Asset Protection Quiz

Lawsuits have become the next big business. In this day and age creditor issues are plentiful and lawsuits, divorce, and other financial woes happen daily. You should definitely be educating yourself on Asset Protection and Estate Planning at this point and considering obtaining a complimentary preliminary consultation on protecting your assets. If you are ready for a complimentary preliminary consultation or you would like more literature to educate yourself on Asset Protection or Estate Planning you can contact our office today! 561-953-1050 | Info@AssetProtectionAttorneys.com

Did you know that if you own shares in a corporation, any creditor could indirectly control your company by taking control of your personally titled corporate shares? In fact, the S Corporation is actually one of the worst ways of titling your business. Scary to think about, isn’t it? You need to ask yourself if your business is correctly titled or structured from an Asset Protection standpoint for its purpose. If you don’t know, then it would be a good idea to obtain a complimentary preliminary consultation with an Asset Protection Attorney. To keep this from happening, make sure all your assets are fully protected from every direction.

Lending your car to anyone else (especially your children) is a huge liability! If they get into a car accident the owner will be liable. Your name and your requisite assets will be attached to the accident and/or lawsuit arising so you may risk losing everything you own by committing this foolish act. This is especially true of teenage children – they often don’t have the driving or life experience to make the best choices. That is why teenage children should always have their own cars when possible or at least their own car insurance policy – separate from yours.

Consider the following questions to gauge whether your assets could be in danger.

• How is your real estate titled? If your real estate is tiled personally then you could potentially run into huge problems down the line. Owning assets in your own name is a catastrophe waiting to happen. Remember – the key to Asset Protection is controlling everything, but owning nothing!
• Are you mixing your liability producing assets with your safe assets? If you have multiple properties – make sure to title each of them to a different protective entity. You don’t want to mix your liability generating assets with your safe assets. Owning real estate is definitely a liability producer as someone can trip and fall on your property or your renters may sue you. It’s very important to have an Asset Protection plan in place when you own one or more real estate properties.

Of course the obvious answer would be that you wouldn’t want to lose any of your assets, however, the majority of us can’t even afford to lose 25% of our assets and still live comfortably for the rest of our lives. Take a teacher who has worked their whole life to reach a salary of $70,000 a year and retire at the age 65. To have the same custom of living and yearly income from ages 65-85, this teacher must have at least one million dollars saved upon retirement. If that teacher loses 1/4th of her savings – that would decrease the salary allowance from $70,000 to $57,000. Any more of a decrease would yield an even lower per year allowance. Without Asset Protection, that teacher could lose everything she has saved up for retirement.

You never have too few assets to protect and the consequences of not protecting the assets you do have could be devastating. And, the less you have – the more you need protection!

Let us send you our complimentary literature on International Asset Protection to educate you on the topic before you completely rule it out. Here are a few of the advantages to International Asset Protection:

• Non-uniformity of legal systems: There are many Asset Protection jurisdictions that do not recognize or enforce U.S. judgments.
• Prospect of re-litigation discourages creditors: Due to the fact that certain protective countries will not enforce an American judgment or civil decree, a creditor must re-litigate their case within that foreign jurisdiction, which is commonly impractical, if not impossible. The best international financial centers impose procedural obstacles that effectively block creditors and litigation through complex laws that are predominately debtor-oriented.
• Highly protective Asset Protection structures: Many Asset Protection jurisdictions have special laws that allow highly protective Asset Protection structures to be formed which offer substantially greater protection than offered by a comparable U.S. entity.
• Privacy: Most Asset Protection jurisdictions are excellent privacy havens.

There are many more advantages to these Asset Protection plans and many jurisdictions to complete the planning in. Contact us today to see whether International Asset Protection may be right for you.

The typical investment commitment is usually proportional to your net worth. A billionaire client will surely need a few more layers of protection than a millionaire client and vice versa. It’s very important that you speak to a qualified Asset Protection Attorney to see whether your preferred investment is enough, too little, or just right.

Litigation is uncertain in today’s day and age and can cost tens of thousands of dollars (on the low end), even if you win the case. There is generally a four to five year statute of limitations to file a contract based or personal injury based lawsuit (the statute of limitations varies by state), which gives creditors huge flexibility. Once a proceeding is started, your trial may be postponed over and over - which is a tactic many lawyers utilize. In the end, the judge or jury may decide against you – even if you have a great defense. And if you win, you will surely be hit with large Attorney fees regardless. The only way to really win, is to never be sued!

These types of tangible properties are huge liability producers. Cars get into accidents everyday. You, your spouse or your child may accidently hurt someone else on the snowmobile or wave runner. You can be sued for a plethora of other reasons in relation to these assets, so it’s very smart to protect yourself from every angle. Make sure you title these tangible assets to protective entities and out of your personal name.

That is great! Make sure to update your estate plan as significant events occur in your life (marriage, divorce, new state of residence, children, financial changes, etc.). Also, regardless of these changes, your estate plan should be reviewed at least every five years for any outdated legal provisions.