Have you spoken to your Orange County estate planning attorney recently? Have you ever taken the time to discuss with a wealth strategist what your estate may be worth to you and your loved ones?

Now is the time more than ever.

With estate tax laws changing in the not to distant future, now is the time to discuss the nuts and bolts of estate planning. If you have yet to do this, you won’t want to wait any longer. If you have already done this and think that you’re somehow safeguarded, you’ll want to put a call in to your California asset protection attorney to make sure this is the case.

The fact is, the laws regarding estate taxes and asset taxes are changing. Because of these changes, your estate and assets may be at risk.

You need to know sooner rather than later whether or not the changes in these tax laws will have any affect on your estate or how your assets will be taxed.

If you have not yet created a trust, discuss how this might help certain assets within your estate if some of the new estate taxes will apply to you and your estate.

If you’re like most people, chances are you’ve been putting this discussion off. Now is the time to press pause and contact your Southern California estate planning attorney. If you wait any longer you could be putting yourself at unnecessary risk. Know your rights and let your attorney help you decide what is best for your estate and assets!

Recent statistics indicate that Californians, and indeed Americans in general are not planning their estates. Of course, we have to consider the mass layoffs, the Wall Street scandal that has cost Americans billions, and the slowing of consumer activity.

While these are certainly understandable reasons why estate planning may not seem important, it actually makes it more important than ever.

Protect your assets: even if you have a fraction of what you had five years ago, you need to discuss with a California estate planning lawyer what you can do to protect what you still have.

Save yourself from creditor harassment: if you have assets in a trust or other sheltering vehicle, you can foreclose on a home and not worry about losing what is protected within your estate in offshore and most domestic trusts—but you won’t know if you qualify for this if you don’t discuss it with your Newport Beach asset protection attorney.

According to the most recent statistics concerning wealth management and estate planning, including power of attorney, trusts, and will preparation, 13 percent less Americans are estate planning in 2010 than were in 2007. According to the poll which was conducted by Lawyers.com, just over 70 percent of those asked noted that saving money was more important than estate planning. So where’s the problem? If you’re not protecting what you are earning you it is vulnerable and can easily become the prey of predatory lenders and creditors!

Protect what is yours and discuss the best ways to do it for your unique financial situation. Contact a California estate planning lawyer today—have your questions answered and stop putting off the planning of your estate!

Many people think that when they create a new business venture as an LLC that the assets held therein are completely bulletproof. While it is true that LLCs offer phenomenal protection while also offering great tax benefits to small and medium-sized business owners, the truth of the matter is that when creditors want what they feel they’re owed, they will exercise their rights to the fullest extent of the law. The importance of California business transaction lawyers starts to come into play on what could turn into a battlefield; you need an experienced tactician on your side.

When you create your new LLC, do it with the counsel of a California business transactions attorney to make sure you know exactly what is protected and how. You need to be aware of your creditors and the moves the can pull to get what they want. There are options to make things more difficult to access, but you should NEVER try to understand and implement these on your own – you’re not a legal professional, and you want your company and what it owns safe… and legal.

A creditor can obtain a judgment or foreclose on property if you owe them money. Talk to your California asset management attorney about how this can be avoided and/or ways to establish asset protection for your LLC in California that will better protect what your business entity owns.

California estate planning attorneys have had their eye on this story today. Anyone who watches the news knows by now that a man named Joseph Stack purposefully crashed a plane into the IRS building in Austin, Texas last week.

What many people don’t know is that when he crashed, he killed a man named Vernon Hunter. Hunter’s family is now suing Stack’s estate, and while they did tell the media that their hearts go out to Stack’s wife Stacy, they are aware that she is the executor of his estate.

Imagine your spouse or child in a situation not unlike this one: you’ve passed away and a judgment against your estate is something that your loved one will have to be responsible for while also grieving his or her loss. Not only is this menatlly and emotionally taxing, it’s also a responsibility laden with a variety of issues, including proper record keeping, no formal education in estate planning, and perhaps worst of all, clouded judgement caused by fatigue and being overwhelmed.

These are all good reasons to seek out the help of a Newport Beach estate planning lawyer. An attorney that specializes in trusts and estates can tell you whether your estate should name a family member as the trustee or executor. Only after reviewing your very unique situation should the decision be made — and it should be made by someone who knows the law to the letter, not by some Internet program that can’t advise you otherwise.

If you’re ready to start planning your estate, or if you’d like to revise the trustee of your estate, call Matsen today. Our experienced estate planning and California asset protection lawyers can help you decide what’s best for your estate and your family.

Many times business owners – even sole proprietors – don’t read what they’re signing because they feel they just don’t have the time to deal with it. True, reading through everything you sign is clearly time-consuming. Nonetheless, not reading contracts is a real no-no. Business owners have no idea the mess they can get themselves in by not reading a contract thoroughly; always have your California asset protection lawyer review important and/or lengthy contracts.

It’s so easy to overlook things that are obvious to an attorney. For example, you should never sign something as yourself – sign all documents in the name of the company you own. If you sign something using your name, naming yourself as an individual offering some sort of product guarantee, creditors and customers filing judgments can come after you as an individual rather than coming after the company, which likely has far better protection than you do as an individual.

Talk to your Newport Beach asset protection attorney about adding liability protection and including it as a clause somewhere in every contract you sign. This can be of enormous benefit if something comes up unexpectedly. Liability protection for your business and you as an individual can save you from a lot of heartache. If an accident occurs in your store or even in the parking lot of your shop, you will thank yourself for having liability insurance. And remember, it does you no good to wish you had it, so get it before something happens.

Contact an Orange County Asset Protection Attorney today. The Matsen team can guide you through asset protection planning to meet your unique needs as a business owner.