How to Protect Your Assets in Your Estate Plan

There are a variety of ways you can start planning for your financial future. One aspect you may be concerned about is how your assets will be protected throughout the process, and our Virginia estate planning team outlines how to do just that below.

What is Asset Protection?

Asset protection differs from simple estate planning in the sense that estate planning is the process of protecting your property once when you pass away, while asset protection is the process of protecting your assets from taxes, creditors, and seizures.

While both are incredibly important for those looking to start their financial planning, asset protection is especially useful for anyone looking to protect assets like real estate, stocks, bonds, or other physical property.

Asset Protection Strategies

Family Limited Partnerships (FLP) & Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

These tools are extremely useful in asset protection. With either of these options, you are able to transfer any property you have ownership of into them to find protection from creditors, capital gains taxes, and lawsuits. FLPs also have the added bonus of allowing your spouse to own a portion of the entity and maintain control of the entire partnership.

Domestic Asset Protection Trusts

These are a type of irrevocable trust that allows the trustor to be a beneficiary of their own trust and gain creditor protection. Although these trusts do not immediately protect assets from creditor claims, when properly established, they allow trustors to maintain aces to their property while being protected from most types of claims.

Third-Party Discretionary Trusts

These trusts allow spouses, parents, grandparents, and a number of other relatives to provide for their loved ones without disqualifying them from benefits. They allow trustees the ability to decide how much they obtain from the trust and when they receive it, and while the property is not considered legally theirs to begin with, that simple fact will keep the property out of reach of the beneficiary’s creditors.

Get in Touch with TrustBuilders Law Group Today

Protecting your hard-earned assets is extremely important, and the team at TrustBuilders Law Group is committed to finding creative and effective strategies to help you succeed.

If you would like to start planning for the future, but aren’t sure where to start, our seasoned estate planning team can help you every step of the way. Contact us through our website or give us a call at (757) 500-5135 today to schedule your consultation!