Asset protection lawyers help you to take concrete steps to ensure that your assets are protected from the biggest risk factors that you face. When you work hard to acquire wealth, you deserve to be able to use that wealth to achieve financial security for yourself and for the people you love. Unfortunately, there are many different risks to the money and property you have worked for. You need to identify those risks and find ways to mitigate them using the most effective legal tools. Frank & Kraft can help. 
Many of the risks you face exist during your lifetime, such as the possibility that you will have to spend down your assets if you need costly nursing home care that is not covered by insurance. However, these risks you face during the course of your life are not the only dangers to the property you have worked for. You want your money and property to provide a better life for your loved ones — but the problem is that there are ways in which your heirs or beneficiaries could end up putting your assets at risk.
How Your Heirs Could Put Your Assets at Risk
Your heirs or beneficiaries could put your assets at risk if they do not know how to manage money, if they are irresponsible with the money you provide to them, or if they do not take care to protect their inheritance in the event of a divorce.
If you have investments or other property that require knowledgeable and hands-on management, your heirs or beneficiaries may not be up to the task of taking over this management when you pass away. If that is the case, they could end up losing the money as a result of mismanagement or because they make bad investments. In such circumstances, your best option may be to create a trust and name as the trustee a person who you are confident will appropriately manage the investments and safeguard the assets that you want to protect. You can specify your desired heir as the beneficiary of the trust and the trustee will need to manage investments in his or her best interest. You can provide specific instructions for how the money and property in the trust is to be used to enhance the quality of life of the designated beneficiary.
Trusts can also be very useful in the event that your heirs or beneficiaries are not responsible with money. If your loved ones are likely to squander an inheritance quickly or to lose it to creditors or bankruptcy, a spendthrift trust can be the best answer. These types of trusts are specifically designed to provide for irresponsible heirs because these trusts ensure that heirs cannot access the principal and cannot use the assets held within the trust for collateral on loans. Again, you will name a responsible person as a trustee to manage the spendthrift trust and you can provide specific instructions for when and how money or property from the trust is to be provided to your heirs.
Placing money or other property in a trust that names only your chosen heir as the beneficiary can also help to ensure that the assets in the trust are not lost in the event of a divorce. The bottom line is, trusts can give you control in many different ways if you are concerned about what will happen to assets that you leave to heirs or beneficiaries after you are gone. While they are just one of many tools you can use to protect assets, they are a powerful and versatile tool.
Getting Help from Asset Protection Lawyers
Frank & Kraft can provide you with invaluable assistance if your heirs or beneficiaries are not responsible with money and you fear that they will quickly squander an inheritance that you had hoped to provide for them. You can make effective use of legal tools to ensure that the generous inheritance you provide is not lost but is instead used to enhance your loved ones quality of life for a long time to come.
To find out more about how our asset protection lawyers can assist you in protecting your wealth from irresponsible heirs or beneficiaries or from other sources of loss either during your lifetime or after your death, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 317-684-1100 or contact us online at any time to get personalized help creating a plan to identify risks and protect the wealth you’ve worked so hard to build.
Paul A. Kraft, Estate Planning Attorney
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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