Choosing a retirement savings fund can be a tough choice, but in tough economic times and many unsavory characters in the lending business as well as predatory lenders laying in wait for people to slip up, protecting your retirement earnings has never been more important.

A private retirement plan has much better protection when creditors come knocking. Because what it held by a private retirement fund is considered “essential to your retirement,” the protection it offers is a definite upgrade from an IRA, which will only protect your assets to a certain degree and in specific circumstances.

But there’s news about private retirement funds that make them even sweeter: if you don’t have one set up yet, you may do so… and you can transfer monies and other assets from your IRA into your new private retirement plan and the assets will be protected after the transfer is complete.

Conversely, if you have an existing private retirement plan and you’d like to marry it into your IRA, you may do so, and the assets from the private retirement plan will still have the same protection it did before, so long as there is a paper trail that proves the assets were initially within the private retirement plan. You can work with your asset protection lawyer in Orange County to ensure you have all the proper documentation on file.

It’s food for thought and can offer a great deal of protection and can also avoid “fraudulent transfers” during tough times. It’s worth your time to discuss it with an experienced California business transactions attorney.

Asset protection in California is a great tool – but it’s a serious tool, and should not be used in a cavalier or careless manner. Those who try to use asset protection after a judgment or divorce papers have already been served are walking a fine line… a line that could be deemed fraud. Once this line has been crossed, the consequences are severe and things will not pan out in your favor.

The proper and responsible thing to do is sit down with a California asset protection attorney BEFORE you experience a life change that could affect your assets. Speak to your attorney about protecting what is rightfully yours before a divorce, before going into a new business , or before entering into any agreement that will mean you owe money to a creditor, including purchasing a new home or car.

So what’s the final word? Use asset protection a) before any major life changes, and b) with the help and guidance of a California asset protection lawyer.

If you have any questions or any uncertainties regarding when you should use asset protection, contact your Newport Beach asset protection lawyer today.

In many cases, a great percentage of a person’s liquid assets may be held in a 401(k), Roth IRA, IRA, or other type of deferred compensation or retirement plan. Many of these plans will keep your assets safe in the event of a lawsuit, but again, the only way to be 100 percent sure of this is to discuss the parameters of the plan with your Orange County asset protection attorney.

While deferred compensation and retirement plans may keep your money safe in certain situations, laws change, and you must have a firewall to protect what is rightfully yours. That’s why you must have proper liability and/or malpractice insurance, depending on your profession. Protecting your liquid and hard assets with liability insurance is a way to create some peace of mind. Keeping your money in retirement funds will create more peace of mind. But if you’re the kind of person who wants to make sure that all your bases are covered, talk to your Orange County estate planning lawyer about the options you have for creating trusts for your retirement plan(s), your home, and the various soft and hard assets you use to run your business. Separating assets by way of trusts or by including them in different LLCs, you can avoid a lawsuit against your whole estate or whole worth.

Discuss the options you have for protecting your money: Whether it’s retirement plans or liability insurance, trusts, or a combination of all three, you can rest easy knowing that a highly experienced lawyer has reviewed your assets and can tailor a plan to meet your specific estate planning needs.

To begin, there is something called an internal claim – this type of claim essentially covers the type of accidents or other occurrences that affect only one aspect of your business. Say, for example, that your corporation owns a restaurant and a patron was burned on a plate that was too hot when it arrived to his table even though your staff informed him the plate was too hot and to be cautious. In this instance the (internal) claim could only go after the assets of the restaurant (such as equipment there and the real property owned by the restaurant), and not the assets held by other companies under the umbrella of your corporation. In addition, this claimant would not be able to sue for your personal assets.

The next type of claim is an external claim. This type of claim applies to another kind of scenario. For example, if your corporation owns a forklift and a pedestrian walks by while the forklift operator is not paying attention (and found to be negligent) and hits the pedestrian, the injured party may be able to sue for other assets held by other entities of your corporation and even go after your personal assets.

Both internal and external claims are good cause for steel belted asset protection. A California asset protection attorney such as Jeff Matsen can help you devise an asset protection plan in which different entities owned by your corporation are held by many different companies. An LLC can be established to hold real property, another can be set up to own equipment, and Matsen may also suggest an asset protection trust to own your home – this will make it far more difficult for a claimant to sue for your personal real property.

Talk to a California estate planning attorney who offers asset protection for corporations. It could be the best business decision you ever make.

One of the many things successful small business owners overlook is the proper separation of assets, including real property, liquid assets, and intellectual property. Without California asset protection, a judgment brought against your business or you as an individual could cost everything you have earned. The way to avoid “getting taken to the cleaners” by a lawsuit or other claim is to protect what you have in separate trusts, companies, and if married, through marital property planning.

