Hello, I'm Gordon Phillips, Founder of INFORM AMERICA! Since our office began operation in 1991, we've produced a steady stream of educational materials documenting the highly limited power of the Internal Revenue Service to tax the labor and business activities of the average citizen living and working within the 50 States of the Union.

Via books, tapes, essays, live seminars and our Internet web site, we continue to reveal to Americans everywhere the hard facts about the IRS' routine misapplication of our nation's written tax laws -- facts which stun the average citizen who reads them for the first time. This eye-opening information has resulted in the mental and financial liberation of untold thousands of American workers and employers who have come to understand the truth about who is really required to pay income and employment tax, to file tax returns, to use a social security or employer identification number, to withhold taxes from their workers, and much more.

Regrettably, however, even the most well informed Americans continue to remain vulnerable to the IRS' perceived and much feared power of lien, levy and seizure. I say "perceived" because the IRS can only seize the monies of ordinary working Americans with the docile assistance of our nation's banks, employers, brokerage firms and tax professionals.

Bank managers continue to hand over an account holder's funds to the IRS on a mere Notice of Levy, which is not a lawful levy, and with no court order to authorize it as required by law. Employers, whether due to fear, ignorance or both, readily fork over a major portion of employee paychecks to the IRS on this same Notice of Levy, without so much as a glance at the written Law. Investment brokers, network marketing companies, and so forth, don't hesitate to send customer funds to the IRS without so much as a second thought about what the Law actually says and requires.

Not to mention the fact that 99.9% of our nation's licensed tax professionals -- including C.P.A.'s, accountants, tax preparers and financial planners -- are totally clueless with regard to what our written laws actually say. At the same time, county clerks blindly file IRS liens against private and commercial property -- compliantly and unquestioningly -- without once cracking open a Law book to verify the lawfulness of their acts. The misery that all of the above willing accomplices perpetrate on their fellow citizens by enabling the IRS to plunder them under laws that do not even apply to them would be laughable were it not such a tragedy.

And finally, there is the average IRS agent. This is a fellow citizen who passed the federal government's Civil Service Exam, flipped a coin, and decided to take a job as a tax collector rather than a postal clerk. IRS employment often attracts those who take pleasure in assuming positions of perceived authority and power, leaving their minds relatively immune to education. And the IRS is careful not to properly educate them.

A friend of mine, a single mother who has worked for many years at one of the IRS' regional service centers, e-mailed me a few years ago to chuckle that she had been "disciplined" for getting caught reading the Internal Revenue Code in the employee cafeteria on her lunch break. The short of it all is that IRS personnel are trained to push buttons and follow orders.

Of course, this didn't work at Nuremburg.. Those rare agents who do somehow manage to learn the truth about what the Law really says, often "jump ship" and return to the private sector. After all, everyone has a conscience and it's hard to keep stealing from your fellow citizens when you've learned the truth.

So here, then, is the conundrum. On the one hand, we have millions of our neighbors waking up each year to the tax hoax still being perpetrated on the American people since 1913. Many of these good folks do want to assert their constitutional rights, including the protections afforded to private property. However, they remain largely the unfortunate victims of the fear and ignorance of the bankers, employers, accountants and others I just spoke of, who refuse to protect their fellow citizens' property by dishonoring IRS notices of lien and levy that are not perfected according to Law.

So what to do? To solve this problem, and hopefully provide another light at the end of yet another tunnel, I decided to record this cassette and title it "Dead Lawyers Don't Lie: The Truth Behind Asset Protection". My purpose here is simply to help my fellow Americans to preserve and protect the many blessings that God has provided us with.

As is true of all of our educational materials, this presentation is not intended to give legal, tax or financial advice, but is offered for informational purposes only. INFORM AMERICA! does not provide asset protection services, so if you decide to move forward in this area after listening to this recording, we invite you to contact our office for a referral to a competent, reliable provider with an outstanding track record. Simply visit our web site at informamerica.com and click on our e-mail contact link.

By gaining a clearer understanding of the many advantages of properly applied asset protection, including proven and effective strategies for business structuring and estate planning, we can all protect and defend ourselves against powerful forces of plunder that would like to separate us from our property. These include government agencies -- not just the IRS, but the myriad other state and federal agencies as well, which, in the aggregate, seize billions of dollars worth of property from innocent citizens each year with no trace of due process and no proof whatsoever that they were ever guilty of anything.

And let's not forget collection and litigation attorneys, those pin-striped barracudas circling your lifestyle, waiting for the first opportunity, real or manufactured, to sue you and take a big bite. And then there's everyone else:

* the wounded ex-spouse who intends to clean your clock and leave you penniless on the street;

* the former business partner who, unbeknownst to you, committed perjury on business tax returns, or failed to file required returns, thereby placing not just all jointly held business assets at risk, but your personal assets as well, and;

* the professional litigator who sues for a living.

Let's start by taking a closer look at the IRS. Excerpting from my book, "Losing Your Illusions", I state the following:

"Although the IRS will vehemently deny it, information leaked from IRS employees ... indicates that virtually all promotions and incentives for IRS auditors and revenue agents are based upon a "point" system; upon dollar amounts captured per man-hour worked.

Recently televised congressional hearings into IRS abuse confirmed ... that IRS agents are trained to adhere to a policy of collecting the greatest amount of tax ... regardless of the Law or due process. In fact, it would appear that Law and due process are the last things on the minds of most agents. Of course, this is also true of their counterparts in the state taxing agencies.

The reason for this is simple: taxes collected and property seizures are the performance standard by which IRS managers evaluate the productivity of ... individual agents for purposes of doling out performance bonuses and other job "perks". Career agents are well aware that the amount of tax that can be extracted from the citizenry is in direct and opposite proportion to the degree of public awareness of the written tax Laws ... Since the job performance of top officials of the IRS and state taxing agencies is judged by the overall collections of their underling agents, it is understandable that they would prefer that the "status quo" be maintained.

In his book "To Harass Our People", Congressman George Hansen wrote: 'The IRS is an extraordinary example of the end justifying the means. The means of this agency is growth. It is interesting that the revenue officers within the IRS refer to taxpayers as 'inventory' ... The meek may inherit the earth, but they will never receive a promotion in an agency where efficiency is measured by the number of seizures of taxpayers' property and by the number of citizens and businesses driven into bankruptcy', unquote.

A sign over the door of an IRS office in Los Angeles recently enthused: 'Seizure Fever - Catch It!' The IRS agent with the best seizure rate for the week was rewarded with a week off and other job "perks." Quoting further from my book, I state: "Let's say, for example, through no fault of your own, you suffer poor health or a business reversal and fall hopelessly into arrears on the tax liability you have volunteered to assess yourself on Form 1040 and other tax returns. No problem for the IRS. A quick computer search of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC, Federal Reserve, banking, SEC, title insurance, property, motor vehicle and state excise tax records under a social security, employer or other taxpayer identification number associated with your name reveals the following:

* mortgage and home equity loans on the house you struggled to buy to fulfill your vision of the "American dream";

* start-up loans on the small business you planned for years and finally got off the ground;

* the monthly commission check you slowly built up from that network marketing opportunity you began a few years ago;

* the car, van or pickup truck you finally finished paying off last year;

* your boat, snowmobile or RV;

* your get-away camp in the mountains, and;

* all of your retirement plans including your I.R.A., S.E.P., KEOUGH, 401(k), stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, and annuities.

A cup of coffee, a donut, a few computer key presses, a quick lien or two followed by lunch, then a couple of quick seizures and sales and all of your net worth is history. All gone. The Treasury pockets the plundered booty and the agent receives performance points towards job and vacation "perks." It's all in a day's work. On to the next victim. It happens every minute of every day, all over America ...

The simple rule of thumb is that all property titled in your own name or held in the hands of a third party is at risk. This includes not only real property but "money" in any type of computerized account, including bank accounts, stocks, mutual funds, bonds ... and other similar types of electronic accounts, including, of course, the money in your employers' hands before being paid to you.

Remember: if what you think of as your "money" can be displayed as symbols and numbers on a computer monitor, it is actually nothing more than credit floating through telephone lines and can instantaneously be transferred to the IRS at the speed of light by the push of a button. And chances are you will never see it again. Perhaps that's why some refer to the IRS as the "Internal Robbery Squad."

