Identity thieves are adept at "ghosting" your deceased love ones by stealing their personal information and using it to perpetrate fraud. Identity thieves use this information, for example, to open new accounts, commit health care fraud, obtain tax refunds. This short briefly explains how to prevent ghosting of your loved one after a death.

Homestead protections from creditors and homestead exemptions from local real property taxes differ dramatically from one location to another. This presentation explains the basics of homestead protections and how they differ between California and Texas. This presentation especially will be of interest to those concerned with protecting their homes from creditors.

Proactive asset protection helps protect your assets against future potential lawsuits. If you’re sued, how much will it cost you to prove you didn’t do anything wrong? Are you confident that the legal system will treat you fairly? Are you confident that you’ll never be sued? Asset protection planning must take place before you’re sued. After you’re sued, it will be too late.

You need asset protection to protect your assets against potential lawsuits. Conservative statistics suggest that over 40 million lawsuits are filed each year. Attorneys pay millions of dollars to advertise for the opportunity to sue you for personal injury, negligence, malpractice, discrimination, harassment, fraud, and a host of other causes. If you’re sued, how much will it cost you to prove you didn’t do anything wrong? Are you confident that the legal system will treat you fairly? Are you confident that you’ll never be sued? Don’t be. One statistic suggests that 45% of small businesses are currently involved in litigation. If you haven’t yet been sued yet, there’s a good chance you will be. Asset protection is anything that protects your assets from future lawsuits. But you must be proactive for asset protection planning. As a planning attorney, I can help you before you’re sued. After you’re sued, it will be too late.

How does anonymity protect your assets? Attorneys want to sue people with assets that are easy to find and easy to collect. If an attorney does not find significant assets in your name, then the attorney will be less likely to sue you.

How does anonymity protect your assets? Attorneys are eager to sue people with assets that are easy to find and easy to collect. If any occasion for a lawsuit arises – say, for example, you get in a fender bender – an attorney will search for your assets. Attorneys have access to powerful databases that quickly enable them to find businesses, vehicles, accounts, and property held in your name. If a search for your assets doesn’t reveal anything in your name, then the attorney will be less likely to sue or more likely to settle for insurance policy limits. Therefore, a first line of asset protection is anonymity – that is, keep your assets anonymous; do not own them in your name. You can accomplish this through a combination of tools that I leverage for my clients, including business entities and trusts. Keep it secret; keep it safe!

This short addresses state laws exempting vehicles -- including cars and trucks -- from collection by creditors. Examples are taken from the exemption laws of California, Texas, and Missouri. Some states provide more protection than others.

Each state has laws exempting assets including motor vehicles from creditor claims. These laws differ vastly from state to state. California protects $7,500 in equity in your motor vehicles. In other words, if a creditor who won a judgment against you and seized your assets to pay the judgment, he will not be able to access the first $7,500 in equity from your vehicle. Missouri protects only $3,000 in equity from your motor vehicles. Texas, by contrast, protects one motor vehicle regardless of its value from creditors. To protect your motor vehicle, know your state’s exemption amount. If you finance the vehicle and keep your equity under the exemption amount, then the vehicle will be protected from creditors. Of course, if you don’t pay the loan on the vehicle the lender can seize it regardless of your state’s exemption laws.

The Corporate Transparency Act requires personal information of individuals associated with business entities to be disclosed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). However, this does not necessarily blow asset protection strategies dependent in part upon privacy.

The Corporate Transparency Act requires that the personal information of individuals associated with business entities be disclosed to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Does this blow asset protection strategies? The Act’s purpose is to prevent criminals from using businesses for tax evasion, organized crime, money laundering, financing terrorism, and other illicit activities. The disclosures should be kept confidential and used by the government with significant privacy safeguards. The information collected will not be publicly available. Many asset protection strategies rely partly on privacy, that is, on making it difficult for non-governmental actors – especially potential plaintiff’s attorneys – to find your assets. The Act does not compromise such strategies. However, the Act adds a significant administrative burden to those who maintain entities for asset protection purposes. And ignoring the Act’s requirements could result in severe penalties.

