California estate planning lawyers can help you understand and plan your gifting to avoid taxation on stocks or cash gifts. Gifting stocks may not be a bad idea in this market — while the value of stocks dropped to staggering lows across many corporations traded on the NYSE, many are on the rise in the first quarter of 2010. Given the pendulum-like nature of stocks, someone gifted stocks after your death may be able to cash them out and enjoy the liquid assets after you pass away. In the meantime, however, that is to say, before you die, gifting the stocks will allow them to continue to increase in value. This means more value for the recipient of the gift — and if you gift to a minor child, you may be able to take advantage of that increase — tax free — before your final will and testament is being read.

Newport Beach asset protection attorneys can tell you more about how gifting can work in your favor as well as that of your loved ones. If you have an interest in working gifting into your estate plan, contact your California asset management lawyer today.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

An LLC offers the same kind of protection that an S or C-corp does, making it extremely difficult for judgments against your company to affect your personal assets. The mistake that small business owners make when setting up an LLC is doing it themselves or online; you just can’t guarantee how well you will be protected personally if you don’t enlist the help of a California asset protection attorney.

In addition to protecting your personal assets by separating you from your company (which sole proprietorships or partnerships do not do), an LLC offers individual business owners to take advantage of the kind of tax breaks that small businesses have access to as partnerships. For company owners that are looking for ways to protect personal wealth and have some of the tax perks they may have enjoyed before they grew out of partnership status.

As good as an LLC may sound, the common mistake entrepreneurs make is assuming without legal counsel that it’s the best fit for them. The only way to know this for sure is to sit with a California asset protection attorney who understands exactly which business type (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, S-Corp or C-Corp) will give you the best protection and advantages that your company can get the most use out of.

Asset protection is an important part of estate planning as well. If you are a small business owner, you need to consider how an estate planning lawyer in California can keep your assets and estate safe from predatory creditors and those who may file suits against you or your business.

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.

California asset protection can safeguard your personal and business assets – but if you don’t have an asset protection plan in place, creating one after the fact will do you no good.

What to have in place:

First, don’t try this at home. You’ll need to enlist the help of a California asset protection attorney.

Create a COMPLETE list of your business’s assets. This inventory list should include every single item that is owned by your business. If you’re serious about staying protected, you’ll update this list of assets any chance you get. In most instances, a small business owner should do this quarterly – every other quarter at the least.

Hire a California Asset Protection Lawyer who stays on top of changes in federal law. Trying to stay up-to-date with laws that concern asset protection, exemptions, and protective trusts is not something you’ll have time to do if you’re a business owner. Your lawyer should be experienced enough to stay on top of changes in federal law that could affect your assets, both personal and business. He should alert you of changes and let  you know how the game plan will change to keep you protected.

Talk to your Newport Beach Asset Protection Lawyer about protection through insurance. If you run a small to medium-sized enterprise, chances are, there’s a way for creditors or dissatisfied clients to come after your personal and business assets. Damages insurance, property insurance, and personal injury insurance should all be part-and-parcel of your asset protection plan. Bring this up with your attorney and let him know you want it!