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What
is Asset Protection Planning?
Asset protection planning is defensive estate planning or in other
words, developing a successful plan to protect your assets, provide for
your family’s financial security, for your children's future, for
business succession, and for retirement.
Asset protection and planning requires two important components:
The first component is to create a program for
accumulating wealth. That means utilizing available savings and
investment strategies to accumulate investment capital and then managing
your funds in the most efficient and productive manner. If your
objectives are to provide for the needs of your family and to build a
nest-egg for your retirement, building wealth is very important. In the
current environment keeping the wealth you have already created is
critical. This requires the advice and counsel of investment and tax
professionals. In our practice we "team" with various financial and
accounting professionals to better assist you in creating such a plan.
If you don't have your own advisors we have some extremely talented
professionals to recommend to you.
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The second component of every successful financial
plan is a program for protecting wealth. This requires developing a plan
for making sure that everything you have accumulated over the years
remains safe and is available for you when you need it.
Strategies for protecting wealth, known as asset protection, are
designed to address particular situations which pose a threat to your
family’s financial security. These threats can take the form of lawsuits
and claims against you which can arise from your profession, business
dealings, accidents and many other potential sources. By utilizing
advanced planning techniques, we can protect clients' assets from
creditors and lawsuits while, at the same time, allowing them to retain
control over the assets and the income which they produce.
Asset protection planning helps you prepare for the possibility a
future change of circumstance (lawsuits, creditor claims, family
disputes, medical or health crisis) by rearranging the ownership of
assets so that they are beyond the reach of potential creditors or
“predators.” It can act as a form or type of “insurance” in a strategic
plan designed to protect you from the risks associated with businesses,
professions and complex or blended families. Asset protection planning
protects assets that would otherwise be at risk. People lose everything
they own because of business matters, medical bills and health related
problems, divorce, IRS disputes, bankruptcy and other financial
disasters every year.
A lawsuit from any one of these sources win or lose can easily ruin a
family’s financial future. What would happen if you lost everything you
own? Are you prepared to start all over again?
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Physicians, chiropractors, dentists, architects, CPAs,
engineers, real-estate brokers, contractors and all other professionals
are concerned with litigation from malpractice claims and business
disputes. But not just business matters can generate a lawsuit; in fact,
anyone who has accumulated a non-retirement savings account could lose
this by lawsuits from your own or a minor child’s auto accident, any
other act, intentional or negligent, caused by you, your family or
employees or school age children and catastrophic health expenses.
Business owners face threats of possible lawsuits from employees,
customers, lenders, competitors, business partners and government
agencies. Rental property owners are threatened by potential lawsuits
from tenants, visitors to the tenants, lenders and buyers. We have
represented several victims of Stanford and Madoff who are subject to
the "clawback" regs.
This is the first time in my 26 years of practice
that asset protection also includes liability created by your own
financial accounts!
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