What does landtrust mean?
Answer:
The following is from Wikipedia. There is a lot of other information on the web if you do a search with key words: land trust.
A land trust is an agreement whereby one party (the trustee) agrees to hold ownership of a piece of real property for the benefit of another party (the beneficiary). Land trusts are used by nonprofit organizations to hold conservation lands, by corporations and investment groups to compile large tracts of land, and by individuals to keep their real estate ownership private, avoid probate and provide several other benefits.
A community or conservation land trust is an organization established to hold land and to administer use of the land according to the charter of the organization. A land trust is a useful way to manage complex divisions of the Bundle of Rights that people can own in real estate, and can be used to manage something as large and complex as a multi-state REIT, or as common and small as a single-family home.
Corporations sometimes set up land trusts when they want to compile large tracts of land without arousing suspicion or alerting people to their plans (which would cause the asking price to rise). For example, the land for Disney World near Orlando Florida was put together by using many land trusts to buy smaller tracts of land.
Individuals use land trusts mainly for privacy and to avoid probate. No one knows what one's bank balance or stock investments are, yet anyone with an internet connection can look up a person't real estate holdings. A person who has an auto accident or a doctor who accidentally injures a patient is a much better target for a lawsuit if he or she owns real estate investments. So some investors buy their properties in land trusts so their name does not appear in the public records. The land trust also allows the property to immediately pass to their heirs at the moment of death, rather than go through a long probate process. Other Questions and Answers: