| Focus: Asset Insulation |
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Who should be concerned about asset protection? |
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The more “attachable” assets we own, the more the reward
for successfully securing a legal judgment against us. Anyone with
significant accumulated assets is more likely to be sued over a dispute than
someone with little or no exposed assets. Even families with modest assets
may have a home, savings, personal property they expect to utilize for their
family security are at risk of attachment. |
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What is an “attachable” asset? |
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Assets become attachable if they are titled (registered) in
the name of the defendant to a legal complaint. The judge “attaches” a lien
to the title of the property to recompense the plaintiff for damages awarded
by the court. If the defendant fails to remit the assessed amount of money
to the plaintiff, the awarded property is court re-titled to the plaintiff. |
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Under what circumstances could a court grant a judgment
to a plaintiff? |
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If the plaintiff successfully argues that the defendant’s
action or inaction caused damages directly or indirectly by negligence over
events they could have or should have taken greater precaution to oversee.
This theory of liability is so broad in scope so as to enable skilled
attorneys to prevail in ascribing liability to almost anyone even remotely
connected to the event. |
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I have never had a major claim I didn’t settle or have
insurance cover. What should I do? |
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We cannot control what claims may be surfaced against your
family in the future. All insurance companies have numerous exclusions from
all property and liability policies. All insurance policies have internal
limits on claims payout. Some insurance companies are reluctant to pay any
sizable claims and end up being litigated, some win, some lose. Divorce,
disputes in business and family are not covered at all. Plans are not
expected to render you “bulletproof”, plans are designed to give you a
leveraged position in negotiations based on the removal of the judgment tool
reward normally relied upon by claimants. |
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Should an affluent person own nothing in order to thwart
opportunists? |
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A well structured program enables ownership in a legal
container (entity) that has impediments to attachment. Such entities permit
the family to control the asset fully until an attack emerges. The
insulative qualities of such containers make it expensive and difficult to
outside penetration and thereby render the asset holder unattractive to
claims seeking financial rewards. |
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Are there any tax implication? |
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No, plans are tax neutral in that all income and estate
taxes are recognized by the beneficiaries of the plan. |
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Is all this legal? |
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Quite, all programs comply with US and international laws
and are disclosed to all authorities with jurisdiction to require
disclosure. |
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What is the cost of such planning? |
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Basic plans (domestic) are generally six to ten
thousand dollars complete.
Mid-range insulation (domestic) for families with diverse assets are ten to
sixteen thousand dollars complete. Sophisticated programs are
generally offshore domiciled and designed to utilize a series of impediments
toward invasion. Such plans are forty to as high as seventy-five thousand
dollars depending on number of distinct businesses and complexity of
holdings. |
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Will my day to day life be impacted? |
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A well designed program is no more difficult to live with
and administer on a day to day basis than you would ordinarily have. |
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How long does the planning and executing process take? |
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Most plans are fully functional within 90 days of
inception. |
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Can I get a brief phone consult to determine the
appropriateness of further pursuit of asset insulation planning? |
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Certainly, a brief email describing your concerns and
current structure will be responded to by telephone or email as you prefer. |
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 Did this page help? If not,
feel free to contact us with your
question or concern. |
While sitting at a traffic light
waiting for the green light, you are slammed from the rear by a
drunk driver who never saw you and didn't even attempt to stop.
Clearly, you are an innocent victim with no fault in the accident.
Most
companies used business assets to pay the damages. However,
in the case of employee complaints, insurance covered some
of the damages. Owners mentioned that the payment of
damages nearly put them out of business, which affected them
for a long period of time as they worked to rebuild the
business and recoup their losses.
