Asset Protection

… keeping the money in the family!

Asset protection planning involves the arranging of your affairs, both business and personal, in such a manner as to minimise the opportunities for potential creditors and predators to attack your personal assets should things not work out. Asset protection can be done legally and ethically and, while it doesn’t involve hiding assets, it does involve structuring your affairs so that the assets are owned outside of the potential reach of others who may try to attack them at some point in the future.

Asset protection is a sophisticated and legal use of business and estate planning methods and techniques. The benefits of asset protection can be compared to those of insurance. Insurance is something that you take out and pay for with the objective that if you suffer a financial loss, then you will be able to recover that loss. Even though there is a cost involved in what you have to pay for that insurance, the hope is that you will never need to use it. If disaster strikes, you will be glad that you put the policy in place.

Asset protection works in a similar fashion. Things happen in life that we cannot foresee and disaster may strike at any time. A company that owes you a substantial amount of money may go into liquidation, causing you to lose heavily. This in turn could bring about the demise of your business and leave you and your business vulnerable to the claims of your creditors. Through no fault of your own, your assets could be put into a position of substantial risk. Legal action against you from your creditors, to try and recover money owing to them from the sale of assets owned by you or your business, can easily result.

Asset protection, therefore, is designed to protect you from these types of potential problems.

Many people put together a Will, which is intended to set out how his or her assets are to be distributed upon death. Together with a sound estate plan, this serves to put in place asset protection for his or her loved ones. More and more people today are adding asset protection planning to their estate plans. Today, people are beginning to realise that society values the dollar even more than perhaps friendships and relationships.

Statistics show there is a much larger chance of losing one’s assets as a result of litigation than from the usual asset loss causes such as a fire, accident, or illness.

Benefits of an Asset Protection Plan

A good plan will involve asset protection, tax minimisation and sound estate planning. Some of the immediate benefits of a protection plan include the following:s.

  • Protection against creditors – A plan will protect your personal assets as well as some business assets from creditors and other parties who may decide to bring a lawsuit against you.
  • Liability reduction – By separating the ownership of assets that you perceive could be a problem, the liability is decreased considerably.
  • Control – The plan can be set up so that you are able to maintain control of your assets whilst others own them in the family.
  • Confidential transfer – By having a plan in place, transfer of assets to your family and heirs can be done confidentially.
  • Privacy – The ownership of your assets are kept confidential.

At Strategic Planning Solutions, we use a network of specialist lawyers and tax experts to enable us to provide you with an effective asset protection strategy tailored to your individual circumstances. All strategies recommended take into account the latest tax and corporate legislation. However, due to the ever-changing nature of this area of planning, we suggest a regular review of your situation to ensure all current legislation is still being met.