Thursday, July 26, 2012

Asset Protection for Women: Beyond Insurance | DivaCFO


As women continue to work and earn money, become the main breadwinners, and run their own businesses, it?s important to take measures to protect your lives, businesses, and simply the things you own. That?s why asset protection planning has become so vital for women.

Asset protection planning is the process of arranging your financial affairs to prevent or at least minimize the risk of your assets being used to satisfy claims of future creditors or claimants. Asset protection is not intended to hide assets, defraud creditors, or evade the payment of taxes. In fact, if a court finds that your asset protection plans were made with the intent to defraud, it will disregard those plans and make the assets available to creditors.

Why is asset protection planning?important for women?

Women, now more than ever, need to consider asset protection planning because:

  • Women live longer than men and will likely need their money to last longer
  • At some point in their lives, women may have to manage their own finances due to divorce, widowhood, or remaining single
  • Many women are successful business owners
  • A good asset protection plan can help you achieve financial security and independence, and give you an opportunity to have enough money to provide for your comfortable support and that of your dependents

Insurance as part of your asset?protection plan

Often, the simplest way to protect assets is by shifting the risk to an insurance company. This should generally be your first line of defense. However, insurance may not provide all the protection you need, or it might not be available.

Other asset protection strategies generally involve?transferring legal ownership of assets to other persons or entities, such as corporations, limited partnerships, and trusts. The logic behind shifting ownership of assets is fairly straightforward: your creditors can?t reach assets you don?t own.

C corporations

You might be a business owner, or thinking about starting a business. If so, choosing a business entity is an important decision. One option is a C corporation. The law views a C corporation as a separate legal entity. As such, business assets owned by a C corporation are considered separate from your personal assets, which will generally not be at risk for the liabilities of the business.

However, protection from liability may be lost if the business does not act like a business, such as when the business acts in bad faith, fails to observe corporate formalities (e.g., organizational meetings), has its assets drained (e.g., unreasonably high salaries paid to shareholder-employees), is inadequately funded, or has its funds commingled with shareholders? funds.

Caution: A number of issues should be considered when selecting a form of business entity, including tax considerations. Consult an attorney and tax professional before shifting assets to a corporation or other business entity.

Limited liability company (LLC)

An LLC is a hybrid of a partnership and a C corporation. An LLC is generally taxed like a partnership with income and tax liabilities passing through to its members (and not double-taxed as with a C corporation), but it is viewed as a separate legal entity and can be used to own business assets, protecting your personal assets from business claims against the LLC. While the legal formalities are based on state law, the legal requirements to form and maintain an LLC are usually not as involved as those associated with a C corporation.

Source: http://divacfo.com/2012/07/25/asset-protection-for-women-beyond-insurance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=asset-protection-for-women-beyond-insurance

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