Land Trust

See: Living Trust. See: QPRT.

There are actually a couple definitions of this one.

One form of land trust involves environmental conservation. A charity will set up a trust; the land purchased through the entity is then set aside for swallows to migrate to, or for salamanders to mate, or whatever the tree-huggers setting up the trust had in mind.

The other connotation has less charitable aims. It provides a way for the owner of a property to remain secret.

You buy a strip club as an investment, but don't want any of your high-class friends to know that you own it. So you set up a land trust. You transfer the club into a trust. Now the trust is the official owner, with its name on all the pertinent public documents. But you remain beneficiary of the trust, and can control what happens to the property. Plus, you can still receive the profits from the club, funneled through the trust.

Whether you also want to spend Wednesday nights there is a separate concern. Though, if you still want to remain anonymous, you might need to wear a paper bag on your head.

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)