Spoke at an international conference about creating marketing channels for jungle gyms in Hanford, CA. Spent two years building robotic shrimp for farmers.
The term “living will” is a bit of a misnomer, as living wills are not wills in the traditional sense. A typical will takes effect upon a person’s death, providing instructions such as for the distribution of his or her property and other assets. A living will, on the other hand, allows a person to specify medical treatment and care instructions that take effect while he or she is still living. This is a part of estate planning. For example, if a person becomes mentally incapacitated or otherwise unable to make or communicate health care decisions, a living will provides family members and hospital personnel with the person’s medical care instructions and preferences. This section provides information and resources related to living wills and other health care directives. You’ll also find an overview of state living will laws, a sample living will form, and a discussion of a health care power of attorney.
What Is a Living Will?
A living will is a legal document that contains a person’s medical care and treatment instructions. The purpose of a living will is to allow a person to express health care decisions while he or she is mentally able to do so. In general, health care providers are required to obey the instructions contained in a person’s living will.
What Types of Procedures Are Covered in a Living Will?
States have passed laws covering living wills and other forms of health care estate plans. Because there are differences in these laws, it’s important to be fully informed of applicable regulations and requirements as you begin to plan your living will. In many states, a living will allows a person to express instructions concerning the use of a respirator to maintain breathing, the use of procedures such as blood transfusions and dialysis, and the injection of intravenous fluids and nutrients to sustain life. Keep in mind that a living will allows you to both refuse and to accept certain forms of treatment. For example, a person can refuse to undergo blood transfusions while stating an intent to receive intravenous drugs.
Benefits of Creating a Living Will Now
A person who creates a valid living will can feel secure in knowing that his or her medical care instructions will be honored. By creating a living will or other similar plan, you can avoid unwanted medical treatments and their associated costs. As an added benefit, your family members and friends will have advance knowledge of your medical and end-of-life care preferences. This can prevent emotional and harmful disputes from occurring.
Health Care Power of Attorney or a Living Will?
An alternative to drafting a living will is creating a health care power of attorney. This is a legal document that allows one person to grant another person the authority to make medical care and treatment decisions on the first person’s behalf. If you have a trusted family member or close friend who is a medical care professional, a health care power of attorney relationship can be a good idea. In Utah, you really should use the Advanced Health Care Directive that the Utah Legislature has put into place. A Utah lawyer can help you with this.
How an Attorney Can Help with your Living Will
If you have questions about living wills and other types of health care estate plans, an attorney can answer them. He or she can also help you to create a living will that reflects your intentions and wishes. This section provides a link for consulting with an experienced estate planning lawyer in your area.
Free Consultation with a Utah Estate Lawyer
If you are here, you probably have an estate issue you need help with, call Ascent Law for your free estate law consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
If you need immediate help with an estate planning issue involving a will, trust or estate, or would like to contact an estate planning attorney, you’ve come to right place. Because state laws vary considerably and communicating this essential information without vagueness while still complying with local rules can be complicated most people will benefit from the assistance of an attorney in preparing and executing the final documents. However, the better your understanding of the requirements, the easier and more effective your time with an attorney will be. Please select from of the following topics to learn more about getting legal help with an estate planning issue.
Estate Planning Forms and Tools
Examining the standard forms for a basic will, health care power of attorney, living will directive to physicians, designation of surrogate, and other important estate planning forms and checklists can help you better understand the purpose and structure of these legal devices. These tools are meant to be the beginning, rather than the end of a process of structuring the documents that help communicate your wishes to health care providers and courts in situations when you are unavailable to speak due to death or disability.
Materials in this section include an estate planning case intake questionnaire that can help an attorney determine which estate planning tools you need, an estate planning checklist to help ensure that you have considered all aspects of estate planning that are commonly needed, a checklist of action items for an estate executor organizing the actions required for an individual in this role, and sample documents including a basic will, a living will, a health care power of attorney form, and more.
In addition to basic forms and checklist there are articles that provide state-specific forms for advance directives and living wills and an article discussing the advantages of various estate planning tools.
Using an Estate Planning Attorney
Organization and preparation are always helpful if you are planning to meet with an attorney. Since time for a consultation may be limited, or the attorney may charge an hourly rate, the time spent preparing yourself and your paperwork can often translate into a cheaper and more thorough analysis of your needs. To help you prepare there are materials provided here that can help ensure that you present the information an attorney needs to help you plan your estate.
