Marco Island Asset Protection Attorneys

Your assets are any property you own that can easily be converted to cash, stocks, bonds, investments, and cash. You do not need to be wealthy to have assets worth protecting, especially if you have a family you need to worry about. Protecting your assets after you have passed away is very important, but you also have to worry about events while you are alive that could have a seriously negative effect on your personal wealth.

No matter your age or financial status, it is important to go see an attorney about preserving your family’s future. There are Medicaid planning issues to discuss if you should ever need assisted living, and there are those unexpected life events that could drain your bank account and cost you your home if you are not protected. Instead of waiting for life to happen, you should be proactive and start protecting your assets.

Isn’t Asset Protection A Service I Saw Offered On A Website?

The idea of trying a do-it-yourself process from a website is tempting because you think you are saving money. But when people use those websites to sell their homes, they sometimes lose money because it takes longer to sell a home when you do not have an experienced agent on your side. If you try to set up an asset protection plan without a professional, then you risk the possibility of losing everything.

Those DIY websites do not offer a service where a legal professional checks your paperwork for errors, makes sure you are using the right legal and accounting vehicles to shield your valuables, and makes sure that you are filing all of the right paperwork. You might have saved some money now, but a few years from now when you get sued and learn that your assets are not protected, then you could lose everything.

What Does An Asset Protection Attorney Do?

A Marco Island Asset Protection Lawyer is a specialist who deals in legal fields such as bankruptcy, personal finance, estate planning, Medicaid planning, and foreclosure. They are a risk mitigation professional who can identify risks and create ways to mitigate those risks effectively. When you are searching for an asset protection professional, you should always insist on someone who specializes in this field and knows all of the details involved in shielding your finances from legal action.

Your hired professional looks at your entire situation and determines areas where your assets could be exposed. There are also life situations that can occur that will deplete your assets quickly if a better plan is not in place. A professional uses the legal and accounting devices they have at their disposal to put together a plan that protects your assets now, and keeps protecting them after you have passed away.

The Tools Of The Trade

A Marco Island Asset Protection Lawyer has many different legal and financial devices at their disposal to help shield your assets from potential harm. Most of those devices are effective after you have passed away, but there are some that can be helpful while you are still alive and are feeling the effects of aging.

Long-term health care is an important issue when it comes to asset protection because not having away to fund an assisted living situation means your assets will get drained to pay the bills. Your attorney will help with Medicaid planning to make sure all of the paperwork is done properly, but there will be bills to pay and you need the right insurance in place to pay those bills.

A trust is a separate legal entity that can take possession of your assets and wrap a blanket of protection around them. When a creditor tries to go after your personal assets in a lawsuit, they will have an extremely difficult time getting at anything that is protected by your trust. There are many types of trusts, which is why you should have an experienced trust attorney decide which trust is best for your situation.

Sometimes your attorney will feel that a limited liability company (LLC) is a better legal entity option than a trust. The most common place people see the LLC designation is with companies, but it can also be used as a way to protect assets. The LLC takes possession of your assets in much the same way a trust does, but the rules for managing an LLC are much more flexible than a trust. An LLC also offers certain tax benefits that might help the client to increase their assets year after year.

How Long Should I Wait To Get Started?

You should not wait at all to get started. Life is full of unexpected events, and one of those unexpected events could turn into a lawsuit that threatens your personal assets. The moment you are involved in a lawsuit, you are not going to be given the option of shielding your assets. Any attempt to do asset protection after a lawsuit has begun will be rejected by the courts. Your assets will be exposed and you could lose everything.

You need to get in touch with a professional now. While processes such as Medicaid planning are not immediately necessary, the overall structure of your asset protection plan needs to be in place immediately. You will get significantly more out of your protection plan if it is in place before you get hit with a lawsuit than if you wait until a lawsuit arrives.

Getting The Right Information To Your Lawyer

Before you go to your first appointment with an asset protection lawyer, you need to write out your personal goals for your asset protection plan. You need to determine how you want your valuables to be handled, and how you envision your assets being distributed when you are gone. You will also need to put together bank statements, investment statements, property deeds, and anything else dealing with your assets.

The process always starts with a will because a will is a powerful document that can act as the outline for your whole plan. A trust can bypass probate in many states, but a will is used to tell the probate court exactly how you want your estate handled. You can dictate who your estate administrator is, and your lawyer can put clauses into your will that will add extra protection to your assets.

From Medicaid planning to establishing an effective trust, our firm has the years of experience you want when it comes to asset protection. We invite you to give us a call and talk to an experienced Marco Island Asset Protection Lawyer and find out how we can make sure that your family’s future is secured. We will answer any of your questions and set up our first consultation with you. We will let you know how to prepare for your first meeting, and we will be happy to show you just what we can do to shield your assets from creditors now and after you have passed away.