So what do you do with your net worth to protect it from piracy, electronic or otherwise? Ever increasing numbers of working Americans who value their privacy, obey all laws and have nothing to hide, are taking steps to divest themselves of property ownership. They understand that a thing cannot be stolen from one who does not own it in the first place.

There is a world of difference between the potentially dangerous emotional attachment known as "pride of ownership" and the relative safety inherent in the mere use and enjoyment of assets", unquote. OK, that's enough quoting from my book. If you'd like a copy of "Losing Your Illusions", simply contact our office. I'm sure you get the picture.

The bottom line is this: if you own something and the IRS has you in its crosshairs, they not only can take it away from you, they will take it away from you. And don't forget, that applies to the state taxing agencies as well, if you happen to live in a state that imposes income tax on individuals or businesses.

How to avoid having your property taken from you is the topic of this tape, which I'll get into in just a few minutes. However, suffice it to say for now that the secret we're going to explore is simply this: a thing cannot be taken from him who does not own it to begin with. Please allow me to repeat this, for it is no less than the First Law Of Asset Protection: If you don't own something to begin with, no one in the world can take it away from you. Keep that simple yet powerful maxim in mind as we next take a look at the attack on personal, private and business property resulting from all the new so-called "seizure provisions" which allow agencies to seize property without due process.

Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, Republican from Texas, addressed Congress on February 25, 1997 in a speech titled "The Direction of the Country", in which he said, quote:

"We have hovering over us daily the federal police from the EPA, OSHA, FBI, CIA, DEA, EEOC, FWL, INS, and, worst of all, the IRS.. Even criticizing the IRS might precipitate an audit. A Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution ought to be protecting our rights to our property, not confiscating it. Simply put, government, even through congressional legislation, has no moral right to steal. It is wrong and the Constitution prohibits it", unquote.

Did you know that the United States Department of "Justice" seizes $500 million from Americans each year? Did you know that 80 percent of the people whose property is forfeited by DOJ and other agencies are never even charged with a crime? Did you know the government can take your property even if you are completely innocent, unless you prove that no one used your property illegally, even without your knowledge?

Author, M.D. and freedom-fighter, Sarah Thompson, wrote a superb piece titled "Asset Forfeiture - Justice Through The Looking Glass". Dr. Thompson can be contacted via the Internet at www.therighter.com. Listen carefully and imagine this happening to you. Here are some excerpts from what she wrote, quote:

"The asset forfeiture laws are carefully crafted to evade every safeguard in the American system of jurisprudence, as well as every right guaranteed by the Constitution. The purpose of asset forfeiture is simply to transfer property from private citizens to the government, increase the power of government and transform citizens into impotent subjects devoid of even the most basic rights.

By claiming to target criminal property rather than criminal persons, asset forfeiture laws are able to violate all established principles of law as well as the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and yet be upheld as "constitutional" by a complicit Supreme Court. The property is considered guilty until proven innocent, so the owner has the burden of proving that his property is "innocent", i.e. that it was not involved in, or purchased with the proceeds of, illegal activities.

Probable cause may consist of nothing more than hearsay, such as an anonymous phone call. In fact, the informants who make these phone calls usually receive a share of what is seized, which is a powerful inducement to outright lying. Because forfeiture proceedings are civil, there is no provision for counsel. Since the owner of the property has usually had all of his assets seized, he is unable to provide himself with legal assistance. Roughly 80% of victims of forfeiture are so obviously innocent that they are never even indicted, much less tried or convicted...

Asset forfeiture annihilates all concepts of justice and due process, and turns our legal system into the equivalent of a two-year old in a toy store. If the police, federal law enforcement, or government agencies want something you rightfully own, all they need do is invoke asset forfeiture, shout "MINE!", and your property becomes theirs...Because civil asset forfeiture is quick, easy, requires no due process, and provides tremendous income for the seizing agency, it is now being proposed as the solution to all problems.

Is prostitution a problem in your town? Simply seize any car used by a patron. That the car is owned by an already injured wife, or a rental company, or a business, is irrelevant. The car is guilty and must be punished ...",

end quoting from Dr. Thompson. Again, let me remind you that all of these unlawful takings by government agencies could be stopped dead in their tracks through the proper and prudent use of asset protection planning.

Now let's take a look at the ambulance chasers in the pin-striped suits, the collection and litigation attorneys. You can often find these guys advertising on highway billboards. Like buzzards waiting to descend on their next meal, collection attorneys prey on the hapless victims of misfortune. They buy your debts for so many cents on the dollar, then hound you to the ends of the earth to make good on their investment. They will not hesitate to take any property they can locate, including the car you're driving to job interviews and the roof over your head.

And of course, let's not forget their brothers in the field of predatory litigation. The odds are today that one in three Americans will be the subject of an opportunistic lawsuit sometime in his life. All it takes is for someone to slip on your front steps or trip over the scatter rug in your front hall, sue you for everything you've got and adopt your present lifestyle. Heck, it sure beats working for a living!

Or maybe your teenager will run into something -- or someone -- in your car. Or your employee will accidentally -- or intentionally -- violate some OSHA or Equal Opportunity Act provision. Any one of these events, all totally beyond your control, could cause you to become embroiled, literally overnight and without warning, in a sudden attack on your property, your time, your resources and your energy.

Former victims will tell you that this type of nightmare litigation can feel like the allied landing at Normandy Beach. It can literally be hell. Every spare minute of their time became consumed in mounting a defense. And if you lose, not only will your property and business be gone, so will all the tens of thousands it cost you to pay your attorneys.

Of course, the solution to all this risk and chaos is so elegantly simple as to be easily understood by any 12-year-old. Again, we need only consult our First Law Of Asset Protection: If you don't own it to begin with, no one in the world can take it away from you. And there will be no lawsuits when those who would sue you discover that you own nothing worth taking.

On our web site at informamerica.com we list the Three Rules every American interested in learning the truth about his constitutional rights -- and asserting those rights under the Law -- needs to follow:

#1) Protect Property;
#2) Get Educated;
#3) Take Action,

with a question mark after "Action", after which it says in the fine print, "see rules 1 and 2". When dealing with the IRS, most uninformed Americans tend to completely reverse this order, shooting themselves in one or both feet without understanding either the Law itself or precisely how the IRS routinely misapplies it.

They take action, which was Rule #3, yet they're still largely uneducated, which was rule #2, and their property is totally exposed to unlawful plunder, which is Rule #1. This is tantamount to reversing the standard gunnery command thusly: "Fire! Aim! Ready!".

Probably the best way to introduce you to the many advantages and benefits of asset protection and estate planning is to begin by asking you some questions. How would you like to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor, including having exclusive use of, access to and enjoyment of all your current personal, real and business property, to the exclusion of all other parties, and sleep peacefully knowing that no one -- not the IRS, not any other "seizure fever" agency, nor any litigious third party -- can ever prevent you from using and enjoying this property ever again under any circumstances? And not only that, but be able to pass this property on to your heirs, 100% tax free, and just as well protected?

Sound good? That, my friend, is the very essence of asset protection planning. It involves placing a financial firewall around your property and investments, a deep moat of protection that will allow no one, whether private individual or government agency, to storm your castle and pillage your "stuff", as comedian George Carlin so humorously refers to it.

And, remember, bulletproof asset protection doesn't just involve protecting property, it affords many other powerful advantages as well, including estate planning to legally and 100% avoid probate and inheritance tax. You can even enter a nursing home or assisted living community and have Medicaid pay for it 100%. That's not Medicare, mind you, but Medicaid. In fact, without violating any law or regulation, if structured properly, you can even drive up to the nursing home in a Rolls Royce, without "spending down" your assets to $2,000 and without rendering yourself a pauper and a ward of the state -- and with all your former property safely in the hands of your children or stay-at-home spouse.

These are among the most carefully guarded secrets in America. Knowledgeable estate planners do this every day for their clients, and in a manner that affords the client total privacy. Does your financial planner know about this? If not, why not? Here are some more questions to get your wheels turning..

* How would you like to be able to leave 100% of your estate to your heirs without it being subjected to probate and estate tax -- even an estate in excess of $2,000,000 -- and without having to buy life insurance or relinquish control of your assets?

* How would you like to be able to legally participate in an IRA or other retirement plan with no limits on contributions, no penalties for early withdrawals, no annual reporting and no waiting until a certain age before you're able to withdraw funds from the plan, regardless of whether or not you're filing tax returns?

* How about being able to legally sell a business, real estate or other assets without being subject to capital gains tax or depreciation recapture?

