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Saturday, 1 February 2014

How Asset Protection Planning Is Carried Out

By Serena Price


Asset protection involves the use of legal mechanisms and laws to protect assets of individuals and businesses from the judgements of the civil money agencies. On the other hand, asset protection planning is used for protecting assets from creditor claims in line with tax policies and concealment. If a person is facing a monetary judgement, he/she would even become bankrupt in attempts to repay it. In this manner, he would require a comprehensive protection plan in order to keep the assets away from creditors.

Asset protection techniques include maximising IRAs contributions, moving funds to irrevocable trusts, retitling various asset, using a family limited partnership or limited liability companies. Developing a plan needs the intervention of an attorney. The attorney will have to discuss both short term and long term financial objectives as well as help the client create a plan that suits the matter at hand.

It is worth noting that the plan can only be used in a situation where a lawsuit is still missing. This is because the law cannot defraud creditors if a lawsuit has been launched. For example, if a person has been sued or about to be sued and decides to transfer his assets in order to evade creditors, the court would still reverse the transfer. Therefore, the plan should be conducted before a lawsuit is issued.

There two major goals associated with creating the plan-short and long term goals as well as specific estate planning goals. Assessing the short term and long term goals, for example, makes the person learn about several factors. These include; both current and future sources of income, amount of money required for retiring, as well as the amount of money to be allocated to the heirs in case of death.

Once the financial goals are examined and a financial plan is put in place, the current assets can then be reviewed to determine if they can be exempted from creditors. In case they are not, the assets can be pre-positioned. The financial plan also allows prepositioning of assets that a person may intend to have in the future in attempts to protect them from any potential creditors.

After developing a financial plan, the value of all assets in place is then calculated. The results are used to develop an estate plan that is then used in addressing certain issues like taking care of the client in case he/she becomes mentally ill. The estate plans also address issues like assessing who will be in charge of the assets and family if the individual dies.

There are specific estate planning techniques which can be used in the overall plan. The main protection programs used are family liability companies and irrevocable trusts. They are collectively used to take care of the person, family and all the beneficiaries.

An asset protection plan should be prepared after combining the financial goals together with the estate planning objectives. This also includes positioning or prepositioning all the assets to be protected from the creditors. After which, a negotiation can be made with the creditor if there is a judgement against the person. Always consult a legal professional to help you with your asset protection planning.




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