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Asset Protection
With the ever-growing trend in America of identity theft and frivolous lawsuits it’s crucial that you protect your personal/business information and assets. NCH can give you and your business the security you need to thrive.
Corporate asset protection is the protection of assets from frivolous, ill-motivated, illogical, and often, devastating claims that can destroy your current and future lifestyle.
It doesn't take a catastrophic lawsuit to wipe out everything you own. Many things can affect a small business, leaving your personal assets fully exposed.
Thankfully, there are a variety of ways to transfer ownership of assets to shelter them for protection. The following is list of the devices and entities that can be used for estate and asset protection planning:
- Living Trusts
- Limited Partnerships
- Corporations & LLCs
- Family Security Trusts
- Real Estate Privacy Trusts
- Life Insurance Trusts
Protecting your assets encompasses more than just safeguarding them from lawsuits. You want to strive to protect your foundation for generations to come. Proper asset protection strategies are critical to a secure, well-protected future for you, your business and your family.
Here's why:
- An estimated 35,000 lawsuits are filed in the U.S. every day of the week!
- Identity theft is growing exponentially
- Phishing, pharming and other criminal schemes are becoming rampant
The Facts of Lawsuits
Most small businesses know that incorporating can shield personal assets in the event of a frivolous lawsuits but many are lulled into complacency by an "it-won't-happen-to-me" attitude. This thinking has resulted in tremendous losses to countless business owners.
The most sought-after benefit of incorporating is the ability to separate personal assets from business assets, legally, by establishing a corporate veil. The corporate veil prevents lawsuits and other adverse actions against a business from targeting the personal assets of the business owner.
There has never been a case in which the corporate veil has been pierced on a properly operated Nevada entity.
The Risk of Litigation
It’s a sad reality but if you’re engaged in any business activity, you’re likely to face a lawsuit. The costs of defense can easily reach over $100,000. Everything you’ve worked hard to create will be placed in jeopardy.
Common Lawsuits Business Owners Face:
- Employment lawsuits: age discrimination, racial, gender, pregnancy, disability, mental illness, addiction discrimination, sexual harassment, peer harassment, wrongful termination, employee injury, etc.
- Professional malpractice: medical, legal, psychological, engineering, architectural, accounting, etc.
- Business liability lawsuits: environmental cleanup, dissatisfied customers, personal injury, shareholder liability, etc.
- Personal lawsuits: divorce, business partners, creditor claims, accidental injury caused by a family member, personal injury, etc.
(This is a partial listing and is not meant to be inclusive.)
The sad truth is that when you’re perceived to have assets worth plundering, you’re more likely to be targeted for that reason rather than your degree of fault in any matter.
It used to be that only big corporations, banks, insurance institutions and household names were targeted for lawsuits, but that’s no longer the case. New targets for litigants are now anyone who has saved for retirement, owns a home or rental property, and are sole proprietors or are small business owners. It’s estimated that over 30 million people in the United States have mutual funds, savings, or own equity their home.
Worse still, there are millions of practicing lawyers and countless others graduating from law school, who are on the lookout for cases that can earn them money. Every day in court a plaintiff prevails against a so-called 'wealthy' defendant – even in cases that appear illogical, irrational, and totally devoid of merit.
Prime candidates for lawsuits include:
- Property owners
- Business Owners
- Officers/Directors of publicly traded companies
- Sole Proprietors
- Real Estate Investors
If you fall into any of these categories, or have a retirement nest egg, you need to remove any incentive for people to sue you right now!
The key is to make sure that plaintiffs and their lawyers can't get their hands on your money because then they won't waste the time and money trying.
The Risk of Identity Theft
Thanks to the internet, people can find out all kinds of information about you. Access to an individual's private, sensitive, and financial information is unprecedented. Criminals can find out what you're worth just sitting at their desk.
If you’re the victim of identity theft, it can take upwards of a month before a major bank is able to investigate the claim and refund the stolen dollars back into your account. That's why corporate and business asset protection is an absolute necessity. It lowers your asset profile and keeping confidential information safely out of criminals' reach is paramount.
It makes sense to keep valuable assets out of your personal name, or from being reported under your social security number or other identifier – but how can you achieve this?
Exemptions, Transactions, Entities & Trusts – there are several strategies to consider. There's no single solution, as individual circumstances will dictate the right combination of activity. However, many people have taken advantage of some unique privacy legislation by incorporating themselves or their business in Nevada where the state's sheltering corporate statutes allow the highest level of anonymity possible.
By transferring assets into a trust or to business entities, the assets are no longer held or reported in an individual's name. Consequently, it is much more difficult for criminals to find or access either the account information or the assets themselves. Even if the individual's identity is compromised and accounts accessed, the assets held in entities are unaffected and thus available to keep an individual's affairs afloat until the identify theft matter is resolved.
Now is the time to get serious about providing the highest level of protection for your family.
Protect Your Assets. Get Started Today.
At NCH, we’ll show you how to protect your assets with our proven corporate asset protection strategies. Give us a call today at 1-800-508-1729.
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