Asset Protection

Asset protection is about reviewing the way you carry on your business, trade or profession, how you own your private and business assets and how to ensure that if the worst occurs, you do not lose everything you have worked so hard to create.

Asset Protection is about sensibly organising your affairs while things are going well to minimise the risk to the wealth diligently created in the event that things go wrong.

This is not just a strategy for business owners. The law does not allow you to be the sole judge of who you wish to give your property to on your death. If your Will is challenged, the court may decide to give the person making the claim a large part of your estate against your wishes. Asset protection is also about organising your affairs to prevent this from occurring.

Asset protection is ultimately about defeating creditors in ways which are immune to legal attack. A ‘mis-timed’ transfer for this purpose will be caught – and rendered ineffective – under various legal provisions if either the transferee knew the purpose of the transfer was to defeat creditors in particular circumstances; or if it can be reasonably inferred that the transferee knew of that purpose.

It is important to get the ownership of assets correctly structured from the outset. It will generally be too late to make effective defensive transfers of property once issues of solvency emerge. Because bankruptcy law is so technical, specialist advice should always be sought on the efficacy of any proposed asset protection structure.

Continuum Financial Planners have skills in relation to planning asset protection strategies – and a network of specialist advisers to assist with their implementation: if you believe you can benefit from this service Contact Us at your earliest convenience to ensure that your strategy will be effective when required.