Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

Since a lawyer will charge up to $1500 to form a NM LLC (and that includes the NM resident agent's service for only one year), you might expect a document to LOOK authentic. If so, you may be disappointed!


Although both Rosie Enriquez and Michael Spaulding currently charge as little as $397 for a NM LLC, this includes three years for the services of the resident agent. Do their Articles therefore look cheap?

You decide. (The NM law firm's Articles are on a cheap sheet of white paper. Rosie's Articles (blue border) are on heavy bond stock with a lithographed design.)




Conclusion: A legal document should also look legal.

Labels: Articles of Organization, legal documents, NM LLC, NM LLCs

The following quote is from Duncan Long’s book Protect Your Privacy:

“According to the FBI, a Washington, D.C police officer was attempting to extort $10,000 from a married man who had visited a gay bar. The officer had apparently employed a law-enforcement computer system to identify automobile license plates of cars that had been recorded as being outside the bar, and then linked the plates to the names and addresses of the vehicles. He then cross-referenced to see if the men were married, and if they were, he attempted to extort money from them. According to the FBI, the officer threatened to send photos showing the men at the bar to wives and employers if the victims didn’t cough up silence money.”

You may never visit a gay bar but think of the many other dangers of allowing your name (and sometimes even your home address!) to appear on your vehicle’s registration. Just one example: You innocently park in front of a home known to harbor a meth lab. You may get a visit from the police. Or perhaps the home is a so-called safe house for a Muslim terrorist cell. You may get a visit from the FBI. Or suppose the home is that of women who’s being stalked by her insanely jealous ex-husband—you might even get beaten up!

Each of our five vehicles is titled in a separate New Mexico LLC. The address for each New Mexico LLC is in Spain’s Canary Islands. We often lend our vehicles to friends. What if one of these friends would happen to park in front of the wrong home or the wrong bar? As Alfred E. Neuman would say, “What? Me worry?”

Labels: ghost address, license plate, New Mexico LLC, NM LLC, tracing a license plate

All car dealers are out to get your private information but new car dealers are the worst. No matter that you are offering them top dollar and all cash, they still demand to see and copy your driver's license.

A few days ago I put a dealer in Seattle to the test because he had a low-mileage mint-condition 2006 Camry V6 XLE that my wife really wanted to buy.

"I will pay your asking price," I said, "and in cash. However, I value my privacy so this car will be titled in the name of a New Mexico limited liability company. I will sign as sole member but I will not show any identification other than the NM LLC documents. Do we have a deal?"

"No way!" was his firm answer. Many other readers of this blog have reported similar results. So what's the solution? How can you buy a car without revealing your true name? Here's the 1-2-3 answer:

1. Pick up a low-cost New Mexico LLC.

2. Buy a car from a private party.

3. Fill out the "Buyer" boxes on the title with the NM LLC name, and scribble a signature. If required to print your name, list the initial of your middle name and your last name.

When you show up at a licensing bureau or DMV, have everything filled out. When asked for ID, hand them them your passport (rather that your driver's license, which lists your address). In most states the clerks will merely glance at the name and the picture and hand you back your passport. The only name on the registration will be the name of the NM LLC.

Labels: anonymous ownership, how to buy a car from a private party, New Mexico limited liability company, NM LLC

If you plan to order a limited liability company and you even remotely suspect that someday an enemy might try to track your company down, here's what to do:

1. Choose a state other than your own in which to form the company. New Mexico (unless you live there) is the absolute best because no annual information returns are required. Remember, a private investigator (PI) will first check the records in the state where you live. If your LLC does not show up there, he is then forced to search among the other 49 states. (His first three choices will probably be Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming, so it's better not to form a limited liability company in any of those states.)

2. When you title your home, car, truck, trailer, camper, motorcycle or snowmobile with an LLC, use a faraway ghost address. In fact, many states allow you to list an address in another country, which is why an address in Spain is offered on my website.

3. Use a generic name, i.e., a name so common that it is used in dozens of states. If you are looking at a list of shelf LLCs, for example, watch for names like NORTH STAR, BLUE MOON, or RED RIVER. Just imagine the problem a PI will have with a common name. There will be identically-named LLCs in dozens of states! Which one is yours? The PI will not have a clue, especially if you are using a faraway ghost address!

4. Last but far from least, use a separate LLC for each purchase. That way, if one of the bad guys discovers that your old Camry is listed in XYZ LLC, at least his subsequent search for that name will not bring up the LLCs that own your home, your boat, and your aircraft. (Shameful commercial pitch--contact me before the end of this month for the lowest-ever prices on New Mexico limited liability companies!)

Labels: best state for an LLC, foreign address, ghost address, hide your assets, how to hide your name, LLC cost, LLC discount, LLC names, New Mexico, New Mexico LLC, NM LLC, pre-formed LLCs, shelf LLCs

To form a New Mexico LLC, the only information required for the Articles of Organization is:

(1) the name of the company and the address of the principal office.

(2) the name and address of the resident agent (which must be a street address in New Mexico), and

(3) the duration of the LLC (often December 31, 2099)

A New Mexico LLC need not include the names of members. The mailing address of the principal office can be anywhere in the world. And unlike all other states, a New Mexico LLC does not require an annual report. Thus, changes in membership take place in total darkness.

How do you use a New Mexico LLC? You title your car, boat, plane, mobile home, travel trailer, motorcycle or real estate in the name of the New Mexico LLC instead of your own name. And what does the NM LLC cost?

At low as $325 at this site, which includes not only the charter and the Articles of Organization, but three years paid ahead for the New Mexico LLC’s resident agent, as well as a foreign address for your "principal place of business." (Records, therefore, cannot be subpoened!)

Labels: anonymous ownership, keep your assets, New Mexico limited liability company, New Mexico LLC, NM LLC

I will not list the variety of legal reasons for which you may suddenly wish to change your license plate number. I will, however, list a recent example that involved one of my consulting clients. (Names have been changed.)

David White spent a long evening at the home of Maria Flores, an attractive young Mexican widow who lives in a village nearby. His beige Camry was parked in her driveway.

When the time came to leave, David opened Maria’s front door, snapped on the outside light, and spotted two men at the back of his car. One was holding a flashlight and the other had a pad and pencil in his hand. David yelled and reached into his jacket as if to withdraw a handgun. Both men fled. He called me at sunrise the next morning and asked me what to do.

“I need to use my car today but these guys have got my license plate number!”

"It can't be traced, David." (Following my instructions, it was titled in the name of a New Mexico LLC with a ghost address.)

"But these guys and their pals will be watching for it!"

“I'll meet you down at the licensing bureau when they open,” I said. "You'll get a new plate that shows you contribute to a law enforcement memorial. You’ll pay an extra $40 a year, but you get the plate right away.”

I keep a drawer full of decals and bumper stickers for every occasion, and I selected one before heading out to meet David. His car now has a new license plate with a silhouette of some law enforcement officers on the left side, and also a prominent decal in one corner of the rear window:

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE
2009
ACTIVE SUPPORTER

(How David arranges to meet with Maria in the future will be up to him. My duties ended with the decal and the plate change.)

Labels: consulting, ghost address, license plate, license plate privacy, NM LLC, tracing a license plate, vanity plate