Depending on how much you own and how large your business is, you may need to set up multiple California LLCs and trusts to shelter everything from your home to your business equipment, any other real property, and any liquid assets. The way this works best is by separating what you own as much as possible so that if a judgment is brought against one entity in your possession, it cannot go after the assets or monies that are held by other entities you possess.

For example, if someone sues your company by name, they can only take what is owned by that company, and not your personal assets. If the company is an LLC and all it owns is the equipment used to run, the judgment can only go after those assets. Conversely, if someone were to sue you as an individual, they would not be able to go after the assets held by your company, or those held in any trust that is not in your name, including an offshore trust held in the name of a trustee.

If you are a small business owner, consider estate planning and asset protection in California before something undesirable occurs. Jeff Matsen can design a California asset protection plan for the protection of all you’ve worked so hard to attain. Start today by contacting Jeff Matsen, the Los Angeles and Newport Beach wealth management expert awarded a perfect score from the The Nationally Renowned Attorney Rating Service.

Sadly, many malpractice suits have little to no validity, and those that are valid are stigmatized by the those that are not. So what’s the bottom line? A doctor or surgeon facing a frivolous malpractice suit has a 25% chance of losing — not very good odds. If they do lose and personal assets are not protected, the plaintiff can go after them. Representation chosen by such plaintiffs are after a high settlement for their client. That’s why Jeff Matsen suggests asset protection for doctors and surgeons, especially those who have a high net worth.

Even physicians who have phenomenal malpractice insurance can find themselves vulnerable, and the insurance they have may not cover certain malpractice lawsuits. Structuring wealth and the ownership of your business through careful  Newport Beach asset protection can keep your personal wealth and assets safe from a malpractice lawsuit.

A doctor or surgeon facing a malpractice claim may be up against an aggressive former patient. Once the former patient (the plaintiff) obtains legal judgment against a surgeon or physician, the medical practitioner actually becomes the debtor of the former patient — that means they can go after both personal and business assets. This scary truth makes asset protection for doctors exceptionally important because it gives the doctor control over his assets and estate, but will not name him as the legal owner of said assets.

Consider asset protection before a former patient files malpractice. Deciding to protect your assets at the eleventh hour is generally not as effective as being prepared before disaster strikes. If you are a doctor or surgeon or know someone who is, Jeff Matsen can help protect assets by structuring an offshore corporation, LLC or with other options in asset protection. Contact us today to find out how you can shield your assets from malpractice.

According to this article in USA Today, more and more people are getting creative in their schemes for happiness, and many are doing so by starting small businesses after they are laid off from large companies. In fact, a small business is not at all a bad place to be right now, considering President Obama’s recent announcement regarding ”a small-business financing plan that includes reduced loan fees and incentives for banks to do more lending.”

If you are one of these brave people who have chosen to combat economic conditions by creating your own small business, remember that going from being an employee to being “The Owner” brings with it many changes, not the least of which are changes in your estate plan. Small business owners tend to be less liquid than traditional employees, putting much of their earnings back into the business for growth, which means estate planning for business owners requires a different strategy than for other families.

Whatever your scheme or situation, our firm can help you create the right plan to protect your assets and your family.

In an article entitled “Covering Your Assets” Journal writer Mark Klimek asserts that despite some IRS opposition, tax court rulings in recent years have endorsed the use of FLPs when they are used to preserve a family business for future generations.

“Setting up such a partnership could be especially useful right now for families with businesses,” according to the article. “The Obama budget calls for the estate tax to be restored next year at a rate of 45 percent for estates worth more than $3.5 million, or $7 million for couples. Income-tax increases for high earners are on the agenda as well.”

The article goes on to describe many of the dos and don’ts of FLPs, but of course each family’s situation is special, and you should consult an estate planning attorney before making decisions about any specific strategy.

In any case, the time to act is now. According to one expert quoted in the Journal article, “There’s a realization that any kind of estate planning you can do this year is good, because 2009 will probably end up being the most favorable year for taxes ever.”

As we are all aware, over the last few decades expanding theories of liability and the proliferation of litigation has given increased emphasis to Asset Protection Planning to the extent that it is now a well recognized area of practice. However, traditional Estate Planning has always encompassed the concepts of asset preservation and protection. Accordingly, all of us who have business owners, physicians and other professionals as clients need to be able to integrate our Estate and Business Planning with Asset Protection Planning in order to properly serve the needs of our clients. Certainly the area of Asset Protection Planning is a concern for all of these types of clients.

