Miami Asset Protection

Florida is well known for having some of the best laws in the nation to protect your real estate and savings. This is a legal discipline that usually requires a Miami asset protection attorney who specializes in both estate planning and asset protection.  Why? Because the best Florida asset protection plan integrates both estate and asset protection into a cohesive plan that protects your family wealth and instructs how this wealth is to be managed and transferred.

We typically follow a four phase process:

• Phase 1: Analysis. In this stage, we analyze your global inventory and determine what assets are already protected by law and which ones are “low hanging fruit” — assets a creditor can easily reach. As Miami asset protection attorneys we want to take this low hanging fruit and restructure the assets so they become unattractive and difficult to reach by any creditor
• Phase 2: Design. Dean Smith, the legendary basketball coach of North Carolina, designed his defenses based upon multiple options. The same thinking applies to protecting your bundle of assets: there may be multiple options to consider and take full advantage of. In Phase 2, the Miami asset protection attorney will assess your best options and design a plan to use one or more defensive strategies. This typically requires taking advantage of Florida law, but we may need to also use Delaware, Nevada, or off-shore law, such as a Nevis LLC or Cook Island Trust. We will prepare a flow chart to show how your assets can best be restructured and how these structures connect with each other. This design phase will usually require a tax analysis of possible transfers to assess the tax impact verses benefit for such transfers.
• Phase 3: Implementation. Here we restructure the existing entities, establish new entities, and make the transfers according to the design plan.
• Phase 4: Administration: It makes little sense to spend the time and expense to structure a new estate plan if the new structure is not consistent with your tax reporting and if the corporate entities are not treated as separate entities. Although, the client is responsible for administration, we will remain available to periodically review your plan and suggest updates or improvements as state law changes and Federal tax law changes. Phase 4 requires the full participation of your CPA who should be experienced in personal, corporate, and trust tax law.

Florida, other states, such as Delaware and Nevada, and other countries such as Nevis and the Cook Islands, have laws that offer multiple options to help protect your wealth. As Miami asset protection attorneys, we endeavor to structure a plan that meets your core objectives and budget using strong laws in these jurisdictions. These options may include one or more of the following:

• Florida Homestead planning
• Florida LLC (limited liability company)
• Florida LLLP (limited liability limited partnership)
• Nevada Asset Protection Trust
• Delaware LLC
• Nevis LLC
• Nevis Trust or Cook Island Trust
• Elder Protection Trust
• Children's Future Trust
• Medicaid Asset Protection Trust
• Prenuptial agreement or Post-nuptial agreement

Timing is critical: it is important to plan when the waters are quiet — before you are the target of a lawsuit. Otherwise, any transfers or conversions may be deemed fraudulent by the Florida Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, F.S. 726 or Fraudulent Conversion Act, F.S. 222 and enable the creditor to claw back transfers that were made.

Good asset protection is not based upon concealment. To put it another way, an asset protection plan in Florida premised on concealment is doomed to fail because of powerful discovery tools available in our legal system. A strong plan is backed up by good law. You will want the creditor to know that it is structured for maximum protection using Florida, Nevada or Delaware, or off-shore law: this is simply good, prudent business practice, not unlike insuring your property.

To learn more about Asset Protection in Miami, see our Quick Reference Guide, Florida Asset Protection: 7 Key Strategies For The Small Business Owner And Professional.

The Miami asset protection attorneys at Rarick & Bowden Gold, P.A. have assisted Miami families and business persons for over 20 years. Our firm has worked with over 500 similar law firms located in states outside of Florida to represent their clients in legal matters concerning probate, estate planning, and asset protection in Florida. To schedule a meeting with a Miami asset protection attorney, call (305) 556-5209 or (954) 360-8242, or email info@raricklaw.com. We look forward to meeting you!