I wondered what happened to Bill Reed.  Now I know.  He’s been indicted in a 30-page, 32-count indictment filed by the United State District Attorney’s office in the District Court of NV.

Years ago I warned advisors to stay away from a sales platform put forth by Bill Reed, the author of Bulletpoof Asset Protection. I guess I was right.

In addition to being an author, Reed was one of the founders of the Asset Protection Group (APG).  The APG was a company that helped clients “hide” assets and avoid income taxes.

The indictment alleges that the APG sold the training program to as many as 1,000 people at $10,000 each, created about 2,500 disguised ownership corporations in Nevada for about $800 each, opened more than 900 disguised ownership bank accounts, and prepared more than 400 fraudulent liens. The final three years of the scam, from 2003 to 2006, APG is alleged to have received more than $63 million in deposits and made more than $62 million in withdrawals through one of its bank accounts. The company also reportedly sent more than $11 million to offshore accounts.

To anyone who knew anything about asset protection, the APG strategies were ones that not only didn’t work but would eventually get clients and, as it turns out, advisors in trouble.

The APG spread through advisors

The APG spread like wildfire because it was marketed through financial planners and insurance agents. Why would such advisors go out and pitch bogus asset protection plans?  Because Reed charged $10,000+ for an “asset protection plan” and advisors who sold them would be compensated from each sale.

Of course, Reed charged advisors $9,800 for the opportunity to be trained to sell his bogus strategies and for the “opportunity” to sell them. The funny thing is that 1,809 of the 1,930 advisors who paid for this opportunity did NOT sell enough asset protection plans to get back their $9,800 investment.

Why do a newsletter on Reed and his partners indictments?

1) To remind advisors to think critically about whom you work with. Working with people like Bill Reed can ruin your reputation and put your livelihood at risk.

2) To remind you that asset protection space is still fraught with out-and-out scammers or advisors who are incompetent (so be careful).

3) Asset protection is one of, if not the most powerful and important topics, you can deal with if your goal is to have affluent clients. This is one of the reasons I created and educate on this subject matter through The Wealth Preservation Institute (www.thewpi.org) and co-founded The Asset Protection Society (www.assetprotectionsociety.org). I thought advisors of all kinds needed a place they could go to receive unbiased and quality education on asset protection.

Read the indictment–To read the entire indictment, please click here.

To read two nice summary articles that were published by the Las Vegas Review Journal, click on the following article titles:

–Indictments charge three men in fraud

–Nevada’s incorporation laws pave way for another fraud case

Become a Certified Wealth Preservation Planner (CWPP™)

In a few short weeks, I’ll be starting weekly hour webinar sessions where I will go over each module in the CWPP™ course. Each session will be live, and I’ll answer questions.  Each session will also be recorded so those who can’t attend live will be able to listen/view them on recording.

-If you are dealing with affluent clients, you should take the CWPP™ course.

-If you want to deal with affluent clients, you should take the CWPP™ course.

To learn more about the CWPP™ course, click on the following link: www.thewpi.org/cwpp.

To download a brochure for the CWPP™ course, please click here.

To download a signup form for the webinar series, please click here.

If you have any questions about the course, please feel free to e-mail me at roccy@thewpi.org.