Disclaimer – this is probably our most controversial article to date.
A number of years ago Lord Denning (he died in 1999) wrote a forward to a book on tax in the UK in which he noted that it was illegal to evade tax, but it was everybody’s right to avoid tax. Lord Denning was a former Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England. This position dates back to at least the 13th century and was originally responsible for the custody of the rolls (official records) of the Court of Chancery. The Master of the Rolls in modern times is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. So we may assume that Lord Denning knew what he was talking about. The same applies, in our opinion, to your right to “bulletproof” yourself. Even more so if you are in business for yourself and subject to more volatility in your life. What do we mean by bulletproofing? We mean protecting your assets. We mean acting from a position of strength. We mean not freezing when the chips are down and making decisions that you may regret at a later stage. We mean protecting your loved ones and retaining your sovereignty. So how do you do it?
Firstly, this has to be very well thought out. It should be executed over a period of time and like everything else in life it will be very mutable. As circumstances change, so should the execution. But the strategy itself will remain.
Buletproofing yourself in essence means owning nothing. Having no or as little property as possible that can be taken away from you. Obviously the courts and legal professionals are very wide awake to this tactic so it has to be reasoned. What are you trying to achieve? Hopefully, you are not trying cheat anybody out of what they are entitled to (then you are in the wrong place at Ryts). No, but if it is harder for a creditor to just take, it gives you more time and resources to negotiate a reasonable settlement. The core to your position is to be able to whisper to the sheriff of court looking to write up your property the words “Nulla Bona”. They can be very powerful words. What does Chat GPT say about Nulla Bona.
“Nulla Bona” is a Latin legal term that translates to “no goods” or “no assets.” It is typically used in the context of writs of execution. When a creditor obtains a judgment against a debtor and seeks to enforce it, they might issue a writ of execution to seize the debtor’s property. If the sheriff or other officer tasked with executing the writ is unable to find any assets to seize, they will return the writ with the notation “nulla bona,” indicating that the debtor has no goods or assets available for seizure. This can signify that the debtor is insolvent or that their assets are otherwise protected or hidden.
How can you claim Nulla Bona without being untruthful. Well, you may put all your assets in a trust. Alternatively, you have them owned by a trusted family member or friend. Either way you will want to be able to prove who actually owns the asset other than you. Remember that this is not legal advice and there are pitfalls that need to be taken into account that are not within the scope of this article. All we are trying to do here is put you in a position of strength. Please use it wisely and with good intent.
