The backbone of traditional estate planning is the living trust, which is designed to protect your assets from a long and expensive probate process and ease the passing of your assets to your loved ones after you die. 

But what do you do if you want to protect your assets while you are still alive? A robust asset protection strategy can defend you from claims of creditors, protect your assets from lawsuits, and provide peace of mind today.

At Mansoor Law, we provide asset protection solutions to clients all over the world, not just in California. 

Why is Asset Protection Necessary? 

Unfortunately, we live in a litigious society. One mistake can lead to a lawsuit that jeopardizes everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve. This risk is particularly high if you work in a field that is prone to lawsuits. If you run a professional practice, your malpractice insurance might only offer limited protection. 

Creditors can also claim your assets for various reasons. Businesses and fortunes can be unpredictable, and mistakes that threaten long-term financial stability can happen. If you’re starting a business and have guaranteed loans, for example, you could risk losing your assets if things don’t go as planned. 

If a judgment is made against you, your assets can be seized to satisfy the judgment. Some assets—like 401K and other retirement/healthcare plans, and your home up to a certain amount—are protected from creditors, but most are not, meaning that what you have could be taken away with just a few legal actions. 

Asset protection can mitigate these risks and reduce your exposure. By taking proactive measures in advance, you can make it very difficult and unrealistic for someone to sue you. The primary goal of these strategies is to ensure that no one will ever spend the time and money to sue you to begin with. Once a case is in court, the outcome is largely out of your control, and your assets could be at risk. Asset protection provides peace of mind by helping you shield what you've worked hard to build.

What is Asset Protection? 

Broadly speaking, asset protection is the process of changing the form of ownership of your assets, or the location of ownership, to make it difficult for your judgment holders and creditors to reach your property. It is the process of creating distance between you and your assets, putting yourself in a better position to survive a lawsuit than you would be in without this planning. 

Asset protection strategies are perfectly legal if they are done properly.

How Does Asset Protection Work?

The first step is to find an attorney who specializes in asset protection. This is not an area where it is in your best interests to do it yourself or to hire a generalist. If you make an error or if your strategy is based on a false assumption, you may be unprotected when you thought your assets were safe. At Mansoor Law Firm, we understand the complexities inherent in a comprehensive asset protection strategy and can apply our expertise to any individual situation. 

Next, you must determine which assets need to be protected. As previously mentioned, some assets are already protected by law, often up to a certain amount. Other assets can be protected with insurance, but insurance does not always protect you to the extent you need, when you need it. Your asset protection attorney can help you separate these assets from the assets you need to proactively take steps to protect.

Your attorney will then scrutinize the laws of various states and offshore jurisdictions and form a strategy for where to hold your individual assets and how to exercise control over them.  The goal is to make as many of your assets as unreachable as possible. Your personal strategy may involve creating trusts to hold some of your assets or moving others to certain locations. Depending on your comfort level, we work with both domestic and offshore asset protection options.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach. 

Your individual solution could involve creating corporate entities and transferring assets to them; it could require shifting assets into accounts that are protected from creditors or executing legal documents that transfer decision-making power over some of your assets to trustees while designating you as the beneficiary. Some strategies your Mansoor Law attorney can use include: 

1. Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (DAPT)
2. Offshore Asset Protection Trusts
3. Irrevocable Gift Trusts
4. Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT)
5. Equity Stripping with Premium Financing and Home Equity Line of Credit
6. Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRT)
7. Family Limited Partnerships (FLP)
8. Family Limited Liability Companies (FLLC)
9. Private Retirement Plan

Experienced Los Angeles Asset Protection Lawyer

Los Angeles estate planning attorney Salik Mansoor focuses exclusively in the areas of estate planning, business planning, and asset protection and serves clients in Sherman Oaks, Encino, Woodland Hills, Porter Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and throughout California. 

If you are interested in asset protection please feel free to reach us at info@mansoorlawfirm.com, or fill out the contact form below and we will get back to you quickly.