I own a small business. I'm not sure that I'm going to survive this economy. It appears that business is starting to pick up slightly. So, we might be O.K. But, only time will tell.

I have a lot of liabilities through the business. I do not want to risk my personal assets outside of my business. I own my home, have two small apartment complexes (which are also struggling), IRA, IRA Rollover, Stock Brokerage Account, Life Insurance, and the like.

I've been reading alot about asset protection. There seems to be so many levels. Some simple and some really, really complicated (over kill?). How do I know what is best for me? How do I know who to believe?

Thoughts?

Great questions, Dave. Missed your email so hope this will be helpful even several months later.

You already have some asset protection going for you in your IRA's and possibly in your insurance depending upon which state you live in. Your home may also be protected to a certain value - again, depending upon your state of residence.

Depending upon the value of your apartment complexes, you may want to consider creating a Limited Liability Company and transferring your interests into the LLC. Thus, there will be a limit on the liability arising potentially from those assets ... they might "crater" but won't bring down everything else. (That and a proper limits liability contract to cover a "slip and fall",etc.)

You should also pick up an umbrella liability contract. It is cheap relatively speaking ... couple hundred $$'s a year generally ... for a million of coverage. Keep your umbrella in line with your overall net worth. As your unprotected net worth grows - so should your umbrella contract.

By building up your pension and other retirement accounts, you are building up asset protection automatically. You could also consider having a trust set up in Nevada to be a "wrapper" around your non-retirement investments. The statute of limitations for creditors is 2 years as long as you had no known creditors at the time. So, as long as the transfer was not to defraud existing creditors, you should be fine. Again, it is a function of how much your assets are worth as to whether this next "line of defense" is necessary or not right now.

I hope this helps, but if not, feel free to call me at 800-975-5355. I can usually figure out within 15-20 minutes whether you you have what you need in place, or whether you need to "step up your game".

All the best, Dave. Hang in there ... if the bull didn't have horns - everyone would be a matador.

R. J. Kelly
Founder & President, Wealth Legacy Group
Co-Founder & Chair, The Center for Wealth & Legacy Studies

RJ, thank you for your detailed response. It was very helpful, and put things into perspective. I will be calling you later in the month. TU, again. Dave.