General asset protection strategies are designed to shield assets from the risks of seizure. They come in varying strengths. There are protective trusts to keep assets at arms-length from creditors. There are land trusts for privacy of ownership. Then, you have LLCs and limited partnerships to put assets into cocoons that are challenging to penetrate.
The bottom line? Discuss your situation with a specialist. The expert will ask what assets you have and how much equity is in each. They will propose certain legal tools tailored to the type of asset, its value and the level of protection you need. Then, one will have to choose how strong the asset protection plan should be in order to thwart the legal challenge.
General Asset Protection Strategies of Rockefeller
Asset protection strategies usually involve placing ownership of assets into legal tools rather than one’s personal name. In this vein, Rockefeller said, “Own nothing. Control everything.” Don’t own assets in your own name. Own them in legal tools that make it difficult for others to take them.
In general, a strategy that provides the most protection offers the most peace of mind in a lawsuit and vice versa. When your case winds up in court, you will sleep better at night knowing that even if you lose, you can retain your financial security.
Facing the Challenge
Creditors often challenge and scrutinize protection strategies. Will yours meet the test? That is why it is essential consult with an experience professional. After all, it is the job of the opposing legal team to ask the court to disregard you protection plan. If a lay person cuts corners and establishes or maintains legal structures improperly, the courts can easily pierce them. Incorrect wording on a document, a closely-related trustee, failure to timely file documents; all exemplify entities that offer a false sense of security. Commingling funds of a corporate entity with one’s personal bills can give courts a doorway to pierce its veil of protection. A legal opponent’s goal will be to show that asset protection vehicles are mere shell entities. They may claim the do not have real business purposes and try to break through them to get to the assets of the owners, officers and directors.
So, properly establish and manage legal entities. Fund them properly. Maintain a real business presence and maintain corporate compliance. When you do, a creditor is hard-pressed to pierce its protection. So, you must properly establish, fund, manage and maintain corporations and LLCs to maximize protection. You can satisfy this checklist through business programs specifically designed to meet the needs of a legitimacy test. Don’t serve as your own registered agent. A professional registered agent will remind you each year when annual filings are due. It is a tiny price to pay for big security when you are under legal attack.
Choosing a Strategy
We specialize is asset protection strategies as well as a variety of recommended plans to meet various privacy and protection requirements. There is a variety of options. The assets that you have, their values and your comfort level determine the legal tools that you need. There are domestic asset protection tools that shield assets within your country. Then there are ones that use laws of other countries specifically designed with asset protection in mind. The offshore ones place assets within your reach and outside the reach of the local courts. Because of this, the international plans usually fare much better when a legal attack comes.
Domestic Privacy and Protection
In order to establish immediate privacy and protection with domestic legal vehicles, experience professional often use trusts and LLCs. When you title an asset to a properly structured asset protection trust, for example, at that point it is separate from individual. Holding property inside of a trust can provide privacy of ownership, a first layer of protection against lawsuits. Assets owned by a properly established LLC protect you from personal liability as a business owner. This creates another layer of liability protection. So, you can strengthen these concepts when you combine different types of trusts and multiple business entities.
Domestic asset protection strategies can provide a substantial level of financial security. You can establish these locally. The problem? They are under the jurisdiction of your local courts. A results-oriented judge may ignore them and allow asset seizure regardless of theoretical protections they offer. That is why offshore asset protection strategies tend be much more effective.
Offshore Protection
Offshore financial havens created legal statutes that protect the personal assets of foreign investors. This offers individuals the strongest personal financial privacy and protection in the world. It is also a strategy many people use to protect assets after a lawsuit is filed. An offshore asset protection strategy can implement the laws of multiple foreign jurisdictions combining the strongest corporate and financial privacy available.
To attract foreign funds, certain jurisdictions, such as the Cook Islands, Nevis and Belize, created some of the most advanced and case law backed trust laws in the world. Many savvy individuals seeking bulletproof wealth protection outside of their domestic legal system establish these tools. It is one of the strongest ways to protect assets from lawsuits. You can get more information on offshore asset protection and how it works on this website.
What Offshore Protection Offers
The biggest benefit an offshore protection strategy can offer is lawsuit deterrence and judgment proofing. Protective jurisdictions frown upon frivolous lawsuits and predatory litigation by making it very challenging for creditors. Offshore trusts in the Cook Islands are almost bulletproof. Their statutes make it very expensive to pursue assets encumbered in a plan using these legal instruments.
The only winners in a lawsuit are the lawyers. An offshore protection strategy can easily be the difference between a long drawn-out legal battle and a short one. A lawsuit avoided is a lawsuit won. When a lawsuit turns into a judgment and you protect assets offshore, your opponent now has to pursue them in the foreign jurisdiction. This is because certain offshore regions will not recognize a judgment from your local legal jurisdiction .
You can utilize offshore legal tools in concert with domestic vehicles as a single asset protection strategy. Control instruments offer individuals significant hands-on asset management with the ultimate protection of foreign legal statutes.