What is Asset Protection Planning, and Who Needs Asset Protection?
Most people associate asset protection with the very wealthy, but in reality, every adult needs to be aware of the topic of asset protection. Asset protection is the process of arranging your personal affairs to legally avoid creditors and predators. We should all pay our bills and meet our financial responsibilities, but there are those who would prey on vulnerabilities, and seek to take what we each have earned. Asset protection involves utilizing some or all of the many legal means to minimize your exposure to unscrupulous individuals who would seek to take what is yours by legal means.
Our asset protection services are most often completed in conjunction with estate planning, so to begin an analysis of the asset protection needs of a client, we start with our worksheet. If we find that there are areas where you are vulnerable and can gain asset protection by creating a different structure of ownership, beneficiary designation, implementation of insurance, or titling of assets to give you additional protection, we will recommend this, and assist you in implementing the plan.
One very overlooked area of asset protection is business succession planning. If you are a business owner, or a partner in a joint venture or real estate ownership, it is critical to have a legal and binding agreement to specify the rights and responsibilities of each owner, and to establish an exit strategy in the events of death, dissolution, dissatisfaction, or departure of an owner. We assist clients in preparing these agreements, and can consult with you concerning this very crucial area of responsibility, to head off costly and unpleasant litigation that often occurs in the absence of such a plan.
Of course, for most individuals and business owners, the most basic area of asset protection involves having proper and adequate insurance in place. We refer our clients to the very best property and casualty, life insurance, disability insurance, supplemental insurance, pre-need, and other providers in the area when we identify a need for this protection, or if we determine that your protection may be inadequate.
Our Asset Protection Planning Approach
Asset protection planning is a part of our comprehensive approach to meeting our clients’ needs, and we are available to review your personal scenario to determine if you are at unneeded risk or exposure to creditors and predators.
Please request an estate planning worksheet today so that we may evaluate your needs in these areas, with an emphasis on asset protection planning that is inherent in each of the plans that we implement for our clients.
Fill out this form to request an estate planning worksheet.