One such tool is an intake questionnaire designed to help organize the information most relevant to estate planning. This form will help you present your attorney with information about the property and family connections that most frequently affect which documents are necessary and how they should be structured. The form also asks questions designed to help you and your attorney determine which kinds of estate planning tools are most appropriate for your needs.
An experienced estate planning attorney will work closely with you to develop a set of estate planning documents that address your concerns in a way that is right for you. They will ensure that your wishes are communicated clearly and with the maximum weight of the law, while also anticipating and avoiding negative tax implications by consulting with expert accounting and tax advisers in some instances. Finally, they prepare and execute all of the necessary documents such as wills, living trusts, testamentary trusts, and powers of attorney.
Free Consultation with a Utah Estate Lawyer
If you are here, you probably have an estate issue you need help with, call Ascent Law for your free estate law consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Here are the top 10 mistakes you absolutely must avoid when you are in a divorce case.
Becoming a Financial Victim
The biggest mistake divorcing spouses can make is being in the dark about finances. If your spouse has always handled all of the financial decisions in your household and you don’t have any information about you and your spouse’s income and assets, your spouse will have an unfair advantage over you when it comes time to settle the financial issues in your divorce.
If you suspect your spouse is planning a divorce, get as much information as you can now. Make copies of important financial records such as account statements (eg., savings, brokerage, and retirement) and all other data that relates to your marital lifestyle (eg., checking accounts, charge card statements, tax returns).
If you believe your spouse may liquidate (sell or transfer to cash) assets or retitle marital assets without your consent, notify the holder of the asset or property in writing and get a restraining order from the court. Watch out for any cash held in joint checking and brokerage accounts, and the cash value of life insurance policies. If your spouse uses or moves assets without your knowledge, you may have to hire legal and forensic accounting experts to help you locate and value the assets.
Not Considering Mediation
If you and your spouse can work together to reach a fair settlement on most or all of the issues in your divorce (eg., child custody, child support, alimony, and property division), choosing mediation to resolve your divorce case may save thousands of dollars in legal fees and emotional aggravation. The mediation process involves a neutral third-party mediator (an experienced family law attorney trained in mediation) that meets with the divorcing couple and helps them reach an agreement on the issues in their divorce. Mediation is completely voluntary; the mediator will not act as a judge, or insist on any particular outcome or agreement.
Mediation also provides divorcing couples a lot of flexibility, in terms of making their own decisions about what works best for their family, compared with the traditional adversarial legal process, which involves a court trial where a judge makes all the decisions.
Mediation, however, is not appropriate for all couples. For example, if one spouse is hiding assets or income, and refuses to come clean, you may have to head to court where a judge can order your spouse to comply. Or, if one spouse is unwilling to compromise, mediation probably won’t work.
Hiring a Combative Lawyer to Punish Your Spouse
This is a very bad idea for two reasons. First, except in extremely egregious cases, most courts won’t punish your spouse financially for being a bad person.
Second, hiring an attorney to punish your spouse will cost you because your attorney will need to increase the number of hours spent on your case. Increased attorney hours means higher divorce costs, and higher divorce costs means there will be fewer assets and cash left for you and your family. Try to take the emotion out of your divorce, and treat your case as a business arrangement. The best revenge is to live well after the divorce is over.
Failing to Recognize Your Common Enemy – the I.R.S.
Work together with a divorce financial planner or tax accountant to minimize the total taxes you and your spouse will pay during separation and after divorce; you can share the money you save. Don’t forget that both spouses are liable for taxes due as a result of audits on joint returns, so it’s usually in your best interest to work together and minimize possible liabilities. If you’re facing complicated tax issues in your divorce, it’s best to consult with an experienced family law attorney and an accountant.
Not Producing an Accurate Budget
Divorcing spouses usually underestimate living expenses when they produce their initial budget for temporary alimony (also referred to as “maintenance”), and later find that they aren’t able to cover all of their bills. Use a financial professional to help you produce an accurate and complete budget.
Disregarding the Impact of Taxes in a Divorce Settlement
It’s important to remember that after the divorce is final, you may get taxed on the marital assets you received through your settlement. Say your spouse handles all the investments and offers to split them 50/50. Sounds good, right? The only way to know if you’re getting a fair deal is to determine the value of the investments on an after-tax basis, then decide if you like the deal. Again, you should speak with a tax professional about the impact of any proposed property divisionbefore you agree to it.
