We live in a highly litigious society. People today file lawsuits over just about anything, and you never really know what a jury might decide, regardless of how frivolous the lawsuit may appear. We also live in a world where the legal rules for protecting assets can vary from county to county, state to state, and of course internationally.
This helps explain why asset protection planning is such a rapidly growing area of the law, and why it is so important for you to have an effective plan of your own—designed by attorneys with extensive experience in this complex area.
Your asset protection plan should accomplish two main goals: protect your assets while you are alive, and protect your children’s inheritance after you are gone. The latter can involve such issues as ensuring your child’s inheritance is safe should he or she get divorced—no minor concern when you consider that 50 percent of all marriages today end in divorce. Similarly, your grandchildren may need protection to ensure they receive their inheritances if your child dies and your son-in-law or daughter-in-law remarries. Sadly, some of your heirs may even need protection from their own decisions if they are not ready or able to handle a large inheritance, for example, or if they suffer from drug or alcohol dependency.
Out-of-State and International Asset Protection.
Out-of-state and international asset protection strategies are effective primarily because they involve the physical transfer of an asset to a safe and secure location where the asset is beyond the jurisdiction of local or U.S. courts. For example, assets that are vulnerable to attack in southern California may be put into irrevocable trusts and moved to states such as Delaware or Alaska. Or a limited liability company can be set up in a state like Wyoming, which is friendlier to assets held in LLCs. Likewise, money may be wired offshore for protection against U.S. creditors. It is important to note that we are not talking about hiding assets. Rather, the emphasis is on protecting assets, using the law and geography to accomplish complete protection.
While transferring assets overseas can, in many cases, provide valuable asset protection advantages, there are numerous potential problems as well. For instance, many foreign jurisdictions lack the social and political infrastructure necessary to guarantee a stable investment environment. In addition, our government has mounted a campaign to stem the flow of wealth into offshore havens through legislation designed to discourage U.S. investors from sending their money to foreign countries. You need qualified, experienced attorneys, familiar with U.S. tax law, as well as domestic and international asset protection law, to design a plan to fit your particular needs. The fact is, a poorly designed plan can do more harm than good, and lead to catastrophic financial consequences.
In short, you owe it to yourself and your family’s future financial well-being to contact the experienced asset protection attorneys at Russakow, Ryan and Johnson. Do it soon. After you have come under attack or been sued, it may well be too late.
