While some fields are more susceptible to litigation than others, the simple fact is that any professional needs to consider how to protect their estate. Simply having money or property of any kind can make you a target for lawsuits. From medical malpractice suits to personal injury claims if someone slips and falls on your property, there’s always a risk to your hard-earned assets.
Asset Protection Strategies for Professionals in New York
The goal of asset protection is to reduce your own financial liability so that your personal finances aren’t jeopardized in a business or legal dispute. In particular, people in these lines of work need to craft a comprehensive asset protection plan:
- Accountants
- Architects
- Attorneys
- Doctors, surgeons, and dentists
- Engineers
- Landlords and real estate owners
- Nurses, nurse practitioners, and other medical professionals
- Anyone who owns their own business
The good news is that methods are available to protect yourself and keep your estate intact for your family. For any of these protection methods to be useful, however, they must be employed well before litigation threatens your assets. Anyone in a professional field should discuss these potential options with an experienced New York asset protection attorney:
- Corporate entities. Owning real estate or a business in your own name leaves you wide open to losing everything. Creating an LLC or corporation to act as a separate entity from you helps reduce risk to your personal assets if you are sued.
- Insurance. This is an absolute necessity for most professional fields, but keep in mind that a court judgment may significantly exceed the normal maximum amount that insurance covers, so other types of asset protection are still needed to fill the gap.
- Titling. In some cases, the simplest method of protecting what you’ve earned is to move assets or businesses into a different person’s name who has less legal liability.
- Trusts. Setting up and funding irrevocable family trusts, spousal lifetime asset trusts, and Medicaid protection trusts can all be extremely useful means of keeping your assets protected from legal judgments or creditors.
Don’t Wait to Safeguard What You’ve Earned
Every client has differing needs, but no matter what job you have or type of property you own, you need to consider how to protect your assets. Get in touch with Theodore Alatsas today so we can learn more about your situation and determine which strategies are right for you.
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