Failure to Evaluate Settlement Proposals
If you’re trying to decide whether your spouse’s proposed divorce settlement is fair and workable, you should try to figure out how the settlement will impact your finances in the years ahead. There are many factors to consider, including assets, incomes, living expenses, inflation, alimony, child support, taxes, retirement plans, investments, medical expenses and health insurance costs, and child-related expenses such as education.
There are specialized divorce computer models that produce comprehensive and realistic analyses of your post-divorce lifestyle. You should speak with a local divorce attorney or financial planner that specializes in divorce for help analyzing any proposed financial settlement.
Being Emotionally Attached to Assets in Divorce Negotiations
The marital residence, the pension you earned, a painting purchased during your marriage – these assets often bring an emotionally charged debate to divorce negotiations, which can impair good decision-making. Often, divorcing spouses that are attached to the family home don’t realize that they can’t really afford. Yet, they fight tooth and nail to keep it, sometimes at the expense of retirement planning.
However, the real estate market crash has made it abundantly clear that homes have a very low return on investment and, in some cases, have a negative return; many houses today are still underwater, and couples have had to walk away from their homes and the hard-earned money they invested.
In addition, a home is a major cash expense (eg., mortgage payments, property taxes, repairs, and utilities). Let go of any emotional attachments you may have. During your divorce and settlement negotiations, your main focus should always be on how to maximize your finances by making sure you’ll have enough cash for living expenses after your divorce and in retirement.
Over-using Your Divorce Lawyer
Divorce attorneys generally charge $200- $300 per hour, and partners in well-known New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco family law firms typically charge $450 per hour. These attorneys can provide advice on divorce-related issues, but they are not therapists or certified financial planners. If you need to talk through the emotional aspects of your divorce, or need career counseling or financial analysis, save money on additional attorney’s fees and be sure to talk to the right professionals, such as a licensed therapist, vocational expert, or a financial planner.
Beware of Settlement Offers That Look Too Good
Both spouses and children must make compromises in their life styles post-divorce. A settlement that does not give one spouse enough money to live on is likely to go into default in the future. Be fair, but verify the numbers. Get payments up front whenever possible, even if you get less in total. Try to secure all payments with assets and insurance. It may be worth speaking to a family law attorney who can review a settlement offer and make sure your rights are fully protected.
Disregarding the Long Term Impact of Inflation
The effects of inflation on the cost of a child’s college education, or on retirement, 15 years in the future can be dramatic. The “Rule of 72” is a simple way to judge the impact of inflation. For example, if the inflation rate is 3%, the “Rule of 72” means that prices will double in 24 years (72/3=24). College costs at 5% inflation will double in 14.4 years (72/5=14.4). Be sure to work inflation into your settlement negotiations so you can cover the true costs of future financial expenses.
Failing to Consider Your Spouse’s Eligibility for Social Security Benefits
If a couple is married for 10 years or longer, a non-working or lower-earning spouse is entitled to derivative social security benefits on the higher earning spouse’s (“worker spouse”) record. These derivative benefits do not impact or lower the worker spouse’s social security payments, which is why it’s so ironic that the average length of marriage for people who get divorced is about nine and a half years. Waiting just another six months may guarantee increased retirement options with no reduction in payments.
Forgetting to Update Estate Documents
After divorce, many people forget to change the beneficiaries on their life insurance policies, IRAs, and will(s), so the estates they wanted to leave to their children, new partner, or favorite charity may go instead to their ex-spouse. If you’re going through a divorce, talk to a family law attorney to find out what changes you can make to your estate plan during and/or post-divorce.
Failure to Adequately Insure the Divorce Settlement
Your ex-spouse’s premature death or disability can be devastating and may result in a loss of alimony, child support, college tuition, or property settlement payments. Life and disability insurance policies can guarantee that these payments will continue despite an unexpected loss or injury.
Failure to Develop a Post-Divorce Financial Plan
One indisputable fact of divorce is that two households cost more to operate than one. Many divorcing spouses fail to realize that their divorce settlement must last a significant amount of time: perhaps even the rest of their lives. Financial planning can help people transition from a married to single lifestyle by prioritizing financial goals, developing realistic expectations, and producing sound plans for the assignment and division of financial resources.
Free Consultation with a Divorce Lawyer in Utah
If you have a question about divorce law or if you need to start or defend against a divorce case in Utah call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will help you.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Everyone seems to understand that divorce involves the division of marital property and assets.
However, over the years, I have found that many people fail to fully appreciate that divorce involves the division of debt, as well.
