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Email Us NowSafeguarding Your Personal Assets with a Comprehensive Utah Asset Protection Plan
A key component of any comprehensive estate plan is looking for legal ways to protect assets and property from potential risks. In this fluctuating economy, which is to say nothing of our country’s litigious nature, it is worthwhile to take a little extra insurance to safeguard your money and hard-earned assets from liabilities, creditors, malpractice claims, and more. At Trusted Estate Planning Attorneys, exploring legal options for various asset protection tools is just part of the process of protecting and preserving significant assets for our clients.
There are several different estate and asset protection strategies that can benefit our clients and their businesses, block creditors, shield assets from potential lawsuits, and more. Perhaps chief among these asset protection strategies is the creation of a domestic asset protection trust in Utah.
The state of Utah has very favorable asset protection laws for residents who are interested in protecting their wealth and property from various concerns. To learn more about the legal options available to you and what services our asset protection lawyers offer, we encourage every prospective new client to contact our Lehi, UT, law firm to schedule a free 30-minute consultation with an experienced asset protection attorney.
What Are Some Different Asset Protection Strategies in Lehi, Utah?
An effective asset protection plan should be able to shield valuable assets of any kind and leave you feeling secure in the knowledge that you are not vulnerable to liability and lawsuits. When you speak to an experienced asset protection lawyer at our Lehi law firm, we will go over various legal options that have the potential to meet your specific needs.
Some popular asset protection strategies that we may recommend for our Utah clients include:
- Asset protection trusts and irrevocable living trusts: Trusts can be used to reduce income taxes and avoid the probate process, but they can also be utilized to protect your assets from a lawsuit
- Charitable giving: For some clients, it’s essential to establish a legacy, such as creating an institution that shares their beliefs and values. We can lend valuable legal guidance to ensure your charitable giving is used as you intended
- Gifts to family members: One way to avoid creditors and the potential of losing your assets to litigation is to gift certain assets to a family member or loved one. However, it is worth remembering that once you gift an asset to someone else, you lose all control over that asset. Our legal team can help you plan your gift-giving to take advantage of annual and lifetime gift-tax exemptions
- Long-term and Medicaid planning: By paying into certain benefits programs up front, you can take advantage of these programs and better benefit from them in the long haul
- Prepaid funeral expenses: Certain funeral expenses can be paid upfront and will not be subject to litigation or seizure in the future
- The creation of new companies: By becoming a business owner of a limited liability company (LLC) or similar business entity, you can afford your assets a certain level of protection from potential risks
Your asset protection plan can include one or more of these legal tools to ensure your assets aren’t vulnerable to lawsuits, creditor claims, and other potential risks you might face in the future. Call our Lehi law firm today to talk to a skilled lawyer about which options should be included in your comprehensive asset protection strategy.
What Are Utah Asset Protection Trusts?
One of the legal strategies that’s often used for protecting assets is an irrevocable trust. In particular, you can use a Utah domestic asset protection trust (sometimes abbreviated as a DAPT), which is a specific kind of trust that can be set up to protect your assets from creditors and litigation. If established correctly, significant assets in this trust may be out of reach of certain lawsuits or debts.
These types of trusts are irrevocable. This means that once you put your assets into the trust, you generally can’t take them back very easily. Instead, you will appoint a trustee to manage the trust according to the trust documents to the benefit of your designated beneficiaries.
Even though the assets are locked up in the asset protection trust, you will still have some level of control over them. In fact, you could name yourself as a beneficiary of the trust if desired.
It is worth noting that there is typically a waiting period after you place your assets in trusts before they are protected from potential creditors, so you can’t simply create a trust when you’re already facing legal threats. This means you must act quickly to create a trust long before your assets are at risk. Don’t delay in contacting our law firm for legal assistance.
It’s also worth noting that asset protection trusts are not a way to fraudulently hide assets or evade legitimate debts. Once you explain why you’re concerned about the potential for losing your assets in the future, an experienced asset protection attorney can advise you on whether this type of irrevocable trust is right for you.
We’ll make sure you understand all your trust options, including onshore vs offshore asset protection trusts, with offshore trusts offering some benefits that may interest you. If you’re ready to get trust and estate counsel from asset protection attorneys, call our Utah law firm to speak with a team that can guide you through the process of creating a solid asset protection strategy for your estate.
What Personal Assets Can You Safeguard with an Asset Protection Trust in Utah?
You can put two primary classifications of property into an asset protection trust in Lehi, Utah. They include real property and personal property.
Real property includes tangible assets, such as real estate property, your primary residence, plots of land, commercial properties, and office buildings.
