What is Asset Protection?
How Can I Protect My Estate?

Protecting your hard earned assets during your lifetime should be a concern for everyone. Protection from lawsuits, car accidents, taxes, divorce, living probate, death probate, predators, creditors and bad spending habits are all valid reasons to plan. The key to any good asset protection plan is to be proactive and do the planning before a problem arises. Once a lawsuit is filed or a claim is made, it’s too late! If you try to plan after the problem happens, a court will not only bring those assets back into your estate and make them available to your creditors, but you will likely be penalized for trying to defraud a creditor.

Asset protection tools include irrevocable trusts, limited liability companies, family partnerships, property agreements and a host of other tools, structures and strategies.

You can also provide protection for your assets after you die. Upon your death, if you leave your assets in a properly designed trust for the benefit your spouse or children, those assets are off limits to your spouse’s and children’s creditors, divorcing spouses and can save many thousands of dollars in taxes.

Keeping assets in trust for your loved ones after you’re gone also protects those assets from their bad spending habits, your spouse’s remarriage, children’s divorces, lawsuits, drug addiction, and many of the other bad things that happen in life.

Typically, the more control you give your beneficiaries over the assets that you leave them, the less protection they will have, and vice versa. The more protection you want for the assets, the less control you give to the beneficiary.

Bottom line, finding the balance point between control and protection for each family is what asset protection is all about.

For more information on Asset Protection Planning in Colorado, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (719) 444-0300 today.