Free Guide · Florida Asset Protection & Privacy
The Florida Privacy Audit
What does the public record actually say about you?
Three different things get called the same thing. Stealth wealth is a set of spending habits. Privacy is a structure that controls what a county deed search and a Sunbiz lookup return for your name. Protection is a set of Florida statutes a creditor has to respect whether or not anyone can find you.
The habits cost nothing and protect nothing. The structure is cheap and buys you difficulty, not immunity. Only the third layer survives contact with a judgment, and most owners cannot say which layer each of their assets is actually relying on.
If you have been told a land trust puts your property beyond a judgment, start here.
Free Download · 8 pages
Get The Florida Privacy Audit
Fifteen questions that tell you, in about ten minutes, which of the three layers you actually have and which you only assume you have. Enter your details and the audit is sent straight to your inbox.
What is inside the audit
Eight pages, written for the owner rather than the advisor, and built entirely on Florida authority.
- The three layers, separated. Habits, privacy, and protection. Learn what each one actually does when a judgment lands and which statutes belong in which column.
- A 15-question scored diagnostic. Two sections, each question tied to the provision that governs it, with a running risk score out of 15.
- Your Exposure Rating. Three bands, each with a plain-English read on where you stand and what to fix first.
- The five-step sequence. In order, starting with the step that is free and that changes what everything after it costs.
- A plain-English glossary. The Florida Land Trust Act, LLC disclosure rules, charging orders, constitutional homestead, the exemption statutes, and the fraudulent-transfer provision.
One correction worth making before anything else. Fla. Stat. § 689.071(8)(d) separates a trustee's title from the beneficial interest in both directions. That is the point of a land trust, but it means the beneficial interest is still a thing you own, and a judgment against the beneficiary attaches to it. Anonymity is a discovery obstacle. It is not immunity, and the guide is blunt about the difference.
Three of the fifteen questions
If any of these gives you pause, the audit is worth ten minutes.
- Do you use your home address, or your own name, as the registered agent for any Florida LLC?
- Do you know, today, what your own county's official records return when you search your name?
- Is your actual plan the fact that you do not look like you have money?
The other twelve cover which parcels are homesteaded and which are not, how a married couple's brokerage account is titled after the Florida Supreme Court widened entireties treatment in December 2025, single-member versus multi-member LLCs, whose name sits in the authorized-manager field on your annual report, whether your retirement savings are inside qualifying wrappers, out-of-state property, how each beneficial interest is held, and whether a contemporaneous record exists for every structure you created. Download the audit to work through all fifteen.
Who this is for
Florida owners whose names appear on deeds in more than one county; real estate investors and private lenders who have signed personal guarantees; physicians, dentists, attorneys and other practice owners carrying professional liability exposure; home services business owners whose company vehicles carry their own name on the door; and anyone who has been told that putting a house in a land trust puts it beyond a judgment.
If that last sentence sounded right to you, the audit was written specifically for you, and question three is the one to read first.
Frequently asked questions
Does a land trust put my property beyond a judgment?
No, and this is the single most repeated error in this field. A judgment against a beneficiary attaches to that beneficiary's beneficial interest in the land trust. The deed carrying a trustee's name does not stop it. Anonymity is a discovery obstacle, not immunity. The audit explains what a land trust does do and which statutes actually stop a creditor.
Isn't living below my means a form of asset protection?
It is excellent financial practice and it has never once been raised as a defense. Discretion keeps you off a social radar and does nothing about a records search, a UCC filing, a lis pendens, or a plaintiff's lawyer billing an hour of Sunbiz work. The audit separates the habits from the structures from the statutes.
What is the cheapest privacy fix most Florida owners have not made?
Moving the registered agent off a home address. A commercial registered agent costs about the price of a dinner per year and removes the single most reliable link between your name and your entities. It is the highest-return privacy purchase available and the one most often left undone.
Who should run this audit?
Florida owners whose names appear on deeds in more than one county, real estate investors and private lenders who have signed personal guarantees, physicians, dentists, attorneys and other practice owners carrying professional liability exposure, home services business owners whose vehicles carry their own name on the door, and anyone who has been told that putting a house in a land trust puts it beyond a judgment.
Free Download
The Florida Privacy Audit
Fifteen questions, the three layers separated, and the five-step sequence that starts with the step that costs nothing.
Download the AuditComplimentary Discovery Call
Not Sure Where to Get Started?
Book a free 15-minute Discovery Call with our Legal Solutions Coordinators. Bring the list of every parcel you own and how each one is titled, the Sunbiz record for every entity, and any trust agreements or assignments of beneficial interest you have signed. Prefer the phone? Call 866.725.2818.
Book a Free Discovery CallThis page and the guide it offers are for educational purposes only and are not legal or tax advice. Reading either one does not create an attorney-client relationship. Joseph E. Seagle is licensed in Florida only. The controlling authority discussed here is Florida law, including the Florida Land Trust Act, Fla. Stat. § 689.071, together with § 605.0201, § 605.0212, § 605.0503, § 222.11, § 222.21, § 655.79, § 726.105 and Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution. Land trust recognition, LLC disclosure requirements, homestead protection, wage exemptions and entireties treatment are state law and differ materially across state lines, so nothing here describes what the record shows or what a creditor can reach for property you own outside Florida. Confirm with counsel licensed where it sits. Privacy in the public record is not creditor protection. Nothing in this guide should be read to suggest that holding title through a land trust, or keeping a name out of the public record, defeats a judgment. A judgment against a beneficiary attaches to that beneficiary's beneficial interest. Nothing here is a prediction about any particular matter, and no client facts appear anywhere in it. A diagnostic checklist is not a substitute for having counsel review your actual titling. Consult an attorney about your specific situation.