Sunday, 2 February 2014

The Need For Asset Protection Planning

By Serena Price


There are certain legal techniques and statutory laws that are used for protecting individual and business assets from facing the judgements by the state money agencies. Asset protection planning is used to keep assets away from the claims by creditors without evading taxes or concealment. Monetary judgements can force a person into bankruptcy, especially if they are faced with high charges to repay. Therefore, they would need an effective asset protection program that would protect the assets 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.

Usually, the plan is only operational in cases where there is no any pending lawsuit. If a lawsuit is already in place, the court cannot defraud the creditors. In fact, an asset protection plan should be put in place before a lawsuit is issued. For example, in case a person has been and attempts to evade the creditors by transferring the assets, the court cancels it and reverses the whole process.

An asset protection plan comprises of two major goals, particular estate planning goals as well as short term and long term goals.Examining the short and long term goals enables a person to learn about the current and future income sources, the sum of money required for retiring, as well as the sum of money to be passed to the heirs if the person dies.

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 all that, calculation of the net worth of all assets is then conducted. The next involves developing an estate plan for addressing matters like setting up a program for handling the client if he/she became mentally incapacitated. Additionally, the plans are also used to assign those to take care of the family and assets in case of death.

The whole process is usually conducted using certain estate planning techniques. These mainly involve trusts and family liability companies. The techniques will cater for the needs of the client, family and other 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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