An asset protection planning lawyer helps you explore the legal tools that make protection of your wealth possible. There are different legal tools used in asset protection, but one popular option for people looking to keep their wealth safe and secure is the creation of a trust.
Trusts, which separate ownership and possession of assets, all have at least some characteristics that provide protection for assets held within the trust. However, there are many different kinds of trusts aimed at achieving different purposes. This means not all trusts will provide the same kind of protection or keep assets safe in the same ways.
If you are concerned about a particular risk to your wealth, your best option is to talk with an asset protection planning lawyer at Parman & Easterday to determine if a trust is right for you and to get help in selecting the type of trust you need to provide the desired protection.
How Do Trusts Provide Protection For Assets?
Different kinds of trusts protect assets in different ways, so although all trusts protect assets, not all trusts keep assets safe from all potential sources of loss. For example:
- Living trusts will keep wealth safe from loss due to mismanagement. When you create a living trust, you name a successor trustee who takes control of the management of trust assets if you become incapacitated or pass away. Since there’s no delay in determining who is in charge of trust assets and since you can select someone you have confidence in to manage the trust assets, the assets will be safe from being lost.
- Irrevocable trusts can help keep wealth safe from creditors, nursing home costs and certain other sources of loss. An irrevocable trust requires you to give up some control over the wealth you put into the trust if you wish the protections this trust type provides. However, if you follow the right process for creating and structuring the trust and if you give up some control over the wealth held within the trust, you can keep the assets safe from many sources of major loss.
It is important to understand both the ways in which trusts protect assets and the limitations of this protection. For example, a living trust will allow assets to transfer outside of probate, which keeps the wealth safe because new owners can take control much more quickly through the trust administration process rather than the probate process. This means there’s no period of potential mismanagement due to delays in new owners taking over.
However, a living trust will not reduce estate tax, so you could still lose assets to the government. Also, when assets are held within a living trust and are accessible to you, those assets will count as resources that can disqualify you from receiving means-tested Medicaid coverage for nursing home care and also will be available to creditors who make claims against you. This means you give up a lot of protection because you have the ability to access the assets in the trust and do what you want with them, including selling them to satisfy judgments against you or to pay for nursing home care you need that isn’t covered by insurance.
You should work with Parman & Easterday to understand these benefits and limitations so you will know what kind of trust is the right one for your needs.
Getting Help from An Asset Protection Planning Lawyer
Parman & Easterday can assist you in making the right choices to protect your wealth by using trusts and other tools. We assist you not only with making effective use of trusts, but also with other ways of keeping wealth secure and safe from loss, such as purchasing sufficient and appropriate insurance, or establishing corporations, family limited partnerships or family limited liability companies.
You have worked hard to acquire money and property and whatever wealth you accumulate should become your legacy and not be lost due to bad luck or misfortune. Our experienced legal team will help you make sure your assets are safe from harm as much as possible. To find out more about what asset protection planning entails and the steps you should take to protect your particular assets, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call today at (405) 843-6100 or contact us online to get personalized advice with all of your asset protection needs.
Since founding Parman & Easterday in 1985, Larry has led over 1,000 free, community-service education programs and helped more than 10,000 Oklahoma families go from putting off their estate plan to getting it done. His goal for every client is the same: to become the person their family calls "the one who took care of everything."
Larry is the author of three books: The Straight Shooter's Guide to Estate Planning; Estate Planning Basics; and Guiding Those Left Behind in Oklahoma. He served as Oklahoma's Secretary of State and Secretary of Commerce, and his firm is the only member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys in the state.
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