Top Five Ways to Protect Wealth

Preserving wealth and ensuring a legacy is one of the main reasons people make estate plans. Usually, middle-income families need wealth preservation plans more than higher-income families. For a family of modest means, any wealth, such as a house, has an emotional value that far exceeds its financial value.

Time, not money, is usually a family’s most valuable asset. No one wants to spend a lot of time at a lawyer’s office. Usually, a St. Petersburg estate planning lawyer drafts and executes key wealth preservation documents in as little as one office visit. Frequently, wealth preservation clients come in with a vague idea of what they want, and they leave with exactly what they need.

Prenuptial Agreements

No one wants or expects the house to burn down, but responsible homeowners still buy fire insurance policies. Likewise, no one wants or expects a marriage to end in divorce, but responsible spouses still execute premarital agreements.

These agreements help couples prepare for the unexpected and unwanted. These agreements also strengthen marriages. A prenup puts everything in black and white and also prevents arguments over money, one of the main causes of marital strife, from poisoning a marriage.

Premarital agreements clearly distinguish marital and nonmarital property, set alimony guidelines, address inheritance matters, and perform other important functions. Furthermore, a new Florida law streamlines the prenuptial agreement drafting and enforcement process.

Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)

An LLC is basically a hybrid between a corporation and a partnership. LLCs have many of the same features as corporations and are as flexible as partnerships.

LLCs shield an owner’s personal assets for business activities, segregate liability amongst distinct business activities, and, if properly structured, help prevent personal creditors from seizing business assets to satisfy their claims.

Lifetime Trusts for Children

Parents often fear that the assets they intend to leave their children after they pass will be taken by a child’s spouse in the event of a divorce. Lifetime discretionary trusts for children allow the child to benefit from the trust while they are alive, but as long as the assets remain in trust, they’re largely immune from creditor claims, including divorce claims. So, a lifetime trust often overlaps with a premarital agreement.

Gifting Assets

Asset gifting is almost like giving beneficiaries their inheritances in advance. Transferring assets to family members or irrevocable trusts benefiting family members reduces the donor’s exposure to creditors. As a bonus, gifts into these types of trusts often decrease the grantor’s taxable estate for estate tax purposes.

Asset Protection Trusts

The assets in a revocable living trust are generally not protected from the trust creator’s creditors. However, a St. Petersburg estate planning lawyer may have a solution to this problem.

In some cases, domestic self-settled trusts allow the trust creator to be a trust beneficiary while still maintaining asset protection for the trust assets. So, an asset protection trust basically combines the tax advantages of an irrevocable trust with the flexibility of a living trust.

Work With a Compassionate Sarasota County Lawyer

The essential estate planning process isn’t as complicated as many people believe it is. For a confidential consultation with an experienced estate planning lawyer in Bradenton, contact Drude Tomori Law. Convenient payment plans are available.

Source:

doi.gov/ost/planning-future