Asset Protection Legal Blog

The simple answer is yes. A creditor can take your car in Florida, but only under certain conditions. If you’ve used your car as collateral for a loan, like an auto loan, the lender can…

1. Not understanding the purpose of asset protection Asset protection will not make a debtor “judgment proof.” However, asset protection may improve the debtor’s settlement negotiating position by making it harder for judgment creditors to levy on…

Lawsuits are designed to resolve genuine disputes and ensure fairness. However, not every case that makes its way into court has merit. Some lawsuits are widely viewed as frivolous—cases filed with little or no legal…

An asset protection trust is either a domestic irrevocable trust or an offshore trust. They have different costs depending on the type of trust. Initial Setup Costs The main expense is the cost of establishing…

If you are married and only one spouse has been sued, you cannot move the assets from one spouse to another in order to protect them. Such a transfer is considered a fraudulent conveyance. However,…

Many clients ask us whether they should create a new business as a Subchapter S Corporation or as a Limited Liability Company. How you organize a new business has both tax consequences and asset protection…

A spendthrift clause is a special trust provision that protects trust assets from a beneficiary’s creditors. It also prevents a beneficiary from using trust assets as collateral for a loan. When a trust has a…

This interesting question was the subject of a Pennsylvania bankruptcy case. Pennsylvania law recognizes tenants by entireties exemption, and Pennsylvania law prohibits wage garnishments. A married debtor filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy individually. For most of…

Over many years we have seen some of our clients make mistakes in asset protection planning. Here are the most common ones:

Why Do People Want to Hide Money? We occasionally receive requests from clients who want to hide assets from their husband or wife. Most of these clients want to hide money from their spouse for…

Florida law allows you to protect unexempt assets at any time by purchasing a Florida homestead. A key feature of Florida homestead law is the homestead’s exemption from fraudulent conversion claims brought under Florida’s fraudulent conversion statute….

A non-owner spouse does have a legal interest in their Florida homestead property. A couple can arrange to have only one of two spouses own the couple’s homestead property. A married person can maintain a legal…

A homestead under construction is not protected from creditors. Your property is not exempt under Florida Homestead law just because you intend to occupy the property sometime in the future. Property reserved for a future…

Can a condominium qualify as Florida homestead in an action to terminate a condominium association even if you don’t live there? Under a Florida condominium statute, section 718.117, an owner who resides in a condo…

The answer is yes. When you prepay taxes to the IRS or make an excessive tax payment, a judgment creditor has no method to get the money back. A judgment creditor cannot garnish the IRS…

When it comes to safeguarding your home from creditors, Florida’s homestead exemption provides one of the strongest protections in the United States. However, many homeowners wonder about the extent of this protection, especially concerning federal…

The Kelley’s Homestead Paradigm is a flowchart created by attorney Rohan Kelley. It shows what happens to a Florida homestead property once the owner dies. The paradigm includes six primary questions and then outlines what…

Florida law provides judgment creditors numerous means to find information about a debtor’s income and assets. Discovery in aid of execution in Florida refers to the legal process by which a judgment creditor finds (discovers) debtor assets…

Florida homestead law does apply to mobile homes. They are not protected under the Florida Constitution, but they are protected under section 222.05  of the Florida Statutes. The statute provides that mobile homeowners and occupants…

What Is a Single-Purpose LLC? A single-purpose LLC is a limited liability company that owns a single asset. Most often, single-purpose LLCs hold a particular real property or they own certain intellectual property such as…

Sometimes clients ask me about loan contracts they may have signed many years ago. These contracts often have a section or paragraph that states the borrower waives all of the statutory exemptions, including their homestead…