There is nothing worse than spending a lifetime accumulating assets for retirement only to see them taken away in a lawsuit. Asset protection planning is a very important but misunderstood and underutilized concept.
Classic “asset protection” is the concept of protecting your personal assets from lawsuits. Lawsuits that are most typical are “negligence” suits.
What can cause negligence lawsuits?
Protecting assets from creditors?
The bread and butter domestic asset protection tool is a Limited Liability Company (LLC). The key to using LLCs to protect assets is to 1) make sure it is a multi-member entity; 2) make sure it is set up in the correct state (one that limits the remedy of a creditor to a “charging order”); 3) make sure formalities in formation are followed (don’t just set one up yourself on the internet).
What assets should be LLCs?
When using LLCs you should always separate liability assets from non-liability assets. For example, your brokerage account should NEVER be in the same LLC as a piece of property (the property liability puts the brokerage account at risk).
Other creditors, you should protect yourself from?
Need help?
If you would like an assessment of your asset protection plan or lack thereof, please feel free to contact our office to set up an appointment.
Learn more about asset protection
There is much more to asset protection than is covered on this website. To learn more from one of the industry’s top experts, click on the following to view an educational video.