Importance of Asset Protection for Florida Residents
Deciding to create a will is only one step in creating your estate plan. It’s important to consider how to protect your assets in case something happens before you pass away. The idea is to transfer as much wealth to your family as possible. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late before you start to think about how to shield your wealth from creditors and taxes and be able to cover future medical care and long-term care expenses. If you’re interested in protecting your current assets, or those you may acquire in the future, it’s important to speak with a skilled Boca Raton asset protection attorney.
How Asset Protection Can Help You
It can take most of your life to accrue a nice nest egg or build a profitable business that you can pass on to your family. By taking time to do a little asset protection planning, you can help preserve as much of your wealth as possible in the event of potentially catastrophic events, like a serious car accident or lawsuit. With a skilled Boca Raton asset protection lawyer on your side, you can:
- Keep your assets in the family
- Protect these assets in the case of divorce
- Shield your assets from lawsuits and creditors
- Promote communication and control of family assets
- Shield your assets from nursing home care costs
- Minimize your inheritance and estate taxes
- Avoid the cost and time of probate, which also facilitates an easier transfer to beneficiaries
- Shift income to fall into a lower tax bracket
- Consolidate investments
- Plan for costs associated with disability or if you become incapacitated
One of the important things to consider is the cost of nursing or home health care. It is an expense that everyone should address at some point. This is one of the main reasons to consider asset protection, but there are plenty of other important reasons as well. If you are a business owner, have properties, or if you are a professional like a dentist, lawyer, doctor, accountant, etc., you definitely need to look at asset protection options. Proper estate planning can help shield your business or professional practice, as well as high-net-worth individuals, from potential litigation, fraud, judgments, and liens.
Asset Protection for the Elderly
When you get older, you may need to be in a nursing home or assisted living facility. The daily expenses for these can be overwhelming. Medicare is available if you are over 65, however it does not cover costs for long term nursing home care. Therefore, Medicaid may be the program that you need for long term care. In order to be eligible, you cannot have a lot of assets. Items like bank accounts, stocks, mutual funds, etc. are considered in the eligibility calculation. With the proper asset planning, you can put countable assets into a trust that will not be touched by Medicare. It’s important you start early, as Medicaid looks back over the past five years to see if any funds were transferred or given away.
Contact a Skilled Florida Asset Protection Attorney Today
If you have questions on how Medicaid eligibility works for long term care or what your options are for asset protection, contact the Boca Raton asset protection attorneys at the Law Offices of Schwartz | White today to schedule an initial consultation.
