Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘Miller Refrigerated Services’

Back on November 26, 2008, LandAmerica Financial Group, the third largest 1031 exchange intermediary at the time, filed for bankruptcy protection. Its subsidiary, LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services (LES) filed for voluntary relief under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. At the time, LES was the intermediary for over 450 incomplete transactions.

With a recent ruling by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the case of Millard Refrigerated Services vs. LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services, any seller might now risk having some or all of their money completely out of their control if it was set aside with an intermediary for a tax-deferred exchange.  1031 intermediaries were once known as “safe harbors”, essentially as a safe place to dock one’s proceeds from a sale until they could find another property with which to use the funds to buy, thus completing their 1031 exchange, and protecting their capital gains from being taxed by the federal government. Well apparently, these safe harbors ain’t so safe anymore. Read the rest of this entry »