* Or legally accelerating the payoff of your home mortgage by paying at least 50% more per month with funds currently available to you, without an increase in your income, and without cutting any items in your budget except taxes?

* Or legally expensing 100% of your luxury automobile and office equipment?

Sound good? If you knew what Ross Perot knows and were in his same 3% tax bracket, you could do all of this, too. It's a simple matter with proper estate and business structuring. All of these very real possibilities fall under the broad umbrella of asset protection planning.

Yet you won't find these secrets published in the IRS' many helpful publications and brochures. And, for some strange reason, the American Bar Association doesn't publish them, either. And, chances are, your C.P.A. or financial planner doesn't understand them at all. After all, if he did, he would have already told you about all this, right? I rest my case.

Actually, it's even worse with some tax professionals. They've already had some incomplete and possibly incongruous exposure to this information, perhaps from a less than credible source, so they now consider it too impossible to be considered, especially because they didn't read about it on the IRS web site. Of course, as Aldous Huxley once stated: "Facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored."

I've personally met several C.P.A.'s, financial planners and attorneys who use these legal devices every day of the week to reduce or totally eliminate their clients' personal and business tax liabilities. You see, the wealthy have always been able to afford the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to hire tax attorneys and other specialists to ferret out and apply this information..

You don't have to be a doomsday prophet hiding stashes of gold coins in your backyard to understand the benefits of asset protection. You might simply derive some comfort in knowing that part or all of your net worth is outside the clutches of the courts and the government. The truth is, you, too, can accomplish your financial goals while legally making your tax bite a mere nibble instead of a huge chomp, even if you're still filing tax returns.

I say "still filing" because at least 20 million Americans have already stopped filing returns, by the IRS' own admission.. Did you know that? Former IRS Commissioner, Shirley Peterson, stated in a speech she delivered on August 26, 1993 before the National Association of Enrolled Agents that 1 in 5 Americans had stopped filing returns altogether and, quote, "the situation is out of control", unquote. Of course, you won't hear this on TV.

When I discovered the truth in 1991 about my actual filing requirements, I stopped filing returns and have not filed since. In response, the IRS did what it always does, it violated and faked its own assessment and deficiency procedures as required by law, then alleged that I owe astronomical amounts of tax. If I owned any real property whatsoever; if I had monies in a bank or investment account in my own name, if I worked for wages on a W-4, all of this property would be exposed to legalized theft, based on one violation of due process after another.

Theft may sound like too harsh a word here, however when due process is abandoned and property is confiscated by the government outside its authority under the written law -- and with the quiet sanction of top officials --, "theft" is the only appropriate word to use. This is the same situation that faced Robin Hood in his day, when Prince John of England began stealing the properties of his own noblemen without due process. The end result of this state-sponsored theft was the "Statutes of Uses" which led to the types of Pure Trusts and other legal asset protection structures we see today.

You see, nothing ever changes except the history you never learned. The truth about "pride of ownership" versus use and enjoyment of property is another major paradigm shift for most Americans to overcome. Of course, much of this new understanding would not be necessary if the government were following the Law.

If you've already reviewed our web site at informamerica.com and conducted your own research to confirm the information we present there, you now understand the constitutionally limited application of the federal taxing scheme to the citizen living and working within the 50 union States. As you can imagine, this information has totally transformed the lives of many thousands of our fellow citizens as family after family has begun living under the Law and raising their standard of living dramatically as a result.

Of course, many newly awakening Americans learn just enough to be dangerous to themselves. Acting out of the strong emotions that can result from realizing one has been duped and deceived by his own government, they often take impulsive, premature action, including stopping filing returns, yet with their property still exposed. Even the rapidly dwindling number of Americans who are still filing returns, and still trust their government to tell the truth, can come under audit or attack by the IRS or a state taxing agency, even if they've filed and paid ever dime they believed they owed.

So what can an honest American do to protect his property and income streams, especially when his own government proves to be a lawbreaker? Simply follow the "Three Rules" I mentioned earlier in this exact order: Protect Property; Get Educated, and Take Action. And, as you now understand, Rule #1, "Protect Property", is the subject of this tape. The IRS is no different than any other judgment creditor: it can take nothing away from one who does not own it to begin with.

* If you, Dear Listener, have accumulated property and other valuable assets over your life;

* if your hard-earned investment savings are still exposed to lawsuit liability or legalized plunder;

* if you'd be interested in minimizing or even eliminating all small business taxes, and;

* if you'd like to someday pass your entire estate on to your children, intact and 100% free of estate tax, ...

then the subject of asset protection planning should really interest you.

Now, since there's a fine line between lawful asset protection done in advance of any situation that might require it, and defrauding one's creditors, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the ethics of asset protection. It is neither immoral nor unethical to provide maximum protection from creditors and rogue government agencies by placing assets into trusts. When the wealthy protect their assets, no one thinks of calling it "defrauding your creditors". It's called prudent "financial planning".

Asset protection is not a privilege, it's a right protected by the Constitution. However, as the late movie mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, once said: "Timing is everything". Too many folks wait until they're already a defendant in a lawsuit or in the IRS' crosshairs to consider protecting their assets, at which point it may be unlawful to transfer or sell those assets.

Most states have adopted the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act which prohibits the transfer of assets with the intent to defraud, hinder or delay a creditor. I contend that the time to set up proper asset protection structures is right when you first enter the workforce, in your 20's. If more Americans learned how, from the very beginning, to enjoy the exclusive enjoyment of personal and private property to the exclusion of all other parties, yet without the burden of actually owning it, much of the legal profession, not to mention IRS seizures, would literally evaporate overnight.

Let me illustrate the following nightmare scenario for you. Your teenager just drove your brand new sports utility vehicle into the back of a luxury minivan full of lawyers' kids on their way to a high school production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant Of Venice", a training film for budding lawyers. In spite of having received a mere tap on the rear bumper, the driver of the van, himself a lawyer, staggers from the vehicle feigning back injury for the benefit of onlookers who may be present and, with his last breath, dials the office on his cell phone and, in five minutes flat, has had his staff run a thorough computer asset search on your entire personal and business net worth, including your home, your summer home, sailboat, vehicles, RV, vacation time-share, mutual funds, CD's and pension plans.

Seeing an easy meal since, like most Americans, you own absolutely everything titled in your own name, he jumps back into the van for a quick dash to the courthouse to file suit against you for property damages, loss of income, anxiety, pain and emotional suffering, grief counseling, rehabilitation and anything else he can all think of. The reason he's in such a hurry, of course, is so he can get first in line at the court house before the lawyer-fathers of all those fledgling attorneys in the van can file suit, too. Got the picture?

It's pretty grim, isn't it? Now, how many minutes do you think it will take these legal carnivores to obtain a judgment against you and relieve you of everything you've worked your entire life for? Time's up. Get ready to kiss everything goodbye, even if you have so-called "umbrella" liability insurance. Ditto for doctors carrying large malpractice insurance policies. Given today's astronomical jury awards, there aren't liability or malpractice policies large enough, and, even if there were, who could afford the premiums? Remember the lady who spilled hot coffee in her lap and now owns her very own McDonalds franchise? Just think, she could be your next customer!

Now, let's turn the tables and imagine that our attorney friends, or their teenagers, ran into your car. How much of their property or investments do you think you'd be able to get your hands on in a lawsuit judgment? The answer? Goose egg. You see, like all predators, lawyers are clever and must eat to survive.

Did you know that there are over 100,000 future lawyers in law school right now? And another 100,000 coming through next year, and so on? If that doesn't make you want to grab your wallet, I don't know what would. These legal hatcheries are spawning so many future lawyers that, pretty soon, Americans everywhere will be forced to sue each other just to feed them all. America is now the most litigious nation on earth.

The grim reality is this. The odds are pretty good -- about one out of three -- that you will be the subject of an opportunistic lawsuit sometime in your life. Never forget that the legal profession will fight for their right to litigate at all costs. Litigation is their life blood. Anyone with a positive net worth is fair game. Like roving schools of land sharks, whenever their client is damaged, lawyers are trained to sue everyone in sight, then go looking for the deepest pockets. If you can turn your pockets inside out and show that you own nothing, they're forced to go feed in deeper waters.

