Asset-protection planning – Holding on to what’s yours

Description

Abstract: Given today’s economic uncertainties and litigious society, asset-protection planning has become more important than ever for real estate investors and developers. Fortunately, there’s much you can do to stave off disaster before it plunders what you’ve worked so hard to build. This article discusses four such strategies: having adequate insurance, using ERISA provisions to keep creditors from your retirement accounts, spreading the risk by dividing the business into separate entities, and using trusts. A sidebar on “planning” for divorce offers another way to protect your assets.