Various investment accounts, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs), carry a certain amount of protection in the interest of justice. Federal laws protect numerous retirement plans, but many states also offer asset protection trusts that safeguard homesteads, annuities, and life insurance.
Certain assets are exempt from creditor claims and from lawsuit judgments. They cannot be touched, and you will not lose them. Some exempt assets include ERISA qualified retirement plans (think 401(k) or pension plans) and homesteaded property.
A living trust does not protect your assets from a lawsuit. Living trusts are revocable, meaning you remain in control of the assets and you are the legal owner until your death. Because you legally still own these assets, someone who wins a verdict against you can likely gain access to these assets.
Once it has a judgment, a creditor may serve you with notice of a debtor's examination. The notice will order you to appear at a specific place at a certain time and testify, under oath, about your assets. If you don't show up, the court could hold you in contempt of court and issue a warrant for your arrest.
Trusts have gained a reputation for being the most effective asset protection tools known today. They have proven to be more effective than any other financial entity at protecting one's assets from creditor claims, lawsuits, and just about any type of legal threat.
For your personal assets, such as your home you can hide your ownership in a land trust; and your cars you can hide in title holding trusts. These documents can keep your association with these items out of the public records.
With a judgment against you, a home, car, jewelry, bank account, and any other valuable assets may be up for grabs by creditors. If you don't have any valuable property and you're not earning any income, you may be “judgment proof.” A judgment proof debtor is safe from a court judgment for collection.
All states have designated certain types of property as "exempt," or free from seizure, by judgment creditors. For example, clothing, basic household furnishings, your house, and your car are commonly exempt, as long as they're not worth too much.
This may include bank accounts, wages, real estate, vehicles, boats, personal items, and more. In this article, I will discuss five steps you can take to protect your assets before you get sued.
A trust can be a great way to protect your assets and help provide income to your family if you pass away.
When your creditor has a court order against you, they can apply for another court order that secures the debt against your home or other property you own. This is called a 'charging order'. ... After your creditor gets a charging order, they can usually apply to the court for another order to force you to sell your home.
That type of trust in California is permitted and can function fairly effectively to shield assets from the children's creditors as long as those assets remain in the trust. But someone cannot gain the same protection if they are the creator of the trust and the beneficiary of the trust.
States such as Florida and Texas have laws that prevent creditors from seizing any money that is held inside an annuity or cash value life insurance policy.
Here in California, inheritance asset protection may be especially vital. Inheritance Asset Protection strategies go well beyond creating a Living Trust or designating beneficiaries on a bank form. Protection strategies add only a little extra work to the estate planning process, but they can prove highly effective.
How Much Does an Asset Protection Trust Cost? Asset Protection Trusts in Estate Plans are generally not cheap. For a simple domestic plan that's not complex, legal fees could range anywhere from $2000 to about $4000. More complicated Trusts could run up towards the $5000 range.
With a revocable trust, your assets will not be protected from creditors looking to sue. That's because you maintain ownership of the trust while you're alive. Therefore if you lose a lawsuit and a judgment is awarded to the creditor, the trust may have to be closed and the money handed over.
To get into your bank account, the creditor must get a court order. Specifically, this means that the creditor must sue you (take you to court) and win. Only after the judge enters a judgment against you (meaning the creditor won the lawsuit against you) can the creditor have access to your bank account.
While a creditor cannot easily look up your bank account balance at will, the creditor can serve the bank with a writ of garnishment without much expense. The bank in response typically must freeze the account and file a response stating the exact balance in any bank account held for the judgment debtor.
Unless you previously paid the creditor using only cash or money orders, the creditor probably already has a record of where you bank. A creditor can merely review your past checks or bank drafts to obtain the name of your bank and serve the garnishment order.