When Ted Kennedy exhibited negligence regarding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, why didn't the Kopechne family sue him? Could it be they found out that Ted, like the other Kennedy's, wouldn't dream of actually owning anything? If every potential legal client practiced true asset protection principles, there would be no judgments to obtain and no fat legal fees -- and a lot less lawyers!

Never forget also that the legal profession is the world's second oldest, closely related in form and function to the first. When a lawyer named Norman Dacey wrote a revolutionary book called "How To Avoid Probate", the closed shop, monopoly labor union known as the American Bar Association descended on him like a pack of squealing hyenas, doing everything in their power to prevent its publication. They even fought it all the way to the Supreme Court, although unsuccessfully. Why? Because Mr. Dacey, God forbid, was taking food right out of their mouths; billions of dollars worth of easy money routinely wrung from the legal racket known as probate.

There is an old saying, "Attorneys make money settling people's estates, not planning them". The average estate loses up to 35% in probate. A.A.R.P. says that probate can generate legal fees of 12%-20% of the estate for the attorney alone! And it can take years for heirs to collect. Creditors have from four months to a year to make their claims, according to state law. As Reader's Digest noted in an article titled "The Mess In Our Probate Courts", quote:

"Inflated fees, paralyzing delays, patronage - these are only some of the many ugly abuses fostered by our inefficient probate system. The high cost of dying is not the funeral. It's the legal and administrative costs of getting the deceased's estate and lifetime earnings through the probate courts. This legal institution, intended originally to help the average family, has become a means of exacting an onerous ransom from the bereaved."

The article goes on to state:

"One legal expert alleges that 35% of all wills are broken. The way the present system is set up almost invites abuse. Stories of estates being completely wiped out while going through probate are not uncommon. Robert Kennedy, while he was Attorney General of the United States, called probate 'a political toll booth exacting tribute from widows and orphans'", end quoting from the article.

Now I ask you, why would anyone in their right mind toil their entire lives to accumulate significant net worth, then allow their heirs to go through the probate nightmare and their estate to be siphoned off to bureaucrats and lawyers, when it can all easily be avoided, and at far less cost? The answer to avoiding probate, of course, is proper estate planning, which carries the additional benefit of asset protection.

Since we're on the subject of leaving behind one's inheritance to one's heirs, let's take a look at this subject from a philosophical point of view. Regardless of your personal religious beliefs, you'd probably agree that you "can't take it with you" someday when you're gone. Assuming that your family and close relatives outlive you, they're all going to end up with your house, your car, your sailboat, your bank account, your golf clubs, your collection of fuzzy Elvis paintings and all your other stuff.

Here's a question I love to pose during my live seminars: "How much of his vast wealth did multi-billionaire, J. Paul Getty, leave behind?". Folks usually start guessing ... "two billion?", "five billion?". Not even close. The real answer is, drum roll, please: "All of it!" He left it all behind! Every dime. That's right, he departed this world the same way he came in, broke, just like we all do -- Bill Gates and Donald Trump included -- with absolutely nothing.

Americans today are taught the fable that "he who dies with the most toys wins". In reality, "pride of ownership" is worse than foolish, it's downright dangerous. Bear in mind that you will never see a hearse towing a U-Haul! In a very real sense, all ownership of property can really be seen to be just temporary, since none of us can ever "take it with us" when we go.

God grants each of us custody over the material blessings that He places into our lives, then others get to use and enjoy it all, long after we're still pushing up daisies! When considered from this perspective, isn't it true that we all go through life in a sense just "renting" the use of what we like to think of as "our stuff"? But, regardless of how we obtained our toys, goodies and other worldly belongings, whether through hard work or inheritance, isn't what concerns us the most not so much our ownership of them, but that we get to enjoy the exclusive use of them while we're still alive, as well as the exclusive ability to decide who will receive them upon our death?

The problem is, if all the "stuff" you've collected thus far in your life is still titled in your own name, it's vulnerable to falling into other hands, including the IRS, the dozens of state and federal agencies prone to confiscating property without so much as a shred of due process, and the brotherhood in the legal profession. Now, in light of all these potential land mines, since someone else will surely end up with all your "stuff" some day anyway, why not just give it all away right now, while you're still alive, yet to continue to enjoy the exclusive use of it for the rest of your life?

Here are the many wonderful advantages to doing this:

* protection for retirement savings, including a tax free, not just tax deferred, retirement savings program with no "minimum distribution" requirements, and no "penalties" for early withdrawals;

* protection of assets in the event of a divorce, business failure or bankruptcy; liability and asset protection against frivolous lawsuits;

* isolation of assets from litigation and liens;

* avoidance of lawsuit and judgment losses;

* avoidance of probate;

* total elimination of all possibility of estate and death transfer taxes;

* protection of your assets from nursing home "spend down" and federally mandated "estate recovery";

* increased opportunities for accumulation of wealth and estate growth;

* the creation of a family estate plan that will work for generations, and personal and business privacy.

And for returns filers, this includes:

* reduction or outright elimination of income tax;

* the ability to pay off your home mortgage with "pre-tax" dollars, and;

* avoidance, not merely deferral, of capital gains taxes!

For business owners, this includes reduction or outright elimination of self-employment tax as well. That all sounds amazingly good, doesn't it? Just think how you and your family would benefit significantly by being able to increase your income by 50% or more annually without having to work any additional hours or adding any new equipment or personnel to your company. Both you and your spouse wouldn't need to keep working just to stay ahead.

You could take the 15.3% of your gross pay that you currently donate to the black hole called Social Security and put it to work where it will really put you in good shape for retirement. Do the math and see what $600 per month invested at 10% compounded will do in 20 years. I guarantee it will put Social inSecurity to shame, not to mention the fact that this popular federal welfare program may not have any money left when many of today's workers retire.

It makes you wonder why your friendly neighborhood attorneys, financial planners and C.P.A.'s don't all just get together and throw a party to explain all this to their clients, doesn't it? Could it be that your financial advisors, your lawyer and the IRS don't want you to know about the veritable financial firewall provided by contractual asset protection?

Let's say you own a variety of business equipment such as vehicles, trucks, computers, manufacturing equipment, real property and so forth, all titled either in your own name or in the name of your corporation. Warning! As was explained earlier, all of it can be stolen from you in a heartbeat by the IRS or any one of a host of "alphabet-soup" government agencies under the new "seizure fever" regulations. And there's not a thing you can do to stop them.. Why not? Because you own it!

Again, it's time to delve into some more philosophy. If an attorney or one of several alphabet agencies comes after me, can they get at your stuff? "Of course not! That's silly," you might say. But there is an important point in asking this. Did you ever stop and think why someone can't get at your stuff for my liabilities? This addresses a very fundamental right recognized even by today's federal leviathan, and that is the right of private ownership.

If it's mine, it can't be yours, assuming we don't already share joint ownership. You and I are separate legal entities. Now let's take this a step further. The law also recognizes Trusts as separate legal entities. A trust is a three party contract, a private legal agreement. The Trust is based upon the "Indenture", which expresses the agreement between a Creator who places assets into Trust, and the Trustees who are entrusted with the protection, management and ultimate distribution of the assets of the Trust for persons called "Beneficiaries" who are entitled to benefit from the assets and any income held under the terms of the Indenture.

A Beneficiary is any person or legal entity, including another Trust, that has rights to future beneficial distributions according to the terms of the Trust Indenture. Anyone may be the beneficiary of a trust. That includes children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, a partnership, corporation, charitable or non-profit organization or another trust. Trusts can own things just like people can. Whatever a person can own, a trust can also own. So the first and most fundamental element of asset protection is separation and isolation of assets.

When property is held in trust, it is the property of that trust and no longer an individual's personal property. No one "owns" a trust. A trust is it's own separate entity and owns it's own property. Property held in trust cannot be taken to satisfy claims against the Grantor.

The second principle of asset protection addresses the extent of separation. If Jack owns property in his name and his spouse, Jill, owns property in her name, a rapacious alphabet agency or pin-striped land shark may try to get her "stuff", even though it is hers and not Jack's, simply because they are connected by marriage, in spite of the fact that they are separate individuals.

However, if we were to speak of Jack's property vs. that of a stranger, there could be no chance of that happening, simply because Jack and the stranger have no connection whatsoever. The extent of the separation between Jack and the stranger is greater than the separation between Jack and his wife.

In the asset protection arena, a living trust is a good example of this same concept of legal separation. A living trust is a great vehicle for avoiding probate. However, most are revocable and therefore do not provide a great deal of separation. Since the popular and numerous types of living trusts can be revoked during the lifetime of their creator, a court can order that the trust be revoked and the assets made available to satisfy a judgment in a lawsuit. Why?

