Asset Protection & Family Trusts
Preserving your hard-earned personal wealth is important for lots of reasons. Many clients who seek advice from our asset protection solicitors are either facing significant life events, like divorce or exploring ways to safeguard their wealth for the future, for the benefit of both themselves and their families.
At Lawhive, our network of asset protection solicitors offers quick, affordable personalised legal advice and support on protecting your assets, helping you confidently make informed decisions about your personal wealth.
To learn more and work with an asset protection lawyer, contact our legal assessment team today for a free case evaluation and a fixed fee quote.
What is asset protection?
The main goal of asset protection is to preserve your wealth and make sure assets are not unnecessarily vulnerable to loss or being taken away. It involves different legal strategies that can be used to safeguard your assets from risks like creditors, bankruptcy, or tax.
While asset protection strategies can help reduce the risk of losing an asset, they must be done properly and in compliance with the law to avoid fraudulent activity or possible legal consequences.
An asset protection solicitor can help you understand which strategy is right for your needs and goals. Get in touch with our wills, trust, and probate lawyers to find out more.
Why is asset protection important?
Asset protection is key in estate planning and management because it helps safeguard your wealth and financial security from risks. It makes sure that significant investments like your home are protected and guarantees your loved ones receive their rightful inheritance when you die.
Without asset protection, your assets could be taken to settle debts, taxed, or lost during divorce or separation proceedings.
Who can I protect assets for?
Asset protection strategies can help safeguard assets for dependent children or loved ones with illnesses or disabilities.
Sometimes, individuals choose to protect assets for those facing mental health difficulties or struggling with addiction by setting up a trust. Trustees then control how and when assets are distributed if the beneficiary can't make informed decisions.
Asset protection trusts
Providing for your loved ones is a top priority, but it's not always straightforward. Simply passing on your wealth by making a will can pose risks and inefficiencies depending on your circumstances.
To mitigate these risks, there are several types of trusts you can set up to protect assets for your family including:
When establishing your trust, you'll appoint trustees to oversee your assets and those who will benefit from them (the beneficiaries).
You can provide instructions for how trustees should manage and distribute the assets. The trust continues to safeguard your assets even when you can't manage them yourself.
With a discretionary trust, you give your trustees the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances in the future.
A solicitor can help you choose and set up the right trust based on your circumstances. Contact our legal assessment team to find out more.
Lifetime Gifts
By gifting assets during your lifetime, you can potentially protect them from risks or claims that might arise later on.
Once the assets are given away, they no longer count as part of your estate and, if done correctly and at the right time, may be protected from creditors or legal disputes.
Lifetime gifts may also be used as part of a tax planning strategy by transferring assets to beneficiaries while you’re still alive. This reduces the size of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.
Alternatively, should you want to retain some control of assets, you might use a trust to decrease your estate for inheritance tax purposes without directly transferring assets to beneficiaries.
Family Investment Companies
Family investment companies can be used to protect assets instead of trusts.
A Family Investment Company (FIC) is a private company created under the Companies Act 2006 to manage family investments. Setting up an FIC is straightforward, involving registration with Companies House like any other private company.
Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements
Increasingly married couples are using pre-nuptial agreements or post-nuptial agreements to safeguard their assets in case of divorce
Cohabitation agreements are also becoming an increasingly common way for unmarried couples who live together to protect their wealth in case of separation.
How can Lawhive help?
As everyone's circumstances are different, protecting your assets can be complicated. Our asset protection solicitors can help you choose a strategy based on your circumstances, from setting up a trust to exploring other asset protection options such as cohabitation agreements or prenups.
To explore your options and discuss how to safeguard your assets, contact us for a free case evaluation and quote for the services of our wills, trusts, and probate solicitors.