Why has there been such an increase liability exposure over the past thirty years? There are several reasons, the principal ones of which are as follows:

1. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have made huge contingency fees on malpractice and other kinds of claims and class action lawsuits. Obviously, the financial reward drives this kind of legal action.

2. The deep pocket theory where those who are “have nots” want a piece of the assets of those “who have”.

3. We live in a victim-oriented society where everyone tries to place blame with financial remuneration attached to it on someone who has the financial resources to pay.

4. The increase media and society awareness of claims results in high notoriety for these types of lawsuits and creates a ready and willing audience of plaintiffs.

Business owners, physicians and other professionals are especially high profile targets because of the public perception of wealth of these types of individuals. The job of the lawyer is to assist these types of clients in setting up and arranging their assets and affairs in a manner that will successfully transfer their legacy to their heirs in the most orderly and tax saving manner while at the same time preserving and protecting their property during lifetime.

I like to talk about implementing the three “Ps”:

· Preserve assets for their heirs and family by structuring the proper Estate Plan and by reducing death taxes.

· Protect assets during their lifetime by creating liability shielded entities and lowering financial profiles

· Process the plan by properly designing and implementing strategies in the most practical and skillful manner.

After several discussions and meetings with my Wealth Counsel colleagues and other attorneys, I have devised a significant and fundamental approach to addressing all the legal and tax concerns of business owners, physicians and other professionals by implementing the three “Ps” in a systemic tiered approach which I call “The Ladder of Success”. Each step on the ladder or level of strategy provides immediate asset protection and estate planning benefits. Some or all levels of the complete ladder will be applicable to every business owner, physician and professional depending on the individual state of their career development and net worth. The steps on the ladder and the levels of strategy are as follows:

Level One: The Business Entity Itself:

This is the entity that must shield and protect the business owner or professional from direct claims against the operating business. There are also several tax and management issues that have to be addressed at this level dealing with the operation of the client’s business.

Level Two: Basic Estate Planning:

This is the fundamentals of Estate Planning involving the Revocable Trust, Pour Over Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, Healthcare Directives and Medical Record Release Forms. This level has to be integrated with all the other levels so that the entire plan is cohesive and well coordinated.

Level Three: Exemptions and Marital Planning:

At this level, we examine and review exemptions such as ERISA Plans, homesteads, insurance and annuities. Many of these exemptions are state law driven and have to be analyzed on the state of residence basis. Marital planning can be very important with respect to the division of assets between the working and non-working spouse and in some states it is critical as to the manner of how property title is held with respect to the married couple.

Level Four: Liability Protected Entities for Investment Assets:

It is especially critical that real estate be protected from claims that may well be either beyond the limits or outside the coverage of insurance and the limited liability company seems to be the best vehicle for this purpose. Other types of investments can also be placed in LLCs for additional protection.

Level Five: Domestic Modular Planning with Asset Protection Trusts:

As we are all aware, many states have now adopted favorable Asset Protection Trust legislation such as Nevada, Delaware and Alaska. This means that the Domestic Asset Protection Trust can be utilized to hold title to the member interests of LLCs that hold the underlying investment assets.

Level Six: Offshore Modular Planning with Foreign Asset Protection Trusts:

For those clients who have sufficient liquidity and preferably some international connections or attributes, the Offshore Asset Protection Trust can be utilized as the owner of offshore LLCs into which investments and capital can be placed. Because of the jurisdictional limitations involved, this approach maximizes the Asset Protection potential for the client.

Level Seven: Advance Estate Planning Techniques:

This level examines more advanced Estate and Asset Protection Planning techniques such as GRATS, Private Annuities and QPRTS as well as certain types of insurance vehicles.

In conclusion, by addressing the concerns of professional and business owner clients in this tiered analysis program, the Preservation, Protection and Processing of Estate and Asset Protection Planning can all be accomplished. This area will be more specifically addressed and discussed during a presentation that I will make at the upcoming WealthCounsel Symposium to be held in Chicago on August 6, 7 and 8.

In a time when big businesses are dumping cargo like crazy just to stay afloat, the small, independently owned businesses—which are less top-heavy and have fewer overhead expenses—are perfectly positioned to make it to the finish line.

If you are planning to jump in and start your own business, desire and a dream will only get you so far. You also have to have a plan. Steve Leer states in his article that your entrepreneurial success depends on how much forethought you’ve put into your business. Unfortunately, this is where new entrepreneurs can tend to get stuck. Our firm can help you get past the daunting early stages of writing a business plan, filing paperwork, and creating entities; leaving you to enjoy the active part of your business—working with clients or customers, hands-on creation, artistry, or production.

Our firm finds inspiration by helping our clients achieve their goals. Let us help you do what you find inspiring as well.