Because the creator of such a trust retains the right during his lifetime to revoke or dissolve the trust and regain ownership of the assets conveyed into it, thereby maintaining a continuous thread of ownership. Under such circumstances, a living trust can be revoked as if it never existed and the underlying assets seized as if they were still the property of the Grantor. Therefore, they provide no protection of property.

This is not the case, however, with an irrevocable trust. Once property is exchanged into an irrevocable Pure Trust, the original owner can't change his mind. It is now the property of the trust and no future events can change that. That decision is irreversible, or irrevocable. But for that same reason, it is as separate from the former owner legally as it can possibly be.

So, the greater the extent of separation, the greater the protection. In addition, unlike a living trust, an irrevocable Pure Trust protects property and eliminates estate taxes in addition to just avoiding probate. In short, everything a living trust can do a Pure Trust does, and much more. So we see that property separated from the individual is protected from his liabilities. The further it is separated or the greater the extent of separation the greater the protection. But property must also be separated from other property.

Which brings us to our third principle of asset protection. A trust is also a "person" by law and can be sued just as you and I can. For this reason, we want to separate property from other property for the very same reason we separate it from ourselves. For example, let's say a trust owns a car, a house, a boat, several stocks and so on. What if the car becomes involved in an accident and its owner is sued. What is at risk? Everything else owned by the owner of that car is also at risk, the owner in this case being the trust.

Now, what if one trust owned that same car, another trust owned the house, and yet another trust owned the boat, and so on? What is at risk if the car is in an accident now? Only the car! Simply because that is all that particular trust owns. The trusts owning the house and boat are separate entities from the one that owns the car.

This principle can be stated another way.. To separate is to isolate and insulate. Once you understand these three fundamental principles of asset protection:

1) Separation of property from oneself;
2) The greater the extent of separation the greater the protection, and;
3) Separation of property from property,

everything else makes more sense. There is one more principle regarding asset protection that is unique to Constitutional Pure Trusts over all other forms of asset protection. Pure Trusts are separate from statutory regulation, meaning that they exist outside the realm of attorneys, the courts, the government and so on, so long as they are not engaged in activities which are illegal and would then pull them into the statutory realm.

This is hard for many to comprehend at first. Most Americans have been led to believe that statutory law has universal jurisdiction, but it does not. And because Pure Trusts do not fall into the statutory realm, they are often completely unheard of, or at best misunderstood, by the vast majority of attorneys working in the estate planning arena. And actually despised by some! Remember our "how-to-avoid-probate" attorney, Norman Dacey, who became a target of this same type of venom? And he was one of them!

Pure Trusts are simply outside the scope of statutory authority and therefore outside the bounds of government regulation or attorney expertise. It would be comparable to the Medical community's attitude towards vitamins or natural, alternative approaches to health. Natural healing methods fall outside the medical community's area of expertise, therefore they know little about them or outright condemn and seek to eliminate them!

In short, what we don't know of, have control over, or understand, is often a threat. And just as Doctors are taught virtually nothing about nutrition in medical school, lawyers are taught virtually nothing about Constitutional Law in Case Law School. I say "Case Law School" because we have no actual Law Schools to my knowledge in the entire country today.

But, you may ask, "if Constitutional Pure Trusts are not part of the statutory realm, by what authority do they exist?" By no less authority than the Constitution of the United States itself, to this very day -- this very minute -- the Supreme Law of the land. Under Article 1, Section 10, the States are prohibited from making any law impairing the obligation of contracts.

The Framers of the Constitution understood that the right to contract privately with one's fellow citizens is an unalienable right that came down through the English common law. In America, all property law is State law. There is no federal property Law and never has been since day one.

Of course, if you are new to this information, you night well ask: "But isn't the Constitution a statutory document?" No, the Constitution is a common law document, just as Constitutional Pure Trusts are. In truth, what makes Pure Trusts so unique is that they are not trusts at all by statutory definition, which is why you will find virtually no information about them in law books or statutory regulations. They are actually contracts in trust form.

Trusts as defined by statutory law operate in the statutory realm and therefore come under statutory regulation. Pure Trusts do not, which makes them private and protected contracts, free from "interference" by government or unwanted parties. This may be the most important of all forms of lawful separation of property, and makes the Pure Trust superior to all other forms of asset protection.

The super rich and elite have made use of Pure Trusts for many generations. For example, do you think the Kennedy family actually owns the "Kennedy compound" in Hyannisport on Massachusetts' Cape Cod? Do you think the wealthiest of the jet-setters featured on "Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous" own anything in their own name? Not on your life, they're far too smart for that.

Multibillionaire, John Paul Getty, never owned anything either. Not the mansions, not the Rolls Royces, not the yachts, nothing. Mr. Getty simply enjoyed the exclusive use of all those assets. Remember, pride of ownership can be very expensive! Just ask anyone who's ever been targeted for plunder. And Mr. Getty never paid a dime in income taxes, either.

Neither did world class mega-billionaire, Nelson Rockefeller. When a congressional committee considering "Rocky" for a Vice Presidential appointment asked him, "How much money did you earn last year?", he replied "About $600,000,000." When then asked "How much did you pay in income tax?", he replied, "Nothing."

Nelson Rockefeller's own grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, once said, "Own nothing, control everything!" This is the same man who said "Competition is a sin!". Before his death in 1937, the elder Rockefeller had tucked much of his fortune into about 70 trusts for his descendants. It is believed that young Nelson reduced his personal holdings by the creation of still more trusts for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's been reported that as many as 250 individual Rockefeller trusts exist by now, many of which are Pure Trusts which place funds and assets totally beyond reach of probate, legal fees and estate taxes, all of which distasteful things are only for "the little people".

In Gary Allen's book "The Rockefeller File" he pointed out, quote: "For ... generations, the great fortune passed down by John D. Rockefeller has been ... made more complex by increasing layers of Trusts and closely held companies, where no public records are required, none volunteered, and all inquiries are politely rebuffed", unquote. So how many trusts have you set up already to protect your heirs' interests in your estate? And are you prepared to politely rebuff all inquiries from the IRS? Are you beginning to see the light?

As for dealings with the IRS or a state tax agency, think of it this way. You can allegedly owe the taxman a million dollars. The IRS can simply pull figures out of thin air and send you a bill fit for Donald Trump. But, unlike England in Charles Dickens' era when debtors were thrown into "the hole" until the family paid their debts, we have no such debtors' prisons in America today. If nothing is titled in your own name, there is nothing subject to lien, levy or seizure and therefore nothing at risk!

A house owned as your own personal property is a "sitting duck". But rent or lease that same house from someone else and it can't be taken by the IRS or a judgment creditor to get at you, the mere tenant. Ditto with leasing a car or business equipment. No one can take the car you are leasing away from Ford Motor Company to satisfy an alleged liability, or even an actual judgment, against you.

Now, let's turn to estate planning for a moment. In order to protect hard earned assets, many people naively rely upon a will which then causes their estate to pass through probate, thereby subjecting it to full public exposure, potential attack by jealous would-be heirs, time consuming administration, long delays in the transfer of assets and erosion through legal fees and heavy inheritance taxes.

When one of the greatest socialists in world history, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died at the tender age of 63, his gross estate was valued at $1,940,999. Out of this, his estate settlement costs were as follows: debts of his estate $19,221, estate administration costs of $35,022, $75,000 in attorneys' fees, executor's fees of $99,494, $48,480 in New York estate tax plus $297,650 in federal estate tax for a total cost of $574,867. This equals a total estate shrinkage of 29%! Now, this simply could not have happened to a nicer Marxist!

But this type of estate shrinkage is 100% avoidable. How? Through the use of the Pure Trust Organization. Here are some famous examples of individuals and organizations which have made use of the Pure Trust Organization. Edward H. Hines, a multimillionaire building supplier, established a $12 million Trust in 1914, and headed his business until his death in 1931. His two sons, Ralph and Charles, succeeded the elder Hines as Trustees of the Trust and retained Trusteeship after a court fight instituted by two nieces, a sister, and a nephew who sought to break the Trust by claiming that the administration of the family estate had been erroneous..

The court ruled that the Pure Trust was not an erroneous method of managing the assets, and was in fact, a valid and legal arrangement for the estate. Preserved, intact, for future generations, the Edward H. Hines Lumber Company is still in operation today.

