are outdated or are for specific use with a particular bank. For some examples of land trust documents, visit
Chicago Title. William Bronchick's course on land trust has a complete set of land trust documents that are ready to use as well as step by step tutorial in executing the trust. Those documents are not recommended to be use if you are not using Chicago Title as the trustee.
Do not use yourself as the trustee. This would defeat the purpose of having at trust.
For more info on land trusts, check out Bill Bronchick's course, "Step by Step Guide to Land Trusts".