You’ve worked diligently your entire life and have saved, invested, and made plans to ensure your financial security and comfort in the event you become unable to work or decide to retire. You want to maximize the wealth and benefits of your hard-earned assets and understand that proper wealth preservation is critical to protecting them from negative consequences and penalties if you do not consult an experienced estate planning attorney.
Sheryll Law, P.C. assists high-net-worth individuals in safeguarding their assets through the use of sophisticated asset protection vehicles. After reviewing your estate, your asset protection attorney can provide legal guidance on how to minimize your tax liability while leaving the most to your loved ones.
What Is an Asset Protection Attorney?
Asset protection consists of legal strategies to protect assets from creditor claims, liabilities, lawsuits, and bankruptcy. An asset protection attorney is an attorney that works within the field with clients to find asset protection methods that fit their needs and situation.
Who Needs Asset Protection?
While almost anyone can benefit from asset protection, there are some individuals for whom it is critical. These include:
- High-net-worth families
- Individuals considering remarriage
- Individuals seeking to reduce the burden of estate tax
- Business owners
- Nursing home Medicaid recipients
- Community Medicaid recipients
Benefits of Working With an Asset Protection and Estate Planning Attorney
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) asset planning tools have become increasingly popular as an alternative to working with an asset protection attorney. These tools claim to help individuals create a professional asset protection plan without paying expensive attorney fees, but unsurprisingly, these tools come with several drawbacks.
There are plenty of benefits to working with experienced law firms when it comes to legal matters. While asset protection attorney fees may seem expensive initially, the advantages of working with an attorney are well worth the investment and are discussed below.
1. Comprehensive Understanding of the Law
Estate planning, tax law, and asset protection are complex legal topics that require an up-to-date understanding of local, state, and federal regulations as well as a solid legal foundation.
Asset protection lawyers leverage their legal understanding to the benefit of their clients. They can plan for potential future changes and avoid pitfalls that may otherwise result in adverse legal consequences or asset losses.
2. Develops Asset Protection Plans
Asset protection plans use several strategies to keep assets safe. These may include:
- Planned gifting;
- Credit shelter trusts;
- Limited liability companies;
- Retirement account contributions; and
- Irrevocable trusts.
An experienced asset protection attorney will understand your situation and needs and develop a plan that meets both your short- and long-term asset protection goals.
3. Develops and Implements an Asset Protection Strategy
An effective asset protection strategy considers current finances, long-term care, potential liabilities, and regulatory changes. Most asset protection attorneys stay abreast of the current regulatory landscape to provide their clients with cutting-edge strategies that operate at optimum effectiveness.
By having several different strategies in place, an estate planning attorney can choose and implement the right plan for the current situation while also adapting to changing conditions without compromising on protection coverage.
4. Offers Proactive Lawsuit Protection
While it’s possible to protect your assets after a claim, most asset protection law firms rely on proactive strategies that protect assets from a range of threats. Leaving the development and implementation of an asset protection plan until too late significantly decreases the chances of protecting assets effectively.
5. Offers Customized Asset Protection
Each individual’s situation is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to asset protection. This is a crucial reason why so many DIY tools fail, as they rely on templates that fail to identify specific threats or adequately cover the individual’s situation.
An experienced estate planning attorney can leverage multiple asset protection vehicles to provide their clients with customized protection that considers their existing wills, tax burden, property rights, and trusts.
6. Helps Avoid the Pitfalls of DIY Asset Protection
DIY asset protection tools fail at providing customized solutions, but that’s not their biggest drawback. The main pitfall of DIY asset protection tools is that they often assume the user has a baseline understanding of asset protection and is familiar with the relevant laws and regulations. These tools may fail to account for certain legal loopholes or oversights that can have profound legal implications for the client who uses these tools to draw up an asset protection plan.
7. Assists with Achieving Short- and Long-Term Goals
As with estate planning, asset protection must be flexible enough to meet short-term objectives while setting long-term goals. Whether it involves a durable power of attorney, assistance with the probate process, or planning for the client’s long-term care, estate planning takes a long view when it comes to estate protection.
A good asset protection attorney will have similar priorities in helping clients achieve their short-term objectives while also ensuring that their current strategy is flexible enough to handle future challenges.
About Jay P. Sheryll, Esq.
Jay and his team help their clients leave a legacy and achieve the peace of mind of knowing that they can protect their families if something happens to them. Sheryll Law, P.C. understands that their clients have worked hard to build their legacy. It is their pleasure to help them leave their money to their loved ones according to their wishes. Having observed other firms haphazardly draft wills and throw together some powers-of-attorney without any thought to the planning aspect, Jay realized he could fulfill a need for East End Long Island clients.
Sheryll Law, P.C.: Your Asset Protection Lawyers on the East End of Long Island, New York
The estate planning attorneys at Sheryl Law, P.C. provide asset protection planning services to help Long Island residents preserve their hard-won wealth for themselves and their beneficiaries. Ready to secure your future and the future of your loved ones? Contact us at (631) 206 5893 or fill out our form to schedule a consultation.
Copyright© 2022. Sheryll Law, P.C. All rights reserved.
The information in this blog post (post) is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction. No information in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author or the law firm, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting based on any information included in or accessible through this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
Sheryll Law, P.C.
633 East Main Street, Suite 2
Riverhead, NY 11901
(631) 206-5893
https://sheryll-law.com/
