Join John Skabelund as he discusses the most important strategy to avoid being sued: Privacy.
John is an experienced and nationally recognized attorney with extensive experience protecting clients’ assets throughout the United States. His clients describe him as having the heart of a teacher due to his ability to explain complicated topics in plain English.
In this episode, explore why liability insurance is a critical part of your asset protection, how many of your assets are and aren’t discoverable to attorneys, and why you may want additional tools like irrevocable trusts and limited partnerships.
Podcast Overview:
In this solo episode of The Asset Protection Show, attorney John Skabelund explains a counterintuitive but powerful truth about asset protection: the best lawsuit is the one that is never filed.
Rather than focusing only on defense after a lawsuit begins, John walks listeners through how privacy and proper structuring can discourage lawsuits before they ever start. The goal is simple. Make yourself an unattractive target while remaining fully insured and legally compliant.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why Accidents Lead to Lawsuits
Accidents are unavoidable. No one plans for them, and no one gets through life without them. When serious accidents happen, plaintiff attorneys quickly assess one key question before filing suit.
Is there money worth pursuing beyond insurance?
John shares real-world examples involving rental property fires and serious auto accidents to illustrate how devastating claims can become. Insurance is always part of a responsible asset protection plan, but insurance alone is not enough.
The real objective is to incentivize settlement within policy limits so a lawsuit is never filed at all.
Why Plaintiff Attorneys Walk Away From Certain Cases
From his experience as a litigator, John explains a hard truth many clients never hear.
You can have a strong case on the facts and the law, but if the defendant looks broke, pursuing the case may mean throwing good money after bad.
This is why asset protection focuses so heavily on optics before litigation begins.
What Assets Are Discoverable Before a Lawsuit Is Filed
Before filing suit, plaintiff attorneys rely on public records and investigative databases to evaluate a target.
The most easily discoverable assets include:
- real estate, including primary homes, vacation properties, and rentals
- business ownership interests
- vehicles and titled assets such as boats, RVs, planes, and exotic cars
These assets are visible through databases and public filings used every day by plaintiff firms.
Assets that are already private
Certain assets are not visible during this pre-lawsuit investigation phase, including bank accounts, brokerage accounts, crypto holdings, collections, jewelry, and W2 wages.
Timing matters. These assets typically become discoverable only after a lawsuit is won.
Pre-Judgment vs. Post-Judgment Discovery
This distinction is critical to understanding how asset protection works.
Before a lawsuit is filed, discovery is limited to public records. After a lawsuit is won and a judgment is entered, a plaintiff may conduct a debtor examination.
At that stage, the defendant must disclose what they own under oath.
However, there is a significant difference between disclosing direct ownership of assets and disclosing an interest in an LLC, limited partnership, or irrevocable trust. Proper structuring changes what must be disclosed and how valuable that information is to a creditor.
How Asset Protection Legally Creates Privacy
All strategies discussed are legal and ethical. The purpose is not to avoid responsibility, but to ensure that claims are resolved through insurance rather than litigation.
Experienced asset protection attorneys use tools such as:
- LLCs formed in privacy-friendly states
- manager-managed structures
- limited partnerships
- irrevocable trusts
Why privacy states matter
Certain states do not publicly disclose LLC ownership or management. These include Delaware, Wyoming, Ohio, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
John explains why partial privacy is not enough. True protection requires hiding both ownership and management information so assumptions cannot easily be made.
Why Privacy Prevents Lawsuits
Plaintiff attorneys must weigh risk, cost, and return. Filing a lawsuit can require tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees with no guarantee of recovery.
When assets are not visible and insurance coverage is clear, the rational decision is often to settle and move on.
This is how privacy becomes the most effective lawsuit prevention strategy available.
Why Privacy Is the Most Powerful Lawsuit Prevention Tool
The strongest asset protection plans focus on deterrence, not just defense. When your assets are properly structured and private, you reduce the likelihood of being sued in the first place while still ensuring that legitimate claims are handled responsibly through insurance.
If you want to learn how legal structures, privacy planning, and insurance work together to protect what you have built, visit UltimateAssetProtection.com.
For more insights from the show, visit AssetProtectionShow.com.