H.L. Hunt, the Texas oil billionaire, is reported to have paid $75,000 for the creation of the first Hunt family Pure Trust. Hunt then created at least 25 additional Trusts. Persons close to the Hunt family estimate that there may be as many as 200 Hunt family Trusts now in existence. The death of H.L. Hunt has not affected any of these Trust estates. The family has successfully arranged their affairs so as to increase the estate, generation after generation, rather than see it cut to shreds by the high costs of probate.

The assets of the Mesabi Iron Company were transferred to a Pure Trust on March 13, 1961, by Arnold Hoffman, at that time president of the company, as announced in the Wall Street Journal. The IRS ruled that the trust would not constitute an association of persons taxable as a corporation. The Mesabi Trust owns the reserves of the famous Mesabi iron deposits and its shares of beneficial interest are still traded daily on the New York Stock Exchange.

Joseph Kennedy, father of the late president John F. Kennedy, originally established a Pure Trust to own the famous Chicago Merchandise Mart. At 4.2 million square feet, the Mart even has its own ZIP code and was the world's largest building until the Pentagon was built in the 1940's. As reported in the March 22nd, 1947 issue of the Chicago Tribune, Kennedy's wife, Rose F. Kennedy, and a long-time associate, John L. Ford, joined as trustees to terminate the trust and distribute the 30 million dollar property amongst members of the Kennedy family. You can be certain that those distributions were quickly placed into other trusts. The Kennedy family is known to maintain many such trusts to this day.

William Waldorf Astor created a fifty million dollar trust by a conveyance to trustees recorded in New York on August 15th, 1919, which saved his heirs several million dollars which would otherwise have gone for probate costs, had the estate been distributed by the court instead of by the trustees.

In 1966, former president Ronald Reagan established a trust which has enabled him to receive sizable tax advantages over the years, while maintaining a magnificent living standard. These are but a few of the many family estates that are preserved generation after generation through the use of the Pure Trust Organization. The history of trusts is rather interesting.

Plato used a non-profit Trust to finance his university in Greece around 400 B.C. Trusts were well known in Roman law as well. In England, Trusts were in use as early as the 11th century and by the 15th century were being enforced by the Courts of Chancery. English Trusts were used to allow religious organizations to use charitably bestowed property which would otherwise not be possible due to certain restrictions against land ownership by churches and religious organizations.

Pure Trust organizations arrived in America with the colonists. The first "Pure Trust" of record was drafted in 1765, 24 years before the adoption of the Constitution, by the famous attorney and patriot, Patrick Henry, on behalf of his client, Governor Robert Morris of the Virginia Colony, a prominent financier of the American Revolution. Known as the North American Land Company, this Pure Trust is still in operation today, over 200 years later.

William Bingham, reputed to be the richest American when the thirteen colonies won their independence, started a Pure Trust for his vast estate in 1804. The Trust owned two million acres in Maine which sold about the time of the Civil War. Bingham, a Senator from Pennsylvania in the Second United States Congress, owned vast land holdings. The Trust was terminated by the Trustees in 1964 after some 160 years of operation and the assets liquidated.

Other well known persons and organizations that use Constitutional Pure Trusts today include:

* Sony Corporation

* U-Haul

* The Boston Celtics

* Merrill Lynch

* The Fidelity Magellan Fund

* Scudder Funds

* Kemper Funds

* former president Jimmy Carter;

* the DuPont and Mellon families

* Rupert Murdoch

* United Airlines.

Pure Trusts are recognized as tax reduction tools by Merrill Lynch, E.F. Hutton, Payne Webster and Price Waterhouse.

When personal property is conveyed into a series of Pure Trust Organizations for the benefit of descendants and others, the advantages are asset protection, judgment proofing, total privacy, guaranteed and immediate continuity of inheritance, avoidance of wasted time and money, and legal avoidance of estate taxes, to name just a few.

And when you die with your former assets safely ensconced within a Pure Trust, there are no probate costs, no attorney fees, no executor fees, no estate taxes, no inheritance taxes, no administrative fees, no appraisal fees, no waiting periods, no forced sale of assets at auction prices, and no public disclosure.

By the way, has God yet informed you as to the precise moment of your death? Me, either. So remember this if you remember nothing else from this tape: the time to set up your asset protection strategy is not after you need it, it's before you ever need it. It's right now. Because when you do need it, it may already be too late.

All asset protection planning must take place before there is a visible threat to one's assets. Yet most "asset protection" occurs at exactly this "wrong" time. Most people only think of protecting their assets when the knock comes at the door. Asset protection is like insurance. You can't acquire fire insurance after your house has caught fire. Nor can you acquire car theft insurance after your car has been stolen. It's the same with asset protection. You won't be able to protect your property and your life savings after a challenge to those assets is already underway.

One of our unfortunate "human" traits is that we tend to seek protection from a threat after the threat has already appeared. The time to plan is when there is no visible need to plan. In other words, right now.. Again, INFORM AMERICA! would be more than happy to refer you to a competent, reliable provider with an established track record. Just ask us.

Now let's take a closer look at the Pure Trust Organization. Unlike the revocable trust I spoke of earlier, a Pure Trust -- sometimes referred to as a Common Law or Constitutional Trust -- is an irrevocable trust. It is not dependent upon statutes for its existence, statutes which can be amended or even repealed the next time the state legislature convenes.

A Pure Trust exists by "right", not by "privilege". All rights are unalienable, as Jefferson called them, and come from God. Unalienable means that they cannot be separated from you, even by your own act! Your right to live, to breathe, to have and raise children, to enjoy the fruits of your labors and intellect, to worship according to your religious beliefs, to speak and write freely, to associate with others of your choosing, to petition government for redress of grievance, to not be forced to testify against yourself, to own and bear personal firearms for self-defense and as a foil against the tyranny of one's own government, these are all unalienable rights.

Privileges, however, do not come from God. They come from man and can be stripped away just as fast as they are granted. The IRS has jurisdiction over all statutory entities with tax liabilities imposed by Congress and with returns filing requirements. However, the IRS does not have jurisdiction over Pure Trusts.

Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the tax advantages to this. Simple research by anyone who takes the time to look into the Pure Trust as an estate planning instrument will discover it to be the most extraordinary asset protection tool available. Many knowledgeable authorities compare the Pure Trust to the "blind trust" employed almost exclusively by the super rich and highly visible politicians.

The Pure Trust has long been the exclusive choice of the elite in this country as the centerpiece of their estate planning. In recent years it has appeared in a variety of estate applications for all kinds of people from all walks of life. The Pure Trust is currently being recommended by knowledgeable advisors as a viable business entity alternative to the traditional sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation.

In fact, these are among the worst possible ways to hold a business, given their many tax and liability disadvantages. Recent trends favoring limited liability companies, when used alone, still do not measure up to the protections and privacy afforded by the Pure Trust. Savvy business owners in the know make use of the Pure Trust in conjunction with statutory entities such as Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies as part of an overall "business restructuring". I call it business liberation!

The average owner of a small business spends, and wastes, hundreds of productive hours each year: saving receipts, making quarterly estimated tax payments, mailing out 1099 and W-2 forms, and preparing tax returns. One of the IRS' closely guarded secrets is that it is entirely possible for today's harassed and beseiged business owner, barely staying ahead of the bills and the taxes, to literally pluck himself out of the middle of his business, get everything out of his name and disassociated from his social security number, yet continue "running the show" as a consultant and not the owner.

By doing so, he achieves total privacy and liberation from the majority, if not in some cases, the entirety, of all business taxes. He can still interface with the banking system, do business with the public and conduct commerce as usual, however he personally disappears from public records. With everything out of his name, and with all of the "big ticket" items such as housing, transportation, retirement and estate planning, insurance and other benefits provided for him as a consultant to his entity structure, our stressed-out former owner is left having little future need for any income other than some "walking around" money, in case he wants to go bowling or take his wife out to dinner! With minimal income, even a returns filer may fall beneath the IRS threshold as to "who must file" as indicated in the front of each year's Form 1040 instruction booklet.

Now, having said all this, you should be aware that not all Pure Trusts are alike. Nor do all trusts have the same tax advantages. Likewise, all providers who publish trusts do not know everything there is to know about all trusts. The vast majority of C.P.A.'s and attorneys engaged in estate planning are totally oblivious to the very existence of the Pure Trust Organization, let alone its creation, language and proper use.

