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Saturday, 11 January 2014

A Deeper Look At Asset Protection Trusts

By Marissa Velazquez


Asset protection trusts can be termed as intentionally defective grantor schemes. This means that they treat the assets in the trust in a different way for income tax purposes unlike for estate and gift tax purposes. The veteran in this case will not be the beneficially but a grantor.

The place of residence for the veteran is his or her major asset. If he or she retains the home, it is not included in his or her net worth for the purpose of net worth administration eligibility. If he were to qualify for the monthly pension benefits though and then sell his home, the proceeds will get him disqualified from getting further pensions. He will only be able to receive them again once he has spent down to a certain asset level.

People have often established a living revocable trust thinking that they are creating an asset protection trust. This is not the case though for the revocable trusts. The fact that it is revocable means that if the grantor is sued, it will not protect the assets. It does not matter whether it was a family, a land or a living trust.

The irrevocable ones are however different. A revocable trust protects the assets in case the grantor gets sued unlike a revocable one. It acts as a trust for the assets but when it is established, moving property to be under it will mean that they are no longer yours. You will therefore not be able to control such assets and you can also not get them back.

Several states have however passed laws that create and support these trusts which are special in some way. The first of these was created in Alaska and it protects assets and is able to retain the holdings for over a century. It also has major tax advantages. It is quite important to look at the reasons for formation of this Alaskan law.

All the states that created this scheme did it to have a source of new investment and they allowed its formation as it protected the assets. Alaska was aiming to bring in money from other states into its own banking industry. The shield they offered drove outside investors into the state and they brought a lot of money with them. All states that followed suite did it to achieve this as well.

People who are from the state in which the trust is authorized by the laws of the state however cannot establish it. The state is aiming at bringing in money which is from other states so they can only benefit from this by investing in other states. Other states will usually come up with something unique of their own as well.

People are reluctant though to take up these asset protection trusts. They fear giving up their property in accordance to how the states that have taken up these laws want them to. They argue that a limited liability company with a living revocable trust could provide the same benefits. For interested parties, it would be advisable to first get all the facts right before taking any action.




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