Asset Protection is just one of your many financial goals. Most people have Estate Planning, tax, and investment goals as well. The best planning creatively combines Asset Protection with other strategies to help accomplish your various financial goals.
What good is it if your financial advisor makes you more money if you pay more in taxes? What good is it if you pay less in taxes, but lose it all to a lawsuit? What good is it if you protect everything from a lawsuit, but when you die, half of it goes to the government in the form of an Estate Tax?
To solve this, you need a coordinated, integrated Asset Protection Plan.
Advisors cannot always sense your priorities or outcomes that are most important to you. Sometimes you must sacrifice one financial objective for another. We cannot stress enough the importance of having your financial planner, insurance professional, accountant, and estate planner be equally important members of your financial planning team in order to achieve a fully-integrated plan.
Because Asset Protection and Estate Planning both use similar entities and strategies, there are plenty of creative options at your planners’ disposal.
Asset Protection plans can also provide tax benefits. For example, a limited partnership that lawsuit-proofs your assets might also save you estate taxes. However: beware of promoters who use Asset Protection to push illegal tax schemes, i.e. pure trust, international tax savings, etc.). Make your planners explain the tax consequences of any proposed plan.
The primary purpose of your financial self-defense plan is to shelter your assets against financial and legal threats, but how you protect your assets largely depends upon your other financial and personal goals and objectives. Ensure your spouse and others affected by your plan consider the inevitable conflicts and trade-offs that your professional advisor should explain to you.
The Presser Law Firm, P.A. specializes in integrating Asset Protection with Estate Planning. Most people needing Asset Protection also need an Estate Plan. Their need for Asset Protection may have prompted their Estate Planning. If you have a good Estate Plan, integrate it with Asset Protection. If you don’t yet have an Estate Plan, The Presser Law Firm, P.A. can work with you to create a new one.
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