17 Jul Asset Protection: The In’s and Out’s

Trying to get your estate aligned on your own is a daunting task. Ensuring you do not miss any documents in and of itself can be stressful. Even then, how can you be completely sure you didn’t forget something to add to the plan? Are your assets fully protected to the full extent of the law? As you can imagine the process can be quite overwhelming. Thankfully you don’t have to do this alone. Phelps LaClair is passionate about estate planning and knowledgeable about all the in’s and out’s of law, including asset protection. Since the firm serves the East Valley of Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale and Phoenix, we are also local and available whenever you need us.

In this post we want to review a few aspects of asset protection, as keeping your belongings where it needs to be is an important part of estate planning.

Asset Protection

Asset protection is a piece of estate planning, where you are planning for the future of your loved ones after your passing or, for any possible legal issues that could come your way while you are alive. Difficult moments in life come up from being sued, to fault causing car accidents, or nameless events that could cause a massive hiccup. Asset protection is an essential part of future planning that allows you to have a safety net when life throws you a curve ball, especially from creditors. This means that when you have materials that are valuable to you, you set up an asset protection plan to keep them safe.

Tips for Asset Protection

Setting up time with Phelps LaClair to go over your specific asset protection needs within your estate planning will be most beneficial, but some tips to start thinking about include:

1. Realizing Planning Starts Before Issues Arise. There are a lot of steps you can take in the prevention of the unthinkable and losing things that are valuable to you.
2. Late Planning is Usually Too Late. Trying to do asset protection planning following a claim from a creditor can cause major financial repercussions.
3. Asset Protection is Not Insurance. Asset protection does not replace your need for liability or personal insurance. It is important for you to continue having insurance on top of asset planning. Insurance will be the ones to cover the legal costs against any claim that may come.
4. Business Assets are for Business; Personal Assets are for Trusts. It is important to recognize the need to separate your business assets from your personal assets to ensure that whatever you put in a trust cannot be taken from any legal issues with your business.

There are many avenues to go about ensuring the best asset protection for what you are needing. We want to ensure that your assets are safe from legal issues that may arise, and that they are in the trusts they should be in for afterlife care. Estate planning puts in a strong asset protection plan to ensure the future for you and your loved ones is safely taken care of.

Seek out Phelps LaClair for deeper understanding of how to utilize the best asset protection plan to supplement your estate planning needs.

Images used under creative commons license – commercial use (7/10/2017) Berit Watkins (Flickr)