In exploring a niche market you can be sure of one thing. Where particular and specific types of product or goods are being sold, and large sums of money are changing hands, there are going to be legal services and opinions issued to protect the buyers, sellers and lenders involved.
Just like with real estate Aircraft Title Insurance is becoming popular. When an insurance company is being requested to insure the title of a million-dollar investment, you can be sure that title opinions, abstracts and other legal searches and conclusions will be sought. This is especially true for highly mobile aircraft.
Apparently, in the realm of aircraft title various liens must be searched and reconciled. Unlike real estate these can be filed in a number of places. There are both an FAA and an International Registry that must be time lined. There are state issues. An honest broker, which could be the attorney, has to bring the diverse interest together, gather the money, the title, satisfy the old liens, protect the new liens, and then release and distribute these.
There will also be the need for qualified intermediaries under Section 1031 or the Tax Free Exchange section of the IRS Code. This allows the seller of an aircraft to exchange, rather than sell, the aircraft and reinvest the proceeds into a new aircraft, while deferring capital gains taxes in doing so.
Title searches an opinions include commercial airlines, personal aircraft, jets, helicopters, hot air balloons and amateur built planes. There are often separate aircraft engine and propeller searches. It can involve aircraft purchases by coops or sold in shares.
In addition there are documents that must be filed and complied with on a national, state and international level. Unlike the old days when the lawyers and processing centers needed to be close to the record keeping centers, certainly most documents for searches, title opinions, abstracts, and the filing of documents, such as various types of liens, are now handled digitally.
You are not going to deal with multi-million dollars transactions, especially in terms of private airplanes, in which there are not ownership disputes, forged documents, issues of theft, fraud, duress, incapacity, defectively filed documents, tax liens and issues and liens over repairs.
After all, it is estimated that 30% of all U.S. registered aircraft have some type of outstanding encumbrance attached to the lien. This does not count liens that derive from judgments, preservation of the property and mechanics liens. Each of these have to be dealt with at closing, but lenders and providers of services for aircraft have to be protected as well and need the services of attorneys.
Obviously, as a lawyer, there are a number of potential referral sources to solicit. These would include aircraft financial institutions, aircraft insurance companies, aircraft brokers and manufacturers, and any company that provides services to or for aircraft, such as flying, cleaning, storage, and repairs. My point is that there are readily identifiable people, companies and groups in a tight market which you can continually solicit to build a reliable practice.
This niche is worth a look.
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