One of the most crucial actions you can take for your family is to protect your assets from attachment, seizure, reckless beneficiaries, and unnecessary taxes. Both business and personal actions can potentially harm the wealth you have amassed during your lifetime, and it is wise to work with a knowledgeable estate planning attorney to ensure that your financial future is secure.
These legal tools are meant to help you preserve your assets when faced with life’s challenges, such as sudden astronomical medical bills or a former spouse’s lawsuit. You do not have to be a multi-millionaire to benefit from these financial tools that our legal team at Tully Law Firm, PC, could make sure you have. Let a Riverhead asset protection lawyer show you how to use them confidently.
Assets are at risk from outside sources owners may have no control over, but also from rising taxes and attachments, for example, to pay for nursing home care or because an assessment caused higher property taxes. Depending on how a business is chartered, a person’s assets may be at risk of attachment for business losses.
Here are some tools asset holders can use with the help of an estate planning attorney:
Our Riverhead asset protection attorneys build family-like relationships with our clients. We sit at the table with each of them to create essential documents they will need to plan every stage of family life, including protecting their assets for future generations. We stay with them for a lifetime to ensure our mutual plan is successful.
New York homeowners can declare between $75,000 and $150,000 in exemptions under the homestead protection law, depending on the county they live in. This means a portion of the property cannot be attached by creditors or as an asset in other actions. Homeowners are protected up to $150,000, which can rise to $300,000 in protection for couples as of 2024.
Other off-limit assets that are not subject to attachment or seizure include retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, IRAs, and pensions. A Riverhead attorney could examine a person’s assets to help them understand the necessary actions they should take to protect them.
Domestic Asset Protection Trusts are valid in 17 states, although New York does not offer them currently. These trusts are self-settled, which allows grantors to be discretionary beneficiaries. However, in New York, a Riverhead attorney could help a person see if a hybrid trust may be equally effective in some situations for protecting assets, or it may be possible to set up a trust in a state that agrees to them.
When a trustor’s beneficiary cannot handle money or spends it recklessly, a spendthrift trust limits asset allocation.
Offshore trusts name the maker as the beneficiary when the trust is moved outside the U.S. with an offshore trustee administering it. New York courts do not have any jurisdiction over these trusts.
Dynasty trusts are not dissolved after the grantor dies as other irrevocable trusts are. A dynasty trust can exist for generations. They are structured to pass wealth down and avoid estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes if there are assets held in the trust.
Our Riverhead asset protection lawyers are dedicated to helping families preserve and pass down the wealth amassed over a productive lifetime. Taxes, attachments, business claims that pierce the corporate veil, sudden devastating medical bills, and vindictive family members can all undermine the transition of generational wealth. Our goal at Tully Law Firm, PC, is to protect your assets so they benefit your heirs as you determine.
Estate planning can seem daunting, but with an experienced team of lawyers who have your family’s best interests in mind, we can do this together. Contact our firm today to set up a consultation.
