Coming to Terms With Asset Protection Strategies

FraudsWatch.com

<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Asset protection deals with protecting your assets from others who may make a claim on them through a court action&period; Developing an approach to what asset protection strategy you need requires you to understand which assets of yours are vulnerable to be claimed&comma; when&comma; and from whom&period; This article outlines these points and the boundaries and limitations that affect your choice of asset protection device&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;So how do you scope out an asset protection strategy for you&quest; Here&&num;8217&semi;s what you need to know&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;First&colon; Recognize who can make a claim on you and for how much&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Creditors can&period; You entered into an agreement with them for their product or services&period; Now you find you can&&num;8217&semi;t pay them&period; You know how much a creditor can claim since you made the agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;People who can sue you for injury they&&num;8217&semi;ve incurred and attributed to you &&num;8211&semi; perhaps your negligence&period; A normal amount of liability insurance can take care of much of this&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;But there are people who target you for a lawsuit because you have a lot of money&period; They generally expect you to buy them off with a settlement considerably less than their outrageous claim for a trumped-up injury&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Lastly&comma; are those that sue you in divorce or through paternity suits&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re your spouse or lover &&num;8211&semi; however temporary or fleeting either relationship was&period; Your child&lpar;ren&rpar; play a critical part in the nature and damage these suits can produce&period; These are the divorce&sol;paternity claimants&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;The amount they can claim and be awarded is enormous and can continue until your child grows up &&num;8211&semi; and through college in some states&period; Such suits have been known to be very unfair&comma; untenable&comma; have led to many suicides of fathers&comma; and ultimately derive from unfair court processes that ignore fundamental rights of fathers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;It&&num;8217&semi;s important that you recognize that government offers you no protection against divorce&sol;paternity claimants&period; It does offer limited asset protection against creditor and other claimants as I&&num;8217&semi;ll mention below&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Second&colon; Recognize what assets you own that are vulnerable to claims&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;To divorce&sol;paternity claimants&comma; all your assets are vulnerable&period; So in addition to what you presently own as assets&comma; what you may potentially own in the future is vulnerable too&period; An example of this would be an expected inheritance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Third&colon; Know the government-protected assets against creditor claims &&num;8211&semi; for your state&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Government- under either federal or state law &&num;8211&semi; affords some limited protection of assets according to how the asset is held by you &&num;8211&semi; and under what legal suit type&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;The government-protected asset categories are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; Government-regulated retirement savings plan accounts &lpar;such as pensions&comma; 401&lpar;k&rpar;&comma; IRAs&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; Insurance products<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; Homestead<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Federal law protects your retirement plan accounts &lpar;to some dollar level&rpar; against creditors&comma; but only under your bankruptcy case &&num;8211&semi; a federal court process&period; For suits other then a bankruptcy&comma; state law governs the amount of protection&period; State law is state dependent&semi; it generally offers less protection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Insurance products protection is state regulated and state dependent&period; Life insurance&&num;8217&semi;s death benefit and annuity&&num;8217&semi;s payouts carry protection against most creditor claims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;You homestead &&num;8211&semi; i&period;e&period; your principal residence for living &&num;8211&semi; generally carries some dollar limit protection&period; Some states have much higher homestead values protected than others&period; Some minor holdings values for car or clothing is also protected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Check your state for its extent of protection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Fourth&colon; Understand a court&&num;8217&semi;s ability to claim assets from you for a claimant&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;The fundamental criteria to have assets you own claimed under a court order are that those assets are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; owned or controlled by you and<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; known to exist and<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; within the jurisdiction of the court to seize<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Based on these criteria your chosen protection strategy must be one or a combination of these actions&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;1&period; Transferring ownership of your assets that are known to exist or easily discovered and are within a U&period;S jurisdiction &&num;8211&semi; so there&&num;8217&semi;s no ownership or control<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;2&period; Maintaining ownership of the asset but locate it off shore so the court can&&num;8217&semi;t seize it &&num;8211&semi; so they&&num;8217&semi;re not within court&&num;8217&semi;s jurisdiction<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;3&period; Repositioning an asset&comma; no matter how you hold it&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s not known to exist and can&&num;8217&semi;t be discovered easily &&num;8211&semi; either within the U&period;S&period; or offshore &&num;8211&semi; so court can&&num;8217&semi;t claim what&&num;8217&semi;s not known<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Two conditions affect the viability of actions1&comma; and 2 are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; Assets transferred in light of a pending or active lawsuit are considered fraudulently transferred&period; They can be considered own by you for claims purposes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;&ast; The court can seize &lpar;i&period;e&period; jail&rpar; you under a contempt of a court to force you to return any asset &&num;8211&semi; or its equal value &&num;8211&semi; that it&&num;8217&semi;s aware of and considers owned by you but is unavailable or outside of the court&&num;8217&semi;s jurisdiction to seize&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Action three is the most secure protection and often the cheapest to achieve&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&NewLine;Shane Flait gives you workable strategies to accomplish your goals in <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"744">financial<&sol;a>&comma; legal&comma; tax&comma; retirement and protection issues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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