Every Floridian should be ready to protect their wealth at a moment’s notice. Though Florida is not the most litigious state in the country, the Florida Courts site indicates that over 3.5 million civil suits are filed yearly. That’s roughly one lawsuit for every resident.
To properly defend your assets against lawsuits and other threats, you need a Florida asset protection attorney. These professional wealth defenders set up barriers between your money and those who want to take it from you. With their help, you can keep your wealth where it belongs – with you.
Interested in learning more about these legal pros? Here are five key things asset protection attorneys in Florida do to secure your wealth:
- Develop an Asset Protection Plan
- Defend Your Assets from Lawsuits
- Assist with Estate Planning
- Draft Trust Agreements
- Continually Monitor and Refine Existing Strategies
1. Develop An Asset Protection Plan
An asset protection attorney in Florida will first set up a plan involving a few asset protection tools, such as:
- Asset Protection Trusts: An asset protection trust (APT) is a trust that legally separates you and your assets to prevent creditors from getting their hands on your money. Some of these trusts can even defy U.S. court orders – particularly those established overseas.
- Limited Liability Companies (LLCs): LLCs divide your wealth into business assets and personal assets. They are often used with APTs to give you more control over the trust without sacrificing protection.
- Land Trusts: Land trusts allow you to own and use property while keeping your name out of the public record. Unlike asset protection trusts, land trusts don’t protect your assets in the event of a lawsuit. However, they do a great job of preventing lawsuits by masking property ownership information.
What’s most important is that the plan is customized to your exact needs. For example, if you need to protect real estate, your planner might suggest a land trust. Alternatively, they could recommend an APT if you are worried about being sued. Any good asset protection attorney will be willing to help you create a fully bespoke Florida asset protection strategy that can defend your wealth.
2. Defend Your Assets from Lawsuits
Lawsuits are the most pressing threat to the average person’s wealth. Since nearly 10,000 lawsuits are filed in Florida every day, you need to be prepared. Luckily, a good asset protection attorney knows exactly how to protect your assets from lawsuits. Usually, the solution is an asset protection trust.
An asset protection trust established by a professional in a friendly offshore jurisdiction is nearly impenetrable. For example, a Cook Islands Trust is so powerful that we’ve never seen one breached.
3. Assist with Estate Planning
Asset protection is about more than keeping your wealth safe while you’re alive; it’s about making plans for when you’re not around. Asset protection attorneys in Florida can establish inheritance plans to ensure your wealth goes to the right people after your passing.
Like asset protection, estate planning involves using financial structures such as trusts. When deployed properly, a trust can keep your wealth safe during your lifetime and then be handed off to your intended beneficiaries. Once your inheritors have the trust, they can benefit from many of the same protections you and your Florida asset protection attorney established.
4. Draft Trust Agreements
If you’re using a trust as part of your asset protection plan (and you should), your attorney will help craft the trust agreement. This document outlines every party’s role in the trust, establishes trustee powers, and details how assets will be distributed after your death.
A good asset protection attorney in Florida will draw up the agreement with you, which will help you prevent costly legal mistakes. While you work on the agreement together, your attorney will also ensure your trust is robustly structured. Without an attorney, you could create a flawed agreement that is vulnerable to creditors.
5. Continually Monitor and Refine Existing Asset Protection Strategies
The final way that Florida asset protection attorneys help is by keeping strategies current. Laws change, after all, and failing to keep up with those changes can jeopardize your assets.
Staying abreast of legal shifts in foreign countries is nearly impossible for the average person. But for an asset protection attorney in Florida, it’s all part of the job.
Once your attorney anticipates a potential law change, they’ll evaluate whether it will affect your wealth protection plan. If it will, your attorney will quickly adjust to restore the strategy’s efficacy. If the legal shift completely undermines your asset protection plan, don’t worry. You can count on them to set up a new plan and transfer your assets to a safe place.
Work with a Florida Asset Protection Attorney from Asset Protection Planners
If you live in Florida and are tired of worrying about lawsuits, creditors, and other commonwealth threats, it’s time to call Asset Protection Planners. Our associated asset protection attorneys in Florida are some of the best in the business and have been designing wealth defense strategies for decades.
Don’t wait until a lawyer is knocking on your door. Get the protection you deserve before there’s a problem. Click the button below to talk to one of our Florida asset protection attorneys today!