These advisors should be pre-qualified as to their comprehension of certain kinds of trusts, especially those that benefit you. Sadly, many advisors, content with traditional methods, prefer to remain with comfortable old remedies that just do not work as they once did. Today's hostile environment, comprised of predatory litigation waiting to pounce upon your assets; frivolous lawsuits, liens, judgments, and disqualification from your entitlement to long-term nursing care, are just a few of the many evils the Pure Trust can isolate and insulate from one's life.

Unfortunately, some advisors exhibit a negatively reactive knee-jerk response to this information. Such individuals aren't willing to admit that they don't know the facts about everything there is to know in this world. They may say: "It won't work, there is no such thing. If it was a viable solution, I would have told you about it. I have never heard about this kind of trust, therefore it cannot exist. There must be something wrong here. I've been doing tax preparation for twenty years. There are no tax shelters anymore, and this sounds like a tax shelter. Business trusts are audited more often than other forms of business. This trust will raise a 'red flag'".

The fact is that Pure Trusts have no tax requirements and are not subject to audit. But don't feel bad. You have relied on your advisor up to this point, and for the most part, you've probably done okay. However, your reliance on your advisor to offer sound advice about the historical and present day uses of the Pure Trust Organization may be something you should reconsider. At least insist that the negative reactive advisor investigate the matter thoroughly. Challenge him to go to Am. Jur. and A.L.R. and at least see what these legal encyclopedias have to say about Pure Trusts. Assuming, of course, that he even knows what these abbreviations stand for. There are hundreds of pages in these prestigious volumes describing Pure Trust entities.

Hopefully, it is beginning to occur to you that the advantages to you, your business, and total estate of understanding these matters and not relying upon uninformed or partially informed professionals is a considerably more serious matter than you may have realized before listening to this recording. If your advisor has never introduced you to the Pure Trust and its enormous advantages for you and your family, you might want to ask him why not.

Please also ask him to present some qualifying opinions to ensure that any advice he provides on the subject is viable, and not based on offhand remarks from little or no knowledge of the subject matter. Remember, mere unsubstantiated opinion is trivial and can be costly to you. A raised eyebrow or smirk will not get you the very information that could benefit you enormously!

When your advisor says "No", and is unable to provide a satisfactorily documented response, he has disqualified himself to counsel on all matters concerning the Pure Trust. Should an advisor offer opinion only, omitting supportive written documentation in case law, the Internal Revenue Code or tax regulations to back it up, he is probably unfamiliar with the subject and may be too embarrassed to respond, or understandably concerned that he may lose you as a client. In either event, do insist on a response of fact, in writing. Preservation of your assets depends on your willingness to take responsibility for your own personal affairs. Remember, if you are the target of a lawsuit or IRS investigation, it won't be your advisor's property that goes on the auction block, but your own.

There are three good questions you can ask your advisor to qualify him as to his competence to evaluate the Pure Trust. Here's the first: "When property is exchanged into a Pure Trust, particularly real property, and I no longer own it, will there be a gift tax consequence generated as a result of that exchange?" The answer for irrevocable statutory trusts is "Yes". However, the Pure Trust is not a statutory or ordinary trust.

The Pure Trust is a contract in trust form. The initial transfer of assets to the Pure Trust is done in exchange for Certificates of Beneficial Interest. As the courts have held, full and adequate consideration is met by issuance of trust certificate units in exchange for real and personal property invested in a "Pure" trust organization. These Certificates represent valuable and adequate consideration, however they are of indeterminable value because they confer no interest or ownership rights to the Beneficiaries who hold them, until and unless the trust is ever dissolved by the Trustees and the Trust property is distributed. For returns filers, there is no gift tax generated as per Internal Revenue Code section 7701(a)(45) titled "Non Recognition Transaction". Now, how would you grade your advisor in answering that first question? Chances are, he struck out.

Here's the second question to ask: "If all of my assets have been declared into and are now held in Pure Trust, and I should die, is the fair market value of those assets at the time of my death included in the total value of my estate?" The correct answer is that the operation of the Pure Trust is not affected by death, nor does death cause a taxable event. For this reason, when the death of the Exchangor occurs, the former estate is not subject to any estate taxes no matter what the value of the assets.

The supreme Court has held that certificates in exchange are not taxable until a realized gain has occurred. Such gain can only occur if and when the trustees ever meet to dissolve the trust. If the trust remains in perpetuity, there will never be a taxable gain. Again, how did your advisor score? Another strike?

And here's the third question: "Does the designated beneficiary in a Pure Trust have any rights under Internal Revenue Code Section 2036, titled "Transfers With Retained Life Estate"?" The correct answer is an unqualified "No"! No additional explanation or discussion is necessary. The Law is the Law. The Internal Revenue Code is the Internal Revenue Code. The Pure Trust or Contract Trust predates corporations by hundreds of years.

The IRS fully recognizes the Pure Trust in its Regulations. The courts have long and frequently ruled in favor of the Pure Trust as a legal entity. In fact, feel free to contact INFORM AMERICA! for a list as long as your arm of court cases in which the courts all the way up to the supreme Court have ruled on the validity of the Pure Trust Organization.

Anyone providing trusts can deliver the "ordinary" or revocable statutory trust. However, where statutory trusts allow the client to continue ownership of property transferred into the trust, the only tax benefit -- other than the avoidance of probate -- occurs when the principal dies, and the value of the estate is more than $650,000 or less than $1.3 million if married. The question here to ask is: "What happens to my estate if I have the unfortunate circumstance of living?" and "With all of my assets transferred into a properly structured trust, can I lose any assets through litigation for something I have done personally?"

The answer to both questions is that the assets held in Pure Trust are totally insulated from both sets of circumstances; they are totally protected. And estates exceeding $1.3 million which are held in Pure Trust are completely immune from federal estate taxes. If the value of a return filer's estate today is worth less than $650,000, the revocable trust has no value for tax liability purposes since there is no federal estate tax under that amount anyway, and no asset protection benefits besides.

When there is a chance that an entire estate could be devastated by myriad circumstances long before death, doesn't it make sense to protect your estate while you're still alive, rather than prepare for death only? Your due diligence demands that you obtain court citations and tax code references from the advisor who rejects the Pure Trust as a serious instrument of choice in preserving your assets now and in the future.

If there is a better alternative to estate planning than the Pure Trust, it has yet to make itself known! The knowledgeable advisor is well aware of this fact. If your advisor is not, encourage him to learn about the Pure Trust. It is in your best interest that he does. It will certainly not be in anyone's best interest if he does not! INFORM AMERICA! can put you in touch with C.P.A.'s, attorneys and other advisors across America who understand lawful asset protection principles. Just ask us.

An additional point I should make and emphasize right now is this: Pure Trust Organizations are definitely not for everyone. If you are a person who chooses not to investigate things for yourself and rely solely upon the input of your accountant, attorney or other advisor, a Pure Trust is definitely not for you.

An essential element in making proper and best use of the Pure Trust is to utilize a system of trusts following established asset protection principles. The key words are "segregate, isolate, and insulate". Segregate the assets you are going to exchange into trust into three groups, thereby isolating and insulating them. Those three groups are assets which are liability positive, liability neutral and liability negative.

* Liability positive assets include cars, boats, airplanes, etc. These are things which can drive or fly into other things, including people, and can be sued as a result.

* Liability neutral assets include a house, summer home, or time-share. Houses don't ordinarily hurt other people, but someone could certainly injure themselves while in your house and sue you for negligence.

* Liability negative assets include bank accounts, stocks, bonds, etc.

In other words, there are assets which are looking for accidents, those which have a possibility of having an accident, and those which people have to search out to create an accident. This is the initial way to qualify assets with respect to which trust you are going to convey them into.

In a business structure, where the goal is to lawfully reduce the taxes paid by the business, the "segregate, isolate, insulate" principle would still be followed, but the scenario would go a step farther by conveying the assets into trusts in such a manner that the business could lease equipment back from trusts in order to reduce business profits, regardless of the fact that the business may or may not choose to use an Employer Identification Number, or "EIN". This would be done to ensure that all assets which "meet the public" are moved out of the business entity.

