The Lifeboat Strategy: Legally Protecting Wealth and Privacy in the 21st Century (3d Ed. 2007) (Interim Update 2009) (excerpt)
The most obvious way to react to increasing violations of your wealth and privacy is to fight back in any manner possible. But such a strategy is usually counterproductive. By taking a militant stance, you call attention to yourself and invite even greater intrusions. Always keep this paradox in mind as you seek to reduce your exposure.
For nearly two decades, I have deliberately taken such a stance in order to call attention to what I believe is a problem of enormous seriousness. But for most people, it is better to live a life that on the surface is completely ordinary, selectively protecting privacy and wealth by avoiding compromising situations and events.
The essence of the "lifeboat strategy" is to live such a "low profile" existence that a potential snooper won't see anything unusual on the surface—and will never bother to look any deeper. For instance, most people own credit cards; a person living a low-profile existence will own them as well, but use them only for purchases that reveal little about his or her lifestyle, political or religious beliefs.
If you live in a mansion in the best part of town, send your children to the best private schools, make large contributions to charities in your own name and drive an expensive car, your financial success is obvious. Your high profile makes it much more likely that a potential litigant will consider you as lawsuit target, even with only the flimsiest of cases—hoping you will offer a generous settlement.
The Lifeboat Strategy (3d Ed. 2007, 3 41 pg., US$95) (Interim Update 2009) ISBN 978-1-891266-31-7 (e-book, PDF). ISBN 978-1-891266-30-0 (printed edition, perfect bound).