Asset Protection Solicitors

Planning for the future involves more than just writing a Will. Asset protection is a critical step in ensuring that your hard-earned assets, such as your home and financial investments, are preserved for your loved ones. Whether you’re looking to safeguard your family’s inheritance or shield your wealth from potential creditors, Merriman Solicitors (incorporating AB Family Law) offers tailored solutions to help you protect what matters most. 

Our expert team of solicitors is here to guide you through every step of the process, ensuring that your assets are secure. Contact us today to discuss your options and take the first step towards protecting your estate for the future.

What is Asset protection? 

Asset protection is a legal framework and strategies to shield your wealth and property from potential risks such as care home fees, creditors, or claims from third parties. It involves setting up legal structures, like trusts, that ensure your assets are preserved and passed on to your chosen beneficiaries. By carefully planning your estate and safeguarding your assets, you can provide long-term security for your family and reduce the risk of losing your inheritance to taxes, care fees, or disputes. 

Asset protection is closely related to estate planning. One of the most effective approaches in asset protection is the Asset Protection Trust, a legal arrangement that is particularly beneficial for safeguarding against potential estate taxes, probate expenses, divorce settlement, and ensuring the smooth transfer of assets to your chosen beneficiaries. By placing your assets in a trust, you can reduce exposure to these costs and help protect the value of your estate for future generations.

Why is Asset Protection Important? 

As the cost of long term care continues to rise, protecting your assets has become a critical part of planning for the future. Without careful planning, your hard-earned property and savings could be eroded by care fees, taxes, or legal claims, leaving little for your loved ones to inherit. Some of the benefits are: 

• Protection from Care Fees: If you or your spouse need long-term care, the assets in the trust may not be counted when the local authority assesses how much you should pay, helping you avoid high care home costs and keeping more of your estate intact.
• Inheritance Maximisation and Tax Efficiency: Asset protection ensures that more of your wealth is passed to your beneficiaries by reducing the impact of care fees, taxes, and other financial liabilities, helping to preserve the value of your estate.
• Long-Term Financial Stability: By setting up an Asset Protection Trust, you can secure long-term financial stability for your family, ensuring that your assets are protected and available to support your loved ones in the future.
• Protection from Divorce Settlements: Assets held in an Asset Protection Trust can be protected from being included in divorce settlements. By legally separating assets from your personal estate, you can help prevent them from being divided in the event of a divorce, ensuring they remain for your intended beneficiaries.

Setting up an Asset Protection Trust can give you peace of mind, knowing that your assets are safe.

How does Asset protection work? 

Timing is key when setting up an Asset Protection Trust. It is important to establish an Asset Protection Trust early, ideally when you are in good health, to avoid the risk of being accused of “deliberate deprivation” by local authorities, which could result in the trust being disregarded for care fee assessments.

• Setting up a trust: A settlor (the individual establishing the trust) transfers assets such as property or financial investments into the trust. It typically involves transferring assets into a Trust governed by a legal document called a Trust Deed. This outlines the terms of a trust and appoints a trustee chosen by you who will be responsible for managing your assets. 

• Appointing Trustees: Trustees are appointed to manage the trust and act in the best interest of the beneficiaries. They hold legal ownership of the assets but must manage them according to the trust deed’s instructions.

• Protecting Your Assets: Once assets are placed in the trust, they can be shielded from being counted in financial assessments, such as for care home costs, inheritance tax liabilities, and claims by creditors.

• Distributing the Assets:  Upon the settlor’s death, the assets are distributed to the beneficiaries as per the trust deed, ensuring that the settlors estate is passed on as intended.

How Can Merriman Solicitors (Incorporating AB Family law) Help?

At Merriman Solicitors (incorporating AB Family Law), we offer expert guidance on every aspect of asset protection and estate planning. By choosing Merriman Solicitors (incorporating AB Family Law), you’ll benefit from our expertise in asset protection and estate planning, ensuring that your wealth is preserved and distributed according to your wishes.

For further information on how we can help with asset protection and trust planning, or to discuss your estate planning needs, please contact us today.