Fairfax, Virginia Asset Protection Attorney

Building wealth takes careful planning, and it is a lifelong effort. When you have spent years earning income, saving money, making investments, and providing for your family, you will want to make sure your efforts do not go to waste. To avoid the potential loss of your assets due to creditors, nursing home costs, estate taxes, or other issues and make sure your wealth can be passed on to future generations, you will need to understand the asset protection strategies that are available. By structuring your assets correctly, you can make sure your family's needs will be met in the future.

At Robinson Law, PLLC, our estate planning attorney works with people in Fairfax and throughout Northern Virginia to develop customized asset protection plans. He will take the time to understand your financial picture, your family's situation, and your long-term goals and advise you of your best options. With his help, you can protect what you have worked so hard to build.

Asset Protection Strategies

There are several tools that may be used to protect your assets from potential threats, including creditor claims, lawsuits, and estate taxes. Our lawyer will advise you on whether you can use:

Asset Protection Trusts

When you create a trust, you will transfer ownership of certain assets to a trustee. They will hold and manage your assets, and they will distribute the assets to your named beneficiaries based on specific instructions that you provide. When trusts are structured correctly, they can be powerful asset protection tools.

Irrevocable trusts can be used for asset protection. Once assets are transferred into an irrevocable trust, you will no longer own them personally. This may shield your assets from certain types of creditor claims, and it can also reduce the taxable value of the estate. Depending on your goals, our attorney can advise you on whether you may benefit from using trusts such as:

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs): An ILIT can hold a life insurance policy outside of your taxable estate, ensuring that the death benefit will pass to beneficiaries while avoiding estate taxes.
• Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs): A SLAT allows one spouse to transfer assets into an irrevocable trust for the benefit of the other spouse, removing those assets from both estates while still providing access to the funds.
• Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs): A CRT allows you to transfer assets into a trust, receive an income stream during your lifetime, claim a partial charitable deduction, and pass the remainder to a charity upon your death.
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs): A GRAT allows you to transfer assets to beneficiaries while reducing gift taxes and retaining the right to receive annuity payments.

Lifetime Gifts and the Annual Gift Tax Exclusion

One way to reduce the size of your taxable estate is to make gifts during your lifetime. Under federal tax law, you can give a certain amount each year to individual recipients without being required to pay gift taxes. If you are married, you and your spouse can combine your gift tax exclusions and give gifts to your children or other parties.

By giving gifts over time, you can reduce the total value of your estate while passing wealth directly to children, grandchildren, or other loved ones. This may help to reduce the estate taxes that would apply after your death, and if the total value of your estate is below a certain threshold, it may be exempt from estate taxes.

Limited Liability Companies and Family Limited Partnerships

If you own business interests, have invested in real estate, or own other assets that generate income, forming a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Family Limited Partnership (FLP) can provide protection against liability while also offering estate planning benefits. You can make your children or other family members partners of an LLC or FLP, and you can then transfer wealth to the next generation while reducing the taxes that may apply. Our lawyer can advise you on the best ways to structure these entities to maximize your tax benefits.