How Asset Protection and Estate Planning Interacts with Real Estate Holdings
Posted on Oct 30, 2017 2:58pm PDT
Real Estate is one of the most common assets in investment portfolios.
It is important to know how to protect such assets as well as plan for
this disposition at your death. Accordingly, an individual’s Estate
Plan and Asset Protection plan must account for real estate holdings.
As an overview, Asset Protection is defined as the legal process of protecting
assets using domestic and international strategies to put them beyond
the reach of future potential threats and creditors and Estate Planning
is the legal process of planning for the disposition of those assets at death.
Asset Protection strategies include the formation of holding companies
that keep assets that create liability away from non-liability producing
assets (such as cash, checking and savings). Any property other than your
personal residence should almost always be owned by an LLC. Your personal
creditor cannot claim properties owned by an LLC because you do not own
the property personally. A good plan titles each property to a separate
LLC. Real Estate (except for your primary residence) should always be
owned by a limited liability company. For example, if you own five (5)
rental properties, title each property to a separate LLC.
Further, Asset Protection without Estate Planning is incomplete planning.
Integrated planning includes combining Asset Protection strategies with
Estate Planning strategies to protect assets during lifetime and ensure
that they end up with intended beneficiaries at death. An individual’s
Estate Plan is coordinated with their Asset Protection (along with a Business
Succession Plan). Integrated Estate Planning allows an individual to anticipate
future potential issues that may affect their business and/or personal
assets and create contingency planning for them.
Contact The Presser Law Firm, P.A. if you or a loved one is interested
in having an estate plan prepared. Our attorneys are knowledgeable in
estate planning, asset protection and business law.