Asset protection planning can help you to keep your assets safe so you can pass your wealth down to the people you love or so you can enjoy financial security during your senior years. Making a plan to protect your wealth is not just something that only very rich people should do. In fact, if you’re in the middle class and have managed to build up a nice nest egg that you want to serve as your legacy, it could be especially important for you to make an asset protection plan.
If you think you may need an asset protection plan or if you want to put a plan in place to protect your wealth, you should reach out to an asset protection planning lawyer at Frank & Kraft. We can work with you to do a personalized assessment of the biggest risks to your wealth and we can help you to make effective use of legal tools to mitigate or eliminate those risks. You should give us a call now to get started on keeping your wealth safe. It’s especially important for you to get legal help if you recognize any of these signs that you need asset protection planning.
You’ve built up a nest egg
As soon as you have begun to acquire assets, you should talk with an experienced attorney about the different kinds of risks that you could be facing. For example, once your wealth has grown enough that it’s no longer exempt from estate tax, you will want to make a plan to avoid financial loss when your assets transfer after your death.
Your children are irresponsible with money
You don’t just want to protect your assets for the rest of your life — you also want to make sure your wealth provides the highest quality of life for the people you love. If you want to leave an inheritance to your kids but you’re worried they aren’t responsible enough to manage the money, you have options. You could create a spendthrift trust so you can provide an inheritance to your children that is managed by a responsible trustee. The trustee can keep control of the trust assets and can distribute income or property to your children on a periodic basis in accordance with your trust document.
You’ve started a company or your business is growing
Business owners face special risks, both to their personal wealth and to the company. Your business could go bankrupt and be sued and destroy your personal wealth if you don’t have your ownership interest in the company structured properly. You could also end up losing your business in case of your disability or the company could be lost after your death due to a variety of factors such as high estate tax that forces the sale of company assets to a period of mismanagement during the probate process. There are options for protecting the organization you’ve built if you work with an asset protection planning lawyer who can help.
You’ve been diagnosed with a serious illness
When you get sick, your assets could be at risk due to high medical bills or because of the chances you’ll need long-term care or nursing home care. You need to find a way to try to protect your wealth in case of expensive medical care. You should also begin to think seriously about the legacy you want to leave and how you can facilitate the safe transfer of assets without worry that your wealth will be lost due to a long battle over who should inherit or other similar sources of loss.
You’re aging and worrying about the future
As you get older, the chances you’ll become incapacitated and the likelihood that you will need nursing home care both increase. Incapacity and high nursing home care costs could cause the loss of your assets unless you have worked with an attorney to make a Medicaid plan and an incapacity plan or to otherwise find ways to protect your wealth.
Getting Help with Asset Protection Planning
Asset protection planning is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and for the people you care about. You should not wait to make a plan to protect your wealth, as you never know when a risk could arise or a disaster could strike that destroys all you have worked to build. To make sure your assets are safe and secure, give us a call at 317-684-1100 or contact us online today. You can also join us for a free seminar to find out more about how asset protection planning works and why it’s so important for everyone to have a plan.
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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