To protect your assets, get out of California! California frequently tops the lists of worst jurisdictions for tort lawsuits compiled by groups including the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform and the American Tort Reform Foundation. Because avoiding lawsuits or obtaining favorable settlements is key strategy of asset protection, California's lawsuit culture makes it extremely difficult to protect your business and hard earned wealth.

To protect their assets, individuals and businesses are leaving California in record numbers. Why? The US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform rates California among the worst five states for lawsuits, and includes Los Angeles and San Francisco among jurisdictions “with the Least Fair and Reasonable Litigation Environment[s].” The American Tort Reform Foundation lists California among the worst “Judicial Hellholes” in the nation, commenting that “Lawsuit abuse and excessive tort costs wipe out billions of dollars of economic activity annually” in the state. Only trial attorneys consistently benefit from this situation. Yet California’s legislature and courts make it worse – not better – every year. A large part of asset protection is avoiding lawsuits or obtaining favorable settlements if they happen, but this is increasingly difficult in California. To protect your assets, including your business and hard-earned wealth, get out of California if you can!

Insurance policies are like the pawns on the chessboard of your asset protection strategy. They provide an essential line of defense, but they cannot protect your assets alone.

When you play chess, pawns provide a first line of defense and support your more powerful players, like the Queen and the Rook. But pawns are vulnerable and easily defeated. Insurance policies are the pawns in your asset protection strategy. They provide an essential first line of defense, but they rarely prevail alone. Exclusions are the first weaknesses of your policies. Read your insurance policies carefully to see what claims they exclude or will not cover. Policy limits are the second weakness of insurance policies. A policy may have, for example, a limit of $2 million. If a potential creditor knows that you have much more than $2 million worth of assets vulnerable to being seized, then the creditor will not settle for the policy limits. But if you have more powerful asset protection structures that make your assets difficult to find or reach, then the creditor will be more likely to settle for insurance limits. The pawn of insurance is essential, but it won’t protect your assets alone.

Taxing authorities like the IRS and local governments have powerful tools to enforce the payment of taxes. While some planning strategies may mitigate or reduce taxes, any asset protection plan that promises to completely avoid taxes is highly suspect. Protect your assets by paying your taxes.

You might get away with murder, but you won’t get away with not paying your taxes. Just ask Al Capone, who was sentenced to prison and fines … for what? Tax evasion. The IRS is a super-creditor. If you don’t pay your federal taxes, the IRS can seize your assets and even put a lien on your home. States and local authorities similarly have powerful tools to enforce their taxes. A local government can foreclose on your real estate if you don’t pay property taxes. Protect your assets from super-creditors by paying your taxes. Asset protection plans that promise to avoid taxes for residents of the U.S. are scams and may subject both planner and client to criminal prosecution for tax evasion or conspiracy to evade taxes. Don’t repeat Al Capone’s mistake. To protect your assets, pay your taxes!

Judges find foreign or offshore asset protection trusts contemptible. These trusts can provide powerful asset protection, leaving your assets out of the reach of U.S. courts and judgment creditors. However, judges can punish and coerce you as the grantor of the trust with jail or prison if you refuse to hand over those assets.

Offshore trusts can powerfully protect the assets of a U.S. citizen, but they can’t protect the citizen. In several cases, judges have jailed defendants for contempt of court when assets in offshore trusts were not returned to satisfy the court’s judgment. For example, one defendant spent 14 years in jail for refusing to turn over $2.5 million that the judge believed was hidden in an offshore trust. What’s the lesson? Judges are extremely powerful. If a judge believes that you’ve purposely hidden assets offshore to avoid the court’s authority, the judge may punish and attempt to coerce you into obeying with imprisonment under a contempt order. Take warning! Don’t do anything that will provoke a judge and carefully consider any offshore trust provisions that might leave you in jail for contempt, unable to satisfy a judgment against you.