You may be taking steps to accumulate your wealth – but what tactics are you using to protect it?

Though it sometimes goes overlooked, asset protection and planning are incredibly important for high net-worth individuals. Taking preventative steps could shield your most important assets from harm, in whatever form it takes – a change in family situation, action by creditors, government taxes, changes to the market, or so on.

In many ways, protecting your assets means protecting yourself and those you care about, at every stage of life’s journey.

At FourStar Wealth Advisors, we use a unique “Build. Live. Share” approach to address the full life cycle of an investor, and empower each person in our charge to live a full and complete life.

Asset protection is a remarkably important part of “Build. Live. Share.” Planning and preparing to protect your wealth means ensuring that you and your loved ones are safeguarded, whether you’re in the middle of building your wealth, living life to the fullest in retirement, or considering the many ways in which you can share your assets and resources with family, friends, or charity as part of your legacy.

There are many mechanisms that can be put to work protecting the wealth of high net-worth individuals, including:

 

Trusts

As Financial Review puts it:

“Tax and wealth planning experts say [trusts] are the vehicle of choice for wealthy families wanting to facilitate inter‑generational wealth transfer.”

Trusts are a powerful tool for ensuring that your most important assets can be shielded from claims. Well-structured and managed trusts can also offer significant tax planning benefits, all while also granting you a great deal of control over where your assets go in the event of a major life transition, such as divorce, marriage, or death.

FourStar Wealth Advisors can offer guidance on the best practices for protecting your wealth from taxes, while ensuring that your family and friends receive the amount of your assets that they rightfully deserve. Our advisors can speak with you on many different subjects, including spendthrift provisions and domestic asset protection trusts. Our trust attorney network can advise you on specific needs related to your situation.

 

Insurance

What steps are you taking to insure the financial future of yourself, your family, or your business?

This is a question worth asking at every stage of life’s journey. While it can be unpleasant to think about, it’s important to have a plan in place in the event of a critical illness, disability, or even death. Consider, for instance, that more than one in four 20-year-olds will experience a disability for 90 days or more before they reach 67, according to recent data.

Preparing for the unexpected is a key part of asset protection and planning. This includes assessing your capital needs and disability analysis, which entail life insurance and disability insurance. It’s also important to consider property/casualty and special insurance, including umbrella liability and directors and officers coverage.

 

Exempt Assets and Entities

Another mechanism that can be used to protect your assets is to take advantage of state exempt assets and use corporate entities to help shield your wealth.

For instance, using arrangements such as a limited liability company (LLC) or a family limited partnership (FLP), could help protect your personal wealth from creditors, if managed and maintained properly.

As Investopedia explains succinctly:

“Each state in the United States has laws to protect owners of corporations, limited partnerships (LPs) and limited liability corporations (LLCs) from the entity’s liabilities.”

 Again, our attorney network has seasoned professionals to help articulate the specific needs you have. We’d be happy to connect you to professionals who can help.

 

The Importance of Financial Planning

In perusing and weighing the many factors that go into protecting your assets, it’s important to remember that sound financial planning is at the root of everything. A properly protected wealth plan may include many different professionals from a number of different fields, including attorneys and insurance professionals; it may involve research into the latest trends and innovations in the marketplace; and it will require consistent maintenance and supervision to documents, portfolios, and strategies.

For all of these things and more, a fiduciary advisor can be an invaluable partner and resource. As Forbes explains:

“Wealth managers… are attuned to the whole client. They understand what is “at risk” and, very importantly, they understand what worries their affluent clients – what keeps them up at night. Furthermore, wealth managers are able to identify and uncover, in the totality of their affluent clients, situations where they are at risk and are able to identify the steps that should be taken to ameliorate those risks. This regularly means bringing in the appropriate experts.”

FourStar Wealth Advisors can help you define what is most important to you and then formulate the strategies that are best suited for your needs, helping you to assess your risk, evaluate potential solutions, and implement processes that will get results.

We are a Registered Investment Advisor firm headquartered in Chicago, an independent firm without the conflicts of the old school firms. We are directly focused on serving clients, without all the obvious conflicts of interest of the brokerage firms. If you’re looking for a partner to help you manage, grow, and protect your most important assets, at every stage of life, don’t hesitate to get in touch with FourStar Wealth Advisors.

 

General Advertising Disclaimer

This article is provided by FourStar Wealth Advisors, LLC (“FourStar” or the “Firm”) for general informational purposes only.  This information is not considered to be an offer to buy or sell any securities or other investments. Investing involves the risk of loss and investors should be prepared to bear potential losses. Investments should only be made after thorough review with your investment advisor, considering all factors including personal goals, needs and risk tolerance. FourStar is a SEC registered investment adviser that maintains a principal place of business in the State of Illinois. The Firm may only transact business in those states in which it is notice filed or qualifies for a corresponding exemption from such requirements. For information about FourStar’s registration status and business operations, please consult the Firm’s Form ADV disclosure documents, the most recent versions of which are available on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/