Who Would Benefit from an Asset Protection Trust?
While trusts are a diverse and very effective set of estate-planning tools, a trust can also help protect and manage your assets during life. For persons working in high-stakes professions with significant liability, such as doctors and surgeons, an asset protection trust can be an important part of a comprehensive plan to protect hard-earned assets from creditors and judgements.
How Does an Asset Protection Trust Work?
An asset protection trust works to limit your liability by removing your assets from your control, similar to the way in which a trust set up for long-term senior care or disability needs protects eligibility for certain government programs such as Medicare and Social Security disability payments.
Asset protection trusts typically comprise part of a multi-faceted strategy, a strategy which typically includes incorporating one’s business or practice as a limited-liability corporation (LLC). At Gosselin Law, we will evaluate your particular circumstances and help you craft a liability protection plan that best fits your needs.
Having a skilled attorney and support staff is critical not only when setting up the larger liability protection strategy, but with instituting an asset protection trust itself.
Place and jurisdiction are important considerations when setting up an asset protection trust. The major question is whether to set up a trust domestically or outside the United States.
How Do I Set Up an Asset Protection Trust?
When setting up a trust within the United States, it is important to consider a particular state’s laws regarding asset protection trusts. Not all states allow the establishment of an asset protection trust; Massachusetts does not, but New Hampshire does. In general, an LLC must be incorporated in the same state in which the associated asset protection trust will be set up.
While not all states allow the creation of trusts for the explicit purpose of asset protection, most will recognize and acknowledge asset protection trusts set up in other states. The Massachusetts General Code only has a provision stipulating that assets must be in a trust before they are beyond the reach of creditors and plaintiffs; it is illegal to transfer assets into a trust in response to ongoing litigation or collections. This is why planning well in advance with a skilled partner, like Gosselin Law, is always the best option.
For an added layer of security and privacy asset protection trusts may also be set up overseas. While this requires more planning, Gosselin Law has the logistical and legal know-how to do this.
Learn If An Asset Protection Trust Is Right For You.
Protecting your hard-won assets is an extension of the effort that went into earning them. Do right by your own hard work, and by your family, and consider a trust as part of your asset protection plan. With Gosselin Law as your partner, we will work together to craft a plan that best suits your and your family’s needs. Call today to get started.
