At RKPT, our asset protection lawyers have extensive experience helping our clients preserve wealth, protect their assets, and pass on a financial legacy to future generations.
In many cases, estate planning and asset protection go hand in hand as we work to protect our client’s assets and enable them to transfer wealth. By using a sound asset protection strategy, our clients can preserve a financial legacy that can be passed to future generations, rather than being used to pay for long-term care or lost through divorce, bankruptcy, or other potential creditors.
What Is Asset Protection?
Asset protection refers to strategies that protect a person’s wealth from claims by creditors, taxation, long-term care expenses, seizure, forfeiture, or other losses.
Why You Need Asset Protection
A sound estate plan should include tools that preserve wealth by protecting it from “creditors and predators” such as credit card companies, bank foreclosure, a current or former spouse, disgruntled family members, aggressive lawyers, malpractice claimants, and more.
You should consider asset protection as part of your estate plan if:
- You have a young family and want to protect your spouse and young children in the event of your death, disability, or a downturn in your business.
- Your business has taken off but you do not have experience handling or protecting substantial assets and you need guidance.
- Your prior estate plan is out of date and no longer reflects your current situation (perhaps you are recently divorced, your business partnership changed, or your children are now adults).
- You want to shelter your professional practice more effectively.
The lawyers at RKPT can create a customized plan that includes asset protection strategies that will take into account your objectives and concerns, the nature of your assets, and the types of financial exposure you might face.
Common Asset Protection Strategies
While every situation is unique, there are common strategies estate planning lawyers use to protect client assets. These include:
Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT)
Ohio is one of seventeen states that allow a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT). A DAPT is a type of irrevocable trust that allows the trust creator to be a beneficiary of the trust while still protecting trust assets from creditors.
Limited Liability Companies (LLC)
An LLC can prevent creditors from taking assets that have been placed inside the LLC structure. In some situations, it may be wise to create multiple LLCs so that a lawsuit against you or one of your LLCs does not result in the loss of all your assets.
Asset Transfer
If you are sued or are personally responsible for a debt, any assets in your name could be vulnerable. By creating another entity to hold your assets, such as a trust, an LLC, or a holding company, you retain control of the assets but make them much more difficult for a creditor to access. You can also structure the terms of the trust, LLC, or holding company so assets pass to your beneficiaries upon your death.
RKPT Provides Assistance with Estate Planning, Asset Protection, and Wealth Transfer
If you have questions about protecting your assets from creditors, taxation, seizure, forfeiture, or other losses, talk to one of our lawyers who have extensive experience implementing asset protection strategies.
The lawyers at RKPT can provide advice on various asset protection strategies and how they fit into your estate plan. We can design a customized strategy that will preserve and protect your assets so you can pass them on to future generations.
With offices in Cincinnati and Blue Ash, we represent people throughout Ohio and across the country. Contact RKPT for more information and to learn how we can help.
