Six steps to asset protection success by Paulie Sabol

1) Seek self-education about asset protection
2) State and prioritize your asset protection goals
3) Select an asset protection team to achieve the goals
4) Start your asset protection plan immediately—don’t wait
5) Support you asset protection plan with upkeep or maintenance
6) Sleep well at night knowing your assets are protected “on purpose”

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

The first step in protecting you personal and business assets from lawsuits and other economic risks is to get educated on asset protection.

Set a goal to gain a basic understanding of the tools of asset protection, tax reduction, and anonymity. You don’t have to “know it all.” However, you do want to know it well enough to come up with a few critical questions to qualify potential team members, as well as, to understand the distinctions between person asset protect and business liability shielding.

“If you don’t know where you want to go
all roads are essentially very long dead ends.”

When you take a moment to get very clear on the goals and purpose of your asset protection, you’re able to make better choices and get to the ultimate goal of sleeping more soundly and safely securing your legacy.

There are five main “goal” groups for asset protection entities, tax avoidance, personal asset protection, business liability shielding/lawsuit protection, anonymity, and having say or control when incapacitated with illness and after death (estate planning).

You may want to rank these and note which are the most important to you. Of course they are all important; however, sometimes we have to give up a little in one area to maximize our advantage in another. Consequently, it’s useful to have your priority list to help in deciding.

“Especially if you can do it all yourself,
you’re too valuable to be doing it at all”

While you may have been able to skip step one because you’re an asset protection specialist, you still will want to assemble a team to implement your asset protection strategy because there’s other things to be doing than filing forms.

You team will naturally include an attorney to review your operating agreements, articles of incorporation, etc. However, you can often get by without paying the attorney to actually draft the original.

Some of your team members can be “virtual” (through web based tools, books or home study courses). Others will be people you meet with face-to-face while still others will be distance team members.

“Time and health are two assets we don’t appreciate
until they’ve been depleted.”

Even if you’re beginning or “behind” in the acquisition of material assets, you have a large number of non-tangible assets. Many of these assets are protected by the immediate application of your asset protection strategy—even if it predates the purchase of any material assets.

For example, your reputation, your credit, and your time are all protected by a good asset protection and business entity structure. Should something go wrong in your new business, as is the statistical most likely case, you will not be personally seen as the failure, you will not be personally at risk if loans are guaranteed by the corporation only, and you will not have to fight back to get to ground zero (no you just form a new entity and go!)

“My mom said the only reason men are alive
is for lawn and vehicle maintenance”
- Tim Allen of Tool Time

If only our lawns, cars, relationships, bodies, etc. would run perfectly forever without any additional inputs or efforts. However, this just isn’t so, and it’s no more so of your business entities and asset protection.

Set up a check list of all the activities you need to do each year (and the basic timing) to maintain your entities. Actually, put these tasks into you yearly schedule and be sure to tickle your schedule when you’re getting close to the due date.

The good news is, like a well maintained body or relationship, a well maintained corporation actually becomes better with age, gets stronger, and richer.

Beyond the simple task of keeping up with filings, meetings, minutes, resolutions, accounting, tax reporting (if necessary), etc.; you also want to create a task to review your goals each year.

Perhaps the initial purpose of your asset protection strategy has changed. Maybe in the last year you’ve started a family, gained fame and become a larger target for law suits, moved into higher tax brackets, or bought or sold a part of you business(es).

Whatever the reason, be sure your current asset protection plan supports your current highest purpose.

“If I do dream, would that all my wealth would wake me.”
William Shakespeare

The real sign of a successful personal asset protection and business structure plan implementation is that you sleep well at night. However, if you should have a restless night, let it be for the reason identified by the bard.