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Thursday, 5 December 2013

Asset Protection Planning Strategies To Help Investors Safeguard Their Assets

By Tiffany Gill


As your financial portfolio keeps growing, you should stake steps to protect your assets. One practical solution is taking advantage of asset protection planning strategies to minimize the risk of losing what you own or being taxed heavily. Asset protection involves structuring business and property ownership to make it very expensive or impossible for a plaintiff to reach the assets of a defendant.

If the attorney of a plaintiff finds out that it is not easy for anyone to collect against what you own, the attorney can choose to do away with the lawsuit or settle the case on terms that favor you. A properly structured wealth protection plan uses common structures such as trusts and limited liability companies to shield the assets a person owns ethically, legally and effectively. This plan does not involve hiding assets or too much secrecy.

By implementing a plan to shield your wealth, you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your assets will be safe even if someone sues you. To set up such a plan, you have to be clear and objective about your goals, plan safely and plan early. One of the things you can do to protect your wealth is to increase the limits of your liability insurance. Your personal umbrella liability coverage should be of an amount that is equal to your net worth.

People who own rental properties should protect themselves from disgruntled tenants. They can do this by creating a limited liability company or corporation to safeguard their assets. If a tenant sues them for any amount, they will only be able to attack the investments in the firm that holds their real estate. All their other assets will be safe.

It is also essential that you review the joint accounts you have. If you have money in joint accounts with your business partners, children, roommates or elderly parents, you can lose it if the joint account holder is sued or gets divorced. As a precaution, make sure that you do not place a large amount of money into a jointly held account.

Formalizing informal partnerships is another way to protect your assets. Operating an informal business partnership is risky because you are responsible for the actions your partner takes. If your partner is sued, your assets in that partnership can be in jeopardy. It is wise to avoid or formalize partnerships or form entities like limited liability companies which can provide you with added legal protection.

The other method of protecting assets from creditors is placing them into asset protection trusts. They provide a way for business owners to transfer a portion of their wealth into a trust run by independent trustees. These trusts can allow you to shield even the assets your children own.

Another effective asset protection planning strategy is transferring your investments to the name of your marriage partner. Another option is putting more money into retirements plans that are sponsored by your employer because they may have unlimited protection. You can also protect your personal investments by keeping them separate from your business investments.




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