Wealth Advisory Associates | Asset Protection Planning: 5 Dangers to Your Wealth

5 Dangers to Your Wealth

Watch this video: Key Components of Asset Protection.

You’ve worked hard. You’ve worked to provide for yourself, your family, and those you care about.

Yet, in today’s world, all of it could disappear into a black hole should you accidentally make the wrong move. Or even worse, events conspire against you that are so beyond your control that they seem more like the Acts of God mentioned in insurance policies.

Although the dangers sound grim, Asset Protection builds a wall around your assets, to protect them against not only unfortunate unforeseen events, but also predictable events (such as aging and taxes).

While Asset Protection has its roots way back in the Middle Ages, it’s only been within the last 30 years that it has become a legal specialty.

And just in time.

Today, more than ever, the sharp teeth of shark-like predators can easily take a bite of — or wholly devour — your wealth, the assets that you have spent so many hours of hard work to create.

A slip-and-fall could be a slip of your bank account, falling completely into someone else’s hands…

Legally, the people who come after your hard-earned money are called “creditors” and you, the debtor.

While many define Asset Protection narrowly, we recognize the many, and varied, threats to your wealth.

We call our strategies to protect your wealth from these varied threats “Global Asset Protection”. It is not limited to the protection of your wealth just from lawsuits, as is so commonly thought.

The threats come from:

Tax agencies — The IRS and, for most people, their state government (unless you’re fortunate enough to live in a state without income tax). But whether Federal or State, every year this creditor can be guaranteed to show up.
We can show you strategies that could dig out potentially $10,000, $50,000 or more of your money from the tax black hole. If this sounds like something you need, feel free to contact us … or read on to find out about other creditors that can endanger your wealth.

The Stock Market — What goes up, must come down, as the saying goes. At least that was the experience of many people who watched the stock market lose 40% of its value around the turn of the century. Were you one of them? I feel your pain.
Our Global Asset Protection strategies can provide you with good growth potential, yet still protect most of your money. We offer strategies using FIAs (Fixed Index Annuities), especially our unique Maximizer.

Click here to discover more about how these strategies may have you, not just sleeping well at night during all types of markets, but even laughing with relief at the next downturn.

Capital Gains — When you have highly appreciated assets, such as real estate and stocks, you just have to bite the bullet and pay those princely capital gains taxes, right? Wrong! With unique strategies, using either a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT) or Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA), you may be able to sell those assets, defer current taxes on the sale and lessen the amount of taxes paid.
As if that wasn’t enough, these financial vehicles can also enable you to receive a current income tax deduction and set up a “guaranteed” income stream — for life!

Estate Taxes - Whether you want your wealth to be distributed to your family upon your death, or you want it to be used for “good works”, the last place you probably want your hard-earned assets to go to is to Uncle Sam.
Unfortunately, much of what passes as “estate planning” fails to take advantage of the powerful, advanced estate planning strategies we use. We have many tools at our fingertips to chop down the size of the taxable estate, thus enabling more of the estate to pass through to the intended beneficiaries.

Long Term Care Expenses — Health expenses have been increasing in price faster than almost any other part of our economy. And, as we age, we make more use of health care. You may be at the ideal point to protect your wealth from these almost certain expenses. The earlier you work with us to address this threat to your assets, the less it will cost you. We can show you how to pay for these expenses in a way that best keeps Uncle Sam out of your pocket.
You can find out more about how long term care expenses can affect you and can be handled here. We strongly encourage you to take charge of this vital area before it costs you more, possibly much more.

We have a lot more to tell you about Asset Protection. Asset Protection Strategies can be broken down into two primary types — domestic strategies and offshore strategies. Uncertain which strategies might be best for you? Or just curious about offshore strategies? Click to discover more about the domestic asset protection strategies and offshore asset protection strategies.