Asset Protection : Concepts and Strategies for Protecting Your Wealth (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Chris Riser (Author) "Consider the case of Stephen J. Lawrence, a derivatives trader who went bust in the stock market crash of October 1987..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Cook Islands, Isle of Man (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Strategies that are effective and legal for putting one’s assets safely out of reach

In today’s increasingly litigious world, the shielding of assets has become a prominent issue for financial planners, business owners, and high-net-worth individuals. Asset Protection details methods that are both legally and morally legitimate for protecting one’s assets from creditors, lawsuits, and scams.

Bringing economic common sense and legitimacy to an area that is drowning in gimmickry, two of today’s top lawyers examine the fundamental issues in this growing area, avoiding dense legalese to make the book accessible to anyone. Asset Protection covers everything readers want to know about:

• Establishing an effective asset protection program
• Today’s most popular, established strategies
• Newer strategies that are still being resolved by the courts

From the Back Cover

A practitioner's guide to today's most effective asset protection strategies

Shielding assets isn't easy to do in our increasingly litigious society. Yet all too often, business owners and high-net-worth individuals find it more difficult to protect their financial interests from unregulated "asset protection planners" than from the courts--and find themselves losing heavily to both.

Asset Protection details today's most successful, legitimate, and court-proven strategies for protecting one's assets. Taking a unique, all-encompassing approach that minimizes complex legalese to focus on easy-to-understand, effective asset-shielding practices and techniques, this timely book discusses:

• The goals of asset protection, along with steps for implementing an effective asset protection program
• Traditional as well as new techniques--what they are, how they work, when and how to use them
• The vital relationship between asset protection and financial planning, and how to design one umbrella program to address both

Asset Protection delivers a welcome dose of common sense and legitimacy to a field top-heavy with gimmickry and dishonesty. Written by two of today's top legal asset protection experts, it provides you with frank, pull-no-punches details on how to do everything under the law to shield assets from harm in an unpredictable and financially perilous world.

For professionals, business owners, and high net worth individuals, the danger in leaving assets vulnerable to the whims of courts and claimants is higher today than at any time in the past. And while seminar speakers often refer to "bulletproof" asset protection strategies, experienced asset protection planners know that no program or method exists that is effective in every situation--because as soon as a strategy is proven effective the attempts to undermine it will begin in earnest.

Asset Protection is today's most level-headed and technique-based look at how asset protection planning should be approached, both by the finance practitioner and the individual. It presents tools that have worked while warning against means that are inappropriate or even perilous, and provides guidelines for developing effective strategies that will work in both macro (broad) and micro (specific) situations.

Written by two of today's most experienced and authoritative asset protection attorneys, this results-driven book provides a detailed, objective look at all vital aspects of the asset protection picture:

• Trusts--What they are, what they aren't, which to implement, and when
• Bankruptcy law --Including pre-bankruptcy planning tactics
• Fraudulent transfers--And the confusion underlying the Uniform Fraudulent Transfers Act (UFTA)
• Offshore planning--How to make it financially effective, tax-compliant, and judicious
• Asset exemption options--And the limits of exempt asset status

In addition, Asset Protection also goes beyond other books of its type to explore the issue of morality in asset protection, and how actions that are seemingly right under the law can still lead to defeat in the courtroom. It provides different scenarios to illustrate how moral dilemmas can impact judges and juries, and discusses how to address these situations--or, better yet, keep them from ever reaching the courtroom.

The future of asset protection is being written even as you read these words. Get the inside story on strategies for shielding assets both today and in the future, from everything from lawsuits and the IRS to creditors and even outright scams, in the comprehensive and indispensable Asset Protection.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (June 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071432167
• ISBN-13: 978-0071432160
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,608 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible for "Legitimate" Asset Protection Techniques, February 3, 2005

By	B. Dunham - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a business lawyer, I regularly review asset protection resources so I can better represent my clients - many of whom develop high net-worths through high risk activities (e.g., physicians, "aggressive" entrepreneurs). Until reading this particular book, all of the resources have typically fallen into one of two categories: (1) materials proposing techniques that sound too good to be true and, based on recent legal decisions, have been proven to be too good to be true, and (2) materials that simply discuss the absolute basics of asset protection planning.

This book is different and, given the excellent national reputation the two authors enjoy in the asset protection community, I expected it to be different. It provides you with numerous LEGITIMATE asset protection techniques that have been proven to work - or at least give you a real shot of having them work without the risk of putting you in jail if they don't. Many of these techniques are quite sophisticated and you will not learn about them in most other resources. The book also helps explain what you should and should NOT expect to achieve with asset protection planning, by, in part, discrediting the techniques being promoted by those less educated and/or less reputable than the authors.

This book is not a How-To book that will provide a step-by-step, do-it-yourself plan on establishing an asset protection plan. However, this area of the law is particularly difficult and fraught with serious traps for the unwary, so it is not appropriate for a non-lawyer or lawyer inexperienced in this area to do on their own anyway. It is, however, valuable in letting you know what numerous legitimate techniques are available (and what techniques are NOT legitimate), so you can successfully pursue their implementation with your experienced lawyer. I, for one, have learned a great deal from this book that will benefit my clients, and sincerely trust the legitimacy of the information I gained.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Practitioner's Guide, July 29, 2004

By	T. Bouman (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I ordered this book several months prior to release knowing its authors are highly respected in the field. The book is excellent. As the book says on the back cover, it is a practitioner's guide. I am an attorney with 4 years experience helping clients in this area. This book seemed especially suited to me; i.e. a practitioner with a good base knowledge in the area. Business owners and professionals concerned with legally protecting their assets might also benefit greatly by reading this book prior to retaining an attorney.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a good bottle of wine, July 19, 2004

By	W. Campbell "Crash" (Western U.S.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading this book is like finally getting a good bottle of aged wine after drinking years of fruit punch. From the descriptions of the seedy offshore planners who sell Cook Islands trusts to people whether they need it or not, to the domestic seminar promoters who line up shills to encourage attendees to buy cheapie family limited partnership kits, this book gives a candid look into how asset protection is sometimes shamelessly promoted. Having revealed the dirt under the rug, the book then goes on to address asset protection as a field of risk management and gives the best treatment of fraudulent transfer and bankruptcy preference rules that I have ever read. Just about all the popular asset protection strategies are reviewed, from Nevada bearer share entities to complex litigation expense policies, with the major strengths and weaknesses of each pointed out. The book spends quite a bit of time discussing both foreign and domestic asset protection trusts and their potential flaws (if I were a creditor attempting to penetrate such a structure, this would be the first resource that I would turn to), such that it is a wonderment that those structures are even used at all. Overall, the writing style is good, with just enough technical background on key points to let serious researchers know where to start, without it being overwhelming for the average business reader. Kudos to Jay and Chris. This book is well-researched and provides a level of thoughtfulness and depth of content that has been sadly absent from all the other books considering the topic of asset protection. Big thumbs up!