[mindslight]

You're brushing off that these structures require an outsized level of wealth to pay the salaries of enough other people to make every legal entity a group project with diffuse responsibility. Without that, most judges are just going to say you're personally responsible for everything regardless of the legal structures you've set up. So no, it's not just a matter of us plebs learning how to use the system - it really is designed to privilege capital over individuals. For example see the blatant dynamic of the "Limited Partnership" predecessor to the LLC.

[bruce511]

The amount of wealth required and the actions of judges will depend greatly on your situation and the local legislation. Consult a good financial advisor for the best solution in your jurisdiction.

[mindslight]

I've read a bit about asset protection. The big problem I see is that how do you trust advice/strategies from any given advisor/attorneys will actually hold up, rather than simply being an expensive piece of paperwork that gets disregarded right as it's needed. Perhaps I'd feel differently if say I were in one of the few states that explicitly respected self settled asset protection trusts. But as things stand I'm somewhat salty that say even a straightforward LLC seemingly can't be relied upon to protect from the liability exposure of owning a rental property, when done by an individual. Meanwhile corpos have successfully convinced courts to create post-facto liability shields between business units that hadn't even been structured that way ahead of time.

[int_19h]

That in and of itself is not cheap.

[bruce511]

Cheap is in the eye of the beholder. Insurance is not cheap. It exists to mitigate risk. But in most places the overall cost is probably less than $1000 per year for the protection of the sorts of values most of us are likely to acquire.