Ironically, debt is typically cited as one of the top reasons couples split up. But, getting divorced doesn’t make those troublesome debt problems “magically” disappear. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Just as debt can often play a major role in the failure of a marriage, it can also play a major role in adding stress and contention to divorce proceedings.
What can you do minimize nasty debt headaches during your divorce? My best advice is to be prepared. Educate yourself about debt, in a broad sense. Then, gather all the relevant data about your specific case. You’ll want to collect credit card bills, information from your mortgage/home equity/auto loan accounts, etc. and learn all you can about what you and your spouse owe.
In addition, here are a few tips to help you better understand how to handle dividing debt in your divorce:
Where you live impacts how debt will be divided.Divorce laws differ from state to state, and how your debt will be divided depends largely on where you live and whether you live in a Community Property State or an Equitable Distribution State.
There are nine Community Property States: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. Couples living in Alaska can “opt in” for community property, and Puerto Rico is a community property jurisdiction.
The remaining 41 states are known as Equitable Distribution States (or Common Law States). Utah is one of these. In Utah, the court will try to either split the debt in half or perhaps do some creative offsets; but most of the time, if the debt was for and in behalf of the “marital estate”; then, the debt will be divided by both parties.
(An earlier post discusses the differences between Community Property States and Equitable Distribution States in more detail.)
In general terms, if you live in an Equitable Distribution State, debt that’s incurred during a marriage is the joint responsibility of both parties, provided both parties are co-signers on the account (mortgage, credit card, etc.). In other words, if your husband opened a credit card account in his name only, then only he is responsible for that debt.
In Community Property States, both spouses are responsible, even if only one incurred the debt.
Of course, once you and your husband have separated, the rules change. Any debt incurred after you separate is the sole responsibility of the person who made the charges. The wrinkle here is that “the moment of separation” varies from state to state. In some states, you need to legally declare a separation. In others, a legal separation is not required; you’re separated once you start living apart.
It’s often best to eliminate shared debt.Our firmusually advises women to eliminate shared debt before the divorce is final. Naturally, that may mean you need to use marital assets to jointly pay off what you owe –but, usually that’s a worthwhile step, if it means you can begin your single life with a fresh start. Alternatively, some couples decide to divide and transfer their debts, so that each person is individually responsible only for his or her portion.
Either way, the goal is to separate your finances (and any remaining debt) from your husband’s finances (and any of his remaining debt). As a result, you’ll remove your liability for what he owes.
If possible, you’ll also want to close joint credit cards and eliminate your husband as an authorized used on any credit cards in your name. Remember: Credit card companies and other third party agents are notbound by divorce agreements. It may sound harsh, but if your names are both on a credit card account, the credit card company can hold you responsible if your ex rings up a balance and then decides not to pay.
One word of caution here: New federal regulations are making it harder than ever for women with little or no income to establish credit on their own. You’ll need to proceed with caution as you set out to establish credit in your own name . . . Which brings up my third point . . .
Protect your credit.Once you have: a) established control of your own debt and b) separated your liability from your husband’s debt, it’s time to turn the page and begin a new chapter. You’ll need to establish credit in your own name –and then, once that credit is established, you’ll need to work hard to protect it. Start slowly and proceed with caution, keeping a careful watch on credit card balances, debit and ATM cards, etc.
A good first step should be to create a budget that will allow you to maintain your lifestyle, pay off any remaining debt and increase your savings. A divorce financial planner can help you determine how to manage your assets and which adjustments are necessary for continued financial stability.
Free Consultation with Divorce Lawyer in Utah
If you have a question about divorce law or if you need to start or defend against a divorce case in Utah call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will fhelp you.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Driverless cars, the pinnacle of automotive innovation and the potential future of safe driving, have recently proven to be anything but: according to a study from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor, auto accident rates are twice as high for driverless cars as they are for your average error-prone human driver.
With rates like that, any self-driving car owner can expect to pay a number of visits to her lawyer, if the car doesn’t crash itself along the way.
SHOULD DRIVERLESS CARS OBEY ALL TRAFFIC LAWS WITHOUT EXCEPTION?
What’s causing this auto accident discrepancy? After all, anyone would think human drivers in the kind of rush-hour traffic that backs up miles outside West Jordan, Utah would have a harder time navigating the highway than a cool, calculating robot.
The catch? Self-driving cars are programmed to obey all traffic laws, regardless of the situation. So whether it’s merging onto high-speed traffic on the highway or rolling into a four-way intersection in Farmington, a self-driving car makes no concessions.
