How does estate planning fit in with asset protection planning?
Posted on Mar 7, 2016 5:43am PST
The two objectives are closely connected. You can work a lifetime to accumulate
your wealth and lose it all to your creditors after you die. Or you can
lose it to your children’s creditors or ex-spouses. Children do
lose their parents’ hard-earned money. Without careful planning
you can also lose a fortune in estate taxes. So you must also think about
how you can best protect your assets after you pass on. We want our clients
to look ahead. How can they shield their wealth from creditors and wasteful
heirs after they’re gone? On the other hand, you may be a beneficiary
of a large inheritance. You must then ask yourself similar questions.
How should you safeguard your inheritance against your financial problems?
What would happen to your inheritance if you divorce? How can you protect
your inheritance once you’re ready to pass it on to your heirs?
These matters take careful thought.
Of course, how you protect your assets during your lifetime takes one
set of strategies. How you should lawsuit-proof and safeguard your wealth
after you die demands other strategies. Many large estates have been squandered
by heirs, or ravaged by litigation only because the decedents didn’t
give enough forethought to the disposition of their estate. Estate planning,
of course, is itself a highly-complex specialty. And as with lawsuit protection
planning, you have countless planning options. And as with asset protection,
you must customize your estate plan to your specific needs. That’s
why we integrate estate planning with our asset protection plans.