Protect Your Assets in Your Estate Planning

Posted on: September 23rd, 2014 by Gary Hager

More money, more problems; that’s the way of the world. As you acquire more wealth, you’ll find that finding ways to have that wealth adequately taken care of, handled, and distributed becomes more and more complex, and as the law grows more arcane, you may feel that you are out of your depth. Fortunately, you have estate planners to help you identify the best way to ensure that your assets are protected no matter what happens. As you can imagine, this is a service just about everyone needs, but which few actually pursue – much to the chagrin of their friends and family!

Everyone wants a piece, and in the future you’ll want to make sure that your assets are protected against a wide range of individuals and entities seeking to appropriate some of your hard-earned wealth, such as tax collectors, creditors health-care providers, and more. A variety of legal apparatuses exist to protect your assets against such entities and their actions, but you have to take the initiative, select which tools you will use to protect your estate and assets, and then set that plan into motion well before it is ever needed. Much like insurance, this is a matter of planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

When Your Assets are Endangered…

Here are just some of the instances in which estate planning and asset protection can become incredibly vital:

1. In the event that you become mentally incapacitated.
2. The protection of your assets for your spouse after you have passed away.
3. The protection of your assets against a spouse’s re-marriage after you have passed away.
4. Planning for the special needs of any beneficiaries who are disabled.
5. Protecting assets for the benefit of your children in the case of divorce, bankruptcy, creditors, and/or lawsuits.

As you can see, there exists a wide variety of instances in which your wealth, earned by you and intended to benefit a specific set of individuals, can in fact fall into the hands of others. That’s why it’s so important to take the initiative and begin your estate planning now. The longer you wait, the more you risk the worst possible outcome. Act now, and avoid a tragic fate.