Human drivers, meanwhile, bend the rules of traffic law with abandon. Most drivers are guilty of rolling through the occasional stop sign, speeding through that yellow light or driving “with the flow of traffic” on the highway—even if traffic’s running 15 over the speed limit.
Lawyer in Utah
As West Jordan Utah attorneys, we practice in several areas of law including divorce, real estate, bankruptcy, business law, child custody, child support, adoption law and other areas.
In the interest of preventing an auto accident and a subsequent trip to the local personal injury lawyer, should self-driving cars bend to the will of human error?
It’s a sticky situation, to be sure. If Google programs its cars to disobey traffic laws, the next question is: how much? If self-driving cars start deliberately breaking the law, the search engine giant will be sure to face an onslaught of government and lawyer inquiries.
In the meantime, Google is working to program its cars to be more “aggressive” while still adhering to all traffic laws. Driving is a complex social practice, whether you’re driving on the interstate or around the shops of downtown West Jordan.
For driverless cars, the game is still very much a human one, law breaking and all.
NEW BILL PASSES REMOVING ALL PROTECTIONS AGAINST CONTAMINATED WATER
In order to survive, it’s widely assumed that food, shelter, clothing and water are needed. Regardless of whether you’re currently taking up residence in West Jordan, Utah or another location in our beautiful home state, more than likely, the basic necessities of life aren’t hard to come by. That being said, even with fresh running water being made readily available to most Americans, water contamination still occurs.
For example, in the United States, coal is often burned to produce enough electricity to keep cities up and running. However, when such a practice takes place, ash is produced as waste. Said ash, unfortunately, can potentially makes its way as a toxic substance into precious municipal water sources, causing incidents of wrongful death to come about. In such a situation, a lawyer might very well be needed.
Recently, as a way of addressing such terrible happenings, the Federal Government inefficiently took action and passed a bill that eliminates many of the actual laws that regulate the containment and monitoring of coal ash. Furthermore, the approved bill also gives states the responsibility of overseeing the processes of coal ash maintenance and disposal. Even worse, the bill mentions nothing of how close coal ash containment locations can be to public water sources.
Free Initial Consultation with Lawyer
It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Legal problems come to everyone. Whether it’s your son who gets in a car wreck, your uncle who loses his job and needs to file for bankruptcy, your sister’s brother who’s getting divorced, or a grandparent that passes away without a will -all of us have legal issues and questions that arise. So when you have a law question, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you!
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
The appointment of a receiver over a borrower’s assets is a powerful tool for the secured creditor when included as a default provision in a well-crafted loan document. Pursuant to Utah law, a receiver “protects and preserves the property” serving as the creditor’s collateral. The law effectively gives the receiver control over the debtor’s property and allows the secured creditor, which sought the appointment, to obtain information regarding the day-to-day usage of its collateral and ensures that payment of net cash flow from the property will be paid to the lender.
Often the borrower will seek to regain control of its business by filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The Bankruptcy Code sets forth certain duties and rights for the receiver as a custodian of the debtor’s property once the bankruptcy petition is filed. The Code also creates a procedure for the bankruptcy court to determine whether the receiver should turn over the property to the debtor or continue in “possession, custody or control of the property.”
WHEN A DEBTOR TURNS TO BANKRUPTCY, A SECURED CREDITOR CAN USE THE BANKRUPTCY CODE AND MAY GET RELIEF
The Bankruptcy Code makes it clear that once a receiver learns of the bankruptcy case, the receiver is obligated to stop administering the debtor’s property, except to the extent necessary to preserve that property.1Thus, once the bankruptcy petition is filed, the receiver generally has an affirmative duty to return control of the business to the defaulting debtor.
Despite this general requirement mandating the receiver turn over the property to the debtor, the secured creditor may file a motion to allow the receiver to maintain control over the property serving as its collateral. This motion is typically styled as a Motion for Excusal of Turnover by the Receiver.
After reviewing the Motion for Excusal of Turnover by the Receiver and, perhaps, taking evidence, the bankruptcy court will decide whether the interests of the creditors will be better served by leaving the receiver in possession and control of the debtor’s property. In addition, in the rare case in which the debtor is solvent, the bankruptcy court will consider whether the interests of the owners would be better served by permitting the receiver to remain in place.