Personal property is a broad category. Assets that may be considered personal property in an asset protection trust include motor vehicles, fine art, collectibles, antiques, furniture, copyrights, jewelry, and other valuables.
Now that you know which assets you can place in this type of irrevocable trust, it’s important to know what you cannot put in it and what you cannot do with it. First, you can’t transfer any assets that don’t belong to you or that you obtained through illegal activities. In addition, you can’t create an undisclosed deal with the trustee that gives you more control over the trust than you’re supposed to have. Even if you’re the beneficiary of the trust, you can’t make decisions regarding asset distribution like you could with a revocable trust.
Trusts of this kind tend to be most popular among high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and professionals in medicine, law, and other industries that often involve legal threats. However, anyone who owns a home or other assets they’d like to protect can benefit from including an irrevocable trust as part of their asset protection plan. If you want to know more about this and other asset protection tools, call our Utah law office today to speak with trusted asset protection attorneys.
How Does a Business Entity Offer Asset Protection Planning?
Business entities, such as corporations and LLCs, offer a degree of asset protection to business owners. Because the business entity is considered a distinct legal entity that’s separate from its owner, the owner’s creditors are generally incapable of liquidating the business owner’s personal assets to satisfy a lawsuit.
For example, if a customer or competitor takes legal action against your corporation or limited liability company, their monetary award won’t take your personal property into account. This means you won’t lose your house, savings account, or other assets that belong to you and your family rather than your business.
The same goes if your business owes a debt, as the creditor can only pursue your business liabilities, not your personal belongings. This is why many company owners choose to form business entities that keep their personal and business assets and liabilities separate, especially if they’re in a field where lawsuits are a common threat.
So, if you’re concerned about the possibility of someone coming after your personal property due to a business debt or legal issue, we encourage you to contact us for help creating an asset protection plan that involves a specific type of business entity. Throughout our years of experience assisting clients across Utah, we’ve found that forming limited liability companies and corporations may provide a level of asset protection for business owners. Our law firm would be proud to represent your interests in creating a business entity, so call us today to protect your assets by implementing protective measures like this one.
Can Insurance Protect Your Assets?
Another asset protection strategy is professional liability insurance, which is meant to pay for any losses that qualify under your policy. Depending on your specific coverage, your policy could take on the financial burden of any lawsuits or creditor claims so you don’t have to pay for these from your own pocket.
This type of insurance is most common among doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals at risk of being sued by clients for malpractice, negligence, breach of contract, or misrepresentation. Even if it turns out the case against you doesn’t have merit, you’ll still need to pay legal fees for your defense case, which this type of insurance policy can cover.
If the lawsuit against you has merit and you’re found liable for financial damages, your professional liability insurance policy can pay the settlement on your behalf, up to the maximum coverage. Without insurance, you or your business would be responsible for paying legal fees and settlements, depending on your business entity. This could lead to the loss of your home and other personal belongings, or it could bankrupt your business, which is why it’s recommended that you consider adding insurance to your asset protection plan.
Experienced asset protection attorneys will carefully review your current situation and any potential threats against you or your business before determining which strategic measures might be right for you. If you’re curious how implementing strategies like insurance and other legal tools can protect your assets, call our Utah law firm to learn some asset protection insights from skilled estate lawyers.
How Can Knowledgeable Lehi, UT, Asset Protection Attorneys Assist You?
The asset protection law in Utah favors residents looking to preserve their assets and keep them safe from creditors and legal threats, so you can expect to have various legal tools to choose from when creating an effective asset protection strategy. However, this process can quickly become overwhelming due to the number of options available, as well as the complex details to work out during your asset protection efforts. That’s why you should seek legal counsel from experienced asset protection lawyers who are eager to guide you through the process of obtaining maximum protection.
Trusted Estate Planning Attorneys is a Utah law firm with extensive legal experience representing clients with questions or concerns about asset protection strategies of all kinds. We have assisted countless Utah business owners, high-net-worth individuals, homeowners, and others by implementing protective measures as needed. If you have questions about strategic measures that include life insurance policies, retirement accounts, offshore asset protection, and more, we’re happy to provide you with answers.
If you’re ready to learn more about our legal services or find out if you need an asset protection plan to help you protect wealth, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Lehi law offices to schedule your free in-depth case evaluation. Our lawyers will review your current circumstances to determine if you’re at risk of future claims, and then we’ll help you decide which strategic measures would be right for you. Call our Lehi law office at 385-993-3523 today to schedule an initial consultation with our trusted legal team.