Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Case for Asset Protection Estate Planning

We spend a lot of time on building and learning how to build our fortunes; unfortunately, we spend very little time and very little is ever taught on the subject of protecting our fortunes from creditors.  Unfortunately, we live in a very litigious society (more than 50,000 lawsuits filed daily), and as such it is no longer a question of negligence, but a question of who can be blamed for someone’s misfortune.

As you probably can see, if you have any degree of even modest wealth, your assets have considerable exposure to creditors.  Therefore, we must engage in special estate planning methods to protect your assets. 

We call these special estate planning methods "ASSET PROTECTION ESTATE PLANNING"!  Asset Protection Estate Planning can be defined as: the process of organizing one's assets and affairs within an estate plan that protects assets not only from liabilities and litigation,but also from disability or guardianship probate, death probate and estate taxes.

Why should you engage in Asset Protection Estate Planning?

Besides the obvious reason - that you should be inclined to protect those non-exempt assets you have worked so hard to earn -you should engage in asset protection estate planning for the following reasons:

(1)  Peace of Mind

(2)  Avoiding Probate and Estate Taxes

(3)  Liability and Malpractice Insurance Savings

(4)  Reduced Settlements and Number of Suits

(5)  Exemplary Damages

(6)  Liability Insurance Carriers can go Bankrupt

(7)  Strategic Bargaining Power with Settlement of Claims

In future posts, we’ll continue to explore the case for Asset Protection Estate Planning and some of the various techniques.

BridgeBuilder – Plans for Life

Garrett Griffin