The reason for this is that an entity can always be sued by the public if something goes awry. The goal is to have the entity be void of all assets. The IRS says that "a Pure Trust organization has no tax requirements, therefore an EIN is not required." The Internal Revenue Code also states that only persons with EIN's are authorized to withhold employment taxes. If you don't have an EIN, you don't have to be an unpaid bookkeeper for the IRS. Remember, the 13th Amendment freed the slaves!

There are no rules or regulations pertaining to a Pure Trust in the entire tax code. The tax laws simply do not apply to Pure Trusts!

* A Pure Trust does not have to divulge private information, nor is it required to file annual statements with any governmental organization, including the Secretary of State.

* The private records of a Pure Trust are not even subject to a subpoena!

* A Pure Trust may operate in all 50 States without registering with any State.

* There are no record keeping requirements for Pure Trusts by any state or federal government organization.

* There is no capital gains tax for any appreciated property sold by a Pure Trust.

* If an officer or manager of a Pure Trust dies, there is no probate of the Pure Trust.

* Using a Pure Trust Organization can allow a returns filer to pay off his home mortgage with pretax dollars.

And on and on the advantages go. Now, unless you just fell off the turnip truck, a light bulb should have just lit up over your head. Of course, with all these wonderful attributes and benefits, you might well be asking yourself, "So why haven't I heard about Pure Trusts before now?". Well, perhaps it's because there are four very large players who have no advantage in your knowing the truth about Pure Trusts.

Those four are the IRS, the bar association, C.P.A.'s, and insurance companies. Let's take the IRS first. After all, what would they do if they lost you as a customer? Wouldn't it be nice to let them worry about that instead of figuring out new ways to tax you? It's more than obvious why the IRS doesn't offer a publication about Pure Trusts and extol their tax free status, isn't it?

Number two is the Trust and Probate Section of the American Bar Association. What would they lose if no one had to leave their estate via a will and chose to use a Pure Trust instead? Answer: billions of dollars annually.

Number three is C.P.A.'s. How would they earn a living if there were no reporting requirements for business organizations working within the 50 States? It is easy to see that if my CPA told me about this, he would be out of a job. For that very reason, he is probably unaware that something like this would even exist. It would not make sense that he would spend a lot of time studying something that would not provide a source of income for him.

And number four is insurance companies, the second largest financial monopoly in America. Only the government has more money. If they were to lose the premiums from all those life insurance policies for big estates, their income would shrivel dramatically. It's also easy to see that your friendly neighborhood insurance agent has nothing to gain, and much to lose in commissions, if you know about this way of bypassing inheritance taxes.

The truth is that there are only two institutions that benefit when a Pure Trust Organization is utilized: First, you and your family. Second, the American People. Many folks who are new to trusts have a concern that, if they convey property into irrevocable trust and entrust it to the care of trustees, they have given up all rights of ownership of that property forever. However, the home owner who conveys his home into irrevocable trust, for example, or whose home is purchased by such a trust, may, if there is a legitimate contractual agreement, remain on the property as a tenant, thus having full use and exclusive enjoyment of the family home without the inherent risks of ownership. Plus, when he dies, his family will continue to enjoy the exclusive use of the property without triggering a death transfer tax.

The bottom line is this: he has given his "stuff" away yet continues to enjoy the use of it while still alive. So have our elected public servants figured out how to take advantage of all this? You bet they have! Governor Symington of Arizona, who had $8,000,000 in trusts, was given a $20,000,000 loan. When he defaulted, he was hauled into court and his creditors got nothing!

To further illustrate how creditors or the IRS cannot penetrate a Trust that has been established by the Grantor at a time when he was personally solvent, consider the following case study. In 1969, oil entrepreneur John M. King was worth 300 million dollars. In September, 1971, he became involved in bankruptcy proceedings. Despite personal bankruptcy which began in June, 1971, Mr. King testified that he, his wife, and their four children still lived in an elegant, walled estate in a Denver suburb and had the use of vacation places in Palm Springs and La Jolla, California, as well as property in Vale, Colorado and Hawaii. He was able to do this because, although his personal assets were currently tied up in bankruptcy court, he had given 80% of his assets to various Trusts which he had established several years prior for the benefit of his children. When creditors with claims of $42 million dollars including $5.3 million allegedly owed to the IRS, tried to collect, they discovered they could not penetrate the Trusts which held these former assets.

Remember, a properly established Trust is a separate legal entity from the Grantor and the assets that have been placed into Trust are immune from seizure to satisfy claims against the Grantor. We could tell you dozens of similar stories. Increasing numbers of law abiding American citizens are taking these same quiet steps, 100% legally, to render themselves both judgment- and seizure-proof through the use of established asset protection principles.

Many patriotic Americans have learned that, when dealing with a rapacious bureaucracy such as the IRS, it can even be rewarding to stand up for your rights when you have nothing to lose! But please bear in mind that not all trusts are written alike, nor do they all have the same tax advantages. A Trust is only as good as the written contract that defines it, and is only as strong as the trustees who will step forward to defend it should it ever be attacked in court. As with everything else, "you get what you pay for" in the way of quality and expertise..

Just like the constitutional tax education arena which, as anyone who has cruised the Internet can attest to, has its share of "silver bullets", instant gurus and wild theories, the world of asset protection is equally full of smoke, mirrors, myths and snake oil. You'll find scores of trust preparation firms on the Internet, all claiming to be the best.

The truth is that any idiot can purchase trust documentation, scan it into his computer, run it through optical character recognition software, change a few words here and there, perhaps screwing up the meaning in the process, put it in a fancy binder and call himself an asset protection specialist. But will you receive any real, intelligent customer service, any timely and professional hands-on assistance in understanding and actually implementing your new structures?

What happens, for example, when you want to convey a house into trust and need help on how to legally sidestep the "due-on-sale" clause in the standard home mortgage and force the bank to accept recording of the title in the name of the trust? Oops. Our instant expert doesn't have a clue how to do that.

How about providing for a reserve managing director of the trust? What's that? Or how to deal with the problem of establishing a Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership without using anyone's social security number? Gee, our expert had never been asked that question before. I'm sure you get the point.

There are thousands of folks all over America who have purchased a pricey package consisting of a series of trusts and interrelated statutory structures from some Internet expert. They still have these foundational documents sitting on their coffee tables, with no idea on earth how to use them or what to do with them. Sadly, many of these people still think that their property is actually protected.

Without proper instruction, educational resources and professional followup, most purchasers of trusts will flounder in a quagmire of confusion as to their correct use and implementation. Which is why, if you call INFORM AMERICA! for a referral, we will refer you only to providers who actually take pride in the work they do, understand the written tax laws, and back up their word with real performance and personal attention -- and, who have a successful track record of defending trusts in court, on those rare occasions when they have been challenged.

In closing, let me state that, over the years, by quietly observing older and more experienced business people, including full-time investors and entrepreneurs, I've seen them closely guard their personal privacy. They're not lawyers, accountants, tax consultants or financial advisors and they don't want to be, either.

They have, however, learned through mentoring, trial, error and research, the value of anonymity and personal rights to privacy, including how to legally protect assets. No fancy tricks, nothing illegal or shady, just their legal rights under the Law. Although they have full use and enjoyment of millions of dollars in assets, they personally own no real property, no personal property, nothing!

They move about doing their business in a quiet and discreet manner. They rely on and respect our legal system, but they do not fear it. They use the system to their advantage, sleeping like a baby at night because they have rendered themselves judgment proof, simply by discovering how to arrange their affairs in such a manner as to minimize or totally eliminate personal and business taxes, and discourage frivolous lawsuits, potentially abusive litigation and unlawful takings by government.

They are no longer "good" legal targets, because they no longer have "bulls eyes" painted on their backs. If someone got the notion to attack the assets they use and enjoy through the legal process, they would find there is nothing to attack. Collectively, their assets are protected under a structure consisting of interlocking Pure Trusts, Limited Liability Companies and other legal entities.

All of these worldly accumulations will pass to their heirs 100% free of probate and estate tax. And their names no longer appear on public records, telephone directories or mailing lists. They have learned to use the "system" to discreetly mask their whereabouts at any given time and to discourage unsolicited mail and unwelcome telephone calls.

Even though they are not hiding, they are, for all practical purposes, "invisible". And, yes, they're having fun, too! Well, we've reached the end of the tape. Thanks for listening. And remember, if you need a free referral to a reliable asset protection service provider, just visit us at www.informamerica.com and contact us from there. I'm Gordon Phillips. Take care, and may God bless you in your "Pursuit of Happiness".