ASSET PRESERVATION / PROTECTION

A well-prepared asset preservation plan discourages frivolous attacks on your assets, segregates and insulates liabilities and helps you preserve the wealth you worked so hard to acquire. A properly developed plan can also protect your privacy which is of the upmost importance in this information age. Despite what many people believe, your Revocable Living Trust does not provide any asset protection.

Asset Protection or Asset Preservation is the “catch phrase” that so many people talk about and search for on the internet, yet most do not understand what it is, or what it can do to benefit them.  Briefly, Asset Protection is anything that can help you protect your assets from becoming part of a judgment, attached by a creditor, or taken from you.  This can be due to divorce, bankruptcy, personal injury or civil lawsuit.  The list goes on and on. How you can protect your hard-earned property can vary greatly, from the very simple – Corporation or Limited Liability Company to the more complex – such as a Prenuptial or Post-nuptial Agreement, Family Limited Partnership, Irrevocable Trust, including an Asset Protected Trust, or even an Offshore Trust.  Most often, an Asset Protection plan will include a combination of some of the different entities and/or trusts that Abel Law Group provides.

Upon meeting with us at Abel Law Group, we will first thoroughly review what assets are involved and establish to what extent the asset is exposed to liability. Liability exposure can vary from remote to very high probability, depending on several factors, including the type of asset, how it is used, the owner’s profession, as well as the owner’s personal lifestyle.  The hard truth is that if you are a successful professional or entrepreneur who has assets and cash to show for years of hard work and success, you automatically become the unfortunate target of malicious and often times unwarranted legal attacks.  Often times, a person has liability exposure and has no knowledge as to the extent that such exposure could be harmful.   Anytime you have accumulated assets of value, you should consult with an attorney to fully understand what your exposure is, and more importantly, how to minimize or eliminate such exposure.

Lastly, the most common problem we see is the client who calls to discuss setting up a plan after they receive a threating letter form an attorney or after a legal complaint is served. Unfortunately, it is too late. You cannot implement any asset preservation techniques or transfer any of your assets to avoid liability to any known or potential creditors. Once you receive notice of a claim, it is to late. This is why we advise our clients to let us help them with a plan before they find out it is too late.