Asset Protection

Asset Protection for Safeguarding For The Future

Asset protection is the legitimate use of legal strategies and techniques to safeguard assets and property from some future or unknown attack. Asset protection strategies must at all times be legal and ethical. Asset protection strategies do not include hindering or thwarting your known and existing creditors. Some very simple asset protection strategies may be available to you simply by taking advantage of certain statutes in your jurisdiction. For example, annuities, IRAs, retirement plans, joint accounts may be protected. There is most likely a spendthrift provision in your trust document which protects trust assets from creditors of the beneficiaries. A spendthrift provision typically instructs the trustee that the trustee may not use trust funds to pay a debt or obligation of the beneficiary. If anyone makes a demand upon you as trustee to pay a purported debt or loan or obligation of a trust beneficiary, immediately contact trust counsel. Don’t simply pay the debt believing that you are being responsive. Read the trust terms and obtain information to understand the debt or loan or obligation.