Therefore, if the creditor is successful in getting a receiver appointed, but the borrower files bankruptcy and tries to regain control of the business and the collateral, the Bankruptcy Code provides a legal basis for the creditor to take prompt action in order to maintain the receiver’s control of the collateral. With this in mind, the Motion for Excusal of Turnover by the Receiver should be filed as quickly as possible after the bankruptcy petition is filed setting forth the reasons the creditors will be better served by the receiver’s continued possession and control of the debtor’s property serving as the collateral.
Our firm has been successful, recently, on several occasions in obtaining these orders protecting the rights and property of lenders in bankruptcy cases. These actions helped provide the lenders with a more positive outcome to the entire bankruptcy case.
Free Consultation with Bankruptcy Lawyer
If you have a bankruptcy question, or need to file a bankruptcy case, call Ascent Law now at (801) 676-5506. Attorneys in our office have many years of experience in bankruptcy law. We can help you now. Come in or call in for your free initial consultation.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
We spend a lot of time thinking about and writing about fraudulent conveyances here. That’s because a fraudulent conveyance can totally defeat an asset protection plan, no matter how good your asset protection attorney may be. Laws regarding fraudulent conveyances make certain types of transfers wrongful. One type of transfer that is prohibited is a transfer made within a certain period of time before a claim is made or while a claim is pending. What is a claim? Claims take many forms. Claims can be lawsuits, demand letters, or even accidents where an injured person has yet to contact the person at fault.
Let’s look at an example. Consider an oral surgeon or dentist (“doctor”) who is not properly insured and accidentally causes injury to a patient during a surgical procedure. If the patient sues the doctor, then the doctor’s personal assets are at risk. The doctor’s personal assets include cash, stocks, bonds, investment properties, and in some cases even items like cars, boats and airplanes.
What we’ve established so far is that a doctor with assets has caused an injury. Assume that no lawsuit has been filed. Even though there is not a lawsuit pending, there is a “claim” against the doctor. The doctor knows that she or he could end up owing money to the patient, and that is enough. What can the doctor do to protected assets?
The answer is complex. While the doctor can continue to move money and assets around, if the doctor moves assets to a place where they cannot be reached by the injured patient, then a court can “set aside” those transfers of assets. The bottom line is that a court can require transferred assets to be given to the injured patient, even if the doctor is no longer legally and technically the owner of the assets.
In other words, once a claim exists, it is too late to protect most assets. While one can continue moving assets while a claim is pending, it is almost impossible for an asset protection attorney to develop a plan that would make assets immune, at that point. The moral of the story is that people with assets who are engaged in professional practices (e.g. doctors, dentists, lawyers, real estate developers, etc.) need to engage an asset protection attorney before claims arise. That is the only way that a plan providing true asset protection can be developed and tailored to meet the needs of specific individuals.
It is true that some assets, in some states, are exempt assets and automatically protected. But if you are a person with assets that go beyond exempt assets, then you should consider proactively pursuing an asset protection strategy.
What is Funding?
Primary and Second Homes (non-rentals)
The first asset you need to consider is your primary residence. If you live in a state with fantastic homestead protection like Utah, then you don’t need to do anything. Your home is protected. Otherwise, you need to provide some protection for your home. The typical way to do that is to transfer or “deed” your primary residence into your asset protection trust. The same is true of any second homes that you own but don’t use to generate rental income.
Rental Properties
Rental properties are slightly riskier than non-rental properties. As a result, there needs to be some additional insulation around them in order to protect your other assets. That additional insulation comes in the form of a limited liability company (a “LLC”). The funding works as follows:
The LLC is created, and it is owned in the exact same proportions as the rental property to be transferred.
The rental property is deeded into the LLC.
The LLC is transferred into your asset protection limited partnership.
It’s very important that you follow the exact sequence described above, because in some instances it can save you money by avoiding transfer taxes and/or a reassessment for tax purposes (check with your local taxing authority and clerk of court to make sure).
Safe Assets
Cash, stocks, bonds, precious metals, and jewelry are all considered “safe assets.” That’s because they can’t generate liabilities for you. Think about it like this: Someone can get injured on your rental property. That’s just not true of your safe assets. Because of this unique feature, your safe assets can be owned directly by your limited partnership, without the need to insulate those assets with an LLC.
Vehicles
Vehicles are very risky assets. As a result, they should be left outside your plan completely. Own vehicles in your personal name, and trust that your other assets are safely protected.
Free Consultation with a Lawyer in Utah
If you have a bankruptcy question, or need help with Asset Protection, call Ascent Law now at (801) 676-5506. Attorneys in our office have filed thousands of cases. We can help you now. Come in or call in for your free initial consultation.
Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
