Wealth Preservation Planning and Our Process
In today’s litigious society, protecting one’s assets (business and personal) from predatory creditors is an essential component of an integrated estate and wealth preservation plan. In addition to the Florida statutory protections afforded certain of your assets (i.e., homestead, IRA’s, and annuities, just to name a few), common asset protection structures include the use of limited partnerships, limited liability companies, charitable remainder trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and domestic and/or offshore asset protection trusts. Each of the aforementioned asset protection structures provide varying levels of protection depending upon (i) the quality of the documents drafted, (ii) the state or country where such entity is domiciled and (iii) your level of risk tolerance (i.e., the level of assets you are willing to transfer/fund to such entity and the amount of control you are willing to relinquish over those assets). In addition, revisions to state statutes and ever changing case law often present a moving target when it comes to the optimal domicile for asset protection vehicles. Ultimately, the goal of wealth preservation planning is to create “moats and firewalls” around certain of your assets to thwart judgment creditors and reduce the risk of suit.
At the outset of our engagement, we will require that you provide to us a “Personal Financial Statement” utilizing the form we provide to you. It is imperative that you properly complete this document in order for us to undertake a careful analysis of the structure of your assets. Thereafter, and based on your level of risk tolerance, we will prepare a comprehensive “Wealth Preservation Design Memorandum” which will discuss your wealth preservation goals and provide our recommendation of the appropriate asset protection structures/vehicles to accomplish those goals. We will then schedule a “Design Conference” wherein we will present our recommendations to you and, again, based on your level of risk tolerance, you may elect to implement all or some of those recommendations. This is Phase I of our Wealth Preservation Process.
Phase II of our Wealth Preservation Process is the “Implementation Phase.” Based upon your choices of our recommendations and the engagement of our firm to implement your choices, we will form the requisite entities and custom draft your wealth preservation documents. Often, our clients wish to integrate their wealth preservation planning with their estate planning and, should you elect to do so, we will ensure each such plan is properly drafted and integrated. We will then schedule a meeting with you to review and execute your wealth preservation documents and, thereafter, commence the transfer/funding of assets into their appropriate wealth preservation vehicle.
We cordially invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your wealth preservation goals and desires.