I was recently looking at the stats for TheMoneyCommando over the last 18 months or so to see what kind of posts have been the most popular. I was mildly surprised to find that the most popular post for 2018 was the same as for 2017 and for 2016! In fact, this post has been my most popular post for every month of each of the last few years.
What post is it? Well, it’s actually 1 article that was so large that I broke it up into 2 posts:
An umbrella policy vs. LLC for asset protection – part 1
An umbrella policy vs. LLC for asset protection – part 2
I’m not going to lie – I’m pretty damn proud of both that article. I decided to write it because it was a question I’d struggled with when starting our real estate investing. When I was researching the topic I found that most of the advice on this topic is either bad, incomplete, or just plain wrong. it was clear that most of the information online was written by armchair investors or advisors just repeating what they’ve heard rather than actually digging into the numbers and the nuances of the law.
I decided I wanted to write the definitive article on the subject and I spent a LOT of time researching and writing it. The first part of the article is about 3,200 words and the second part is 2,250. I estimate that I spent about 15 hours writing the whole thing. I then spent another few hours updating the article in early 2018 to stay current with the new tax law changes.
In the last 6 months or so this article has been somewhere between the #1 and #3 Google search result for variations of “umbrella vs. llc rental”. I think this is largely because every few weeks the article gets referenced in a real estate discussion somewhere.
I think my article is useful for a few reasons. First, the information is correct. I talked to attorneys, insurance brokers, and other investors to make sure I understood the subject. Second, I provided a lot of different scenarios, showing the cases where a LLC is superior, cases where an umbrella policy is superior, and describing scenarios where a LLC just won’t do what investors think it does. Third, I pointed out issues (especially with LLCs) that I hadn’t seen anybody else mention in any of the articles I’d found.
What’s next?
I’ve had this website for a few years now. During that time I’ve managed to meet up with a few of my readers. It’s a lot of fun to meet up with other people with similar outlooks on life, investing, etc. A few months ago I asked one of these readers (John from Calabasas) what type of topic he’d like to see me write about.
John said that he’d love to see more information on estate planning. Since then I’ve been periodically working on an article that I’m humbling calling “The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Will”. I think it has the potential to be as useful as my article about LLCs vs. an umbrella policy.
After that I’ll be writing about trusts, annual gifts, and other related topics.
If there’s another financial topic you’d like to see me write more about please let me know and if the topic gets enough votes I’ll dig into it.
I stumbled on your blog a couple of days ago, and I think it is fantastic. Solid, real-life practical advice beyond stocks and bonds, such as rental real estate. And posting your net worth and investment income monthly – that’s something. The article above was outstanding and answered a number of questions that had bedeviled for years. Keep it up! One other topic could include the use of annuities, specifically low-cost single premium annuity to create a “personal pension”. It is a controversial topic with most people reflexively pooh-poohing it, but noble prize winners like Richard Thaler endorse them. Thanks again.
My bad. Just saw your two excellent article on annuities. Like you I have concluded that they do have a place for some people in their retirement portfolios.
Thanks for the kind words, and I’m glad you’re finding the website useful.
Annuities tend to generate a lot of strong emotions. The problem is that most people evaluate them as investment vehicles, which they aren’t. However, when evaluated as insurance against outliving your money, they start to make a lot of sense.