One of my asset protection client introduced me to an attorney in Tampa, named Mike, who has a very large and successful practice defending mortgage foreclosures and negotiating mortgage modification. I spoke with Mike and asked him about his client’s experiences during court-ordered mediation with their mortgage lender during foreclosure litigation. Mike said that mediation in state court proceedings is usually a waste of time for his clients
March 6, 2010
February 28, 2010
Attorney Uses Experience As Government’s Lending Enforcer To Effectively Defend Bank Collection Lawsuits
Mortgage foreclosure defense has become a good business for attorneys. Many real estate attorneys who made money on real estate closing and putting together large real estate investment deals have found that most of their business in the past few years has come from clients wanting to defend against bank foreclosures and suits on personal guarantees of commercial loans
February 22, 2010
February 21, 2010
Wage Garnishment As Effective Collection Tool: Attorney Expresses Contrary Opinion
There was a recent post about a conversation with a debt collection attorney concerning what he believed were, and were not, effective collection tools. I reported that this collection attorney did not find wage garnishment to be a good collection tool because wage garnishment often drove debtors into bankruptcy. I received different opinion from another experienced collection attorney, Mitchell Dinkin
February 8, 2010
Short Sale Or Foreclosure: Suffering Legal Liability To Help Your Credit Score
The Orlando Sentinel ran a front page article in this Sunday’s paper about short sales and foreclosures.
February 5, 2010
Sometimes The "Low-Risk Spouse" Gets Sued: Why Effective Asset Protection Is For The Whole Family
Often, a high-risk professional will title all assets in the name of their non-professional spouse as an asset protection plan. The professional thinks they are a lawsuit target, but in the event they are sued, they could tell their adversary that they “have nothing in my name.” It’s a simple plan, but it sometimes backfires
February 2, 2010
Are Servers’ Tips Protected Under Florida’s Earnings Exemption Statute?
Florida debtors who are head of household can exempt from creditor garnishment unlimited earnings. Questions frequently arise concerning what types of compensation are included in the statute’s definition of “earnings.” For example, commissions earned by an independent contractor are not exempt under the Florida statute. Florida courts have held that wage garnishment protection applies to regular compensation dictated by the terms of an arms’s length employment agreement to perform services that are in the nature of a job
January 25, 2010
Partnerships as Asset Protection
An important goal of estate planning is to protect income and assets from creditors’ claims and tax collection. While many people think asset protection involves dishonest techniques, there are many ways to protect personal property, real estate and other assets. In addition to federal and state laws that exempt certain types of property from creditors’ claims, there are numerous estate planning tools that may be able to shield assets from future creditors and reduce or eliminate estate or income taxation. One such tool is the family limited partnership (“FLP”).
Family Limited Partnerships and Asset Protection.
An FLP is a valuable asset protection strategy for a family whose members want to preserve their assets while retaining control over them. An FLP is a specially designed limited partnership, consisting of one or more general partners who are responsible for managing partnership affairs. The other partners are called limited partners, and they are not permitted to participate in any management decisions and generally have no vote and have limited rights.
Valuation Discounts.
Because interests in FLPs are generally not marketable (that is, interests in FLPs cannot be converted easily to cash at a known market price), a discount for lack of marketability is typically appropriate. Such a discount significantly reduces an FLP’s value for estate tax purposes. A minority discount may also be available to reduce the valuation of an FLP interest given to a limited partner who has a noncontrolling interest in the FLP.
Annual Gift Tax Exclusion and Gift Tax Exemption.
FLPs are often designed to reduce estate and gift taxes by taking advantage of valuation discounts while making gifts utilizing one’s annual gift tax exclusion of $12,000 and the gift tax exemption of $1,000,000.
Once an FLP has been established and property is transferred thereto, limited partnership interests may be given to on family by means of an annual program taking advantage of the $12,000 annual gift tax exclusion. Larger blocks of limited partnership interests, taking advantage of the gift tax exemption, may also be made without incurring gift tax.
Shielding Assets from Creditors.
An FLP provides a substantial measure of protection against creditors. By using such an entity, the family assets will be titled away from one’s family, although they are given ownership in the family assets. Without the partnership, a transfer to a child could involve giving title to the child, exposing the title to creditors, spouses, and taxing authorities. The transfer of limited partnership interests passes no control, and any claims by creditors, spouses, or taxing authorities against a child may only be asserted against the limited partnership interests without the ability to reach the property itself.
Absent a fraudulent conveyance, a Florida judgment creditor cannot reach the assets inside the partnership and cannot attach the partnership interest. A creditor is limited to obtaining a charging lien. This means that the creditor would be entitled to distributions only when the FLP actually declares distributions.
If no distributions were made, then the creditor would receive nothing. Additionally, the IRS has ruled that a creditor with a charging lien on a partnership interest must recognize a pro rata share of the partnership’s income, whether or not it is distributed. Accordingly, creditors rarely assert charging liens against partnership interests or will settle their claims at a substantial discount.
Conclusion.
Taking steps to protect your assets from creditors’ claims, the availability of valuation discounts to reduce the estate or gift tax value of an FLP, and strategic use of the annual gift tax exclusion and gift tax exemption can result in significant preservation of your assets.
January 23, 2010
How Important are Uv Flashlight in Asset Protection?
Before we discuss Asset Protection and UV flashlights individually, let us address the basic question that “How important are UV flashlight in Asset Protection?”. The answer is, the role of UV Led flashlight is very crucial in asset protection. Whether the asset protection is for an individual or a business entity. UV flashlight helps to protect the authenticity of the document by minimizing the chances of altering the document in any way. Since the purpose or asset protection is so crucial, all the measures taken to see it through are also very crucial and UV flashlights being one of them does have a vital role to play.
Asset protection refers to a set of legal techniques and a body of statutory and common law that deals with protection of assets of individuals and business houses alike, from civil money judgments, creditors like, trusts, partnerships and international entities. Asset protection helps to reduce the risk of loss from unexpected dangers of businesses and individuals. This law has guarded and protected many families against business failures and lawsuits.
This procedure of asset protection involves many documents, attachment related to assets in question. These papers are prepared by a professional lawyer who specializes in Asset protection. Since Asset protection is a very delicate and critical issue, and therefore it is quite likely that the documents are tampered or altered in the process. To protect the sanctity of papers from being violated in any way, UV flashlight comes into picture. It acts as an important tool that protects these documents.
A UV flashlight is a critical tool in detecting fraudulent documents where hidden graphics may have been imprinted. A UV flashlight is used to view the hidden graphics that are only visible with the help of UV light. This procedure authenticates the document. Likewise ultraviolet lights are also used by medical examiners to detect the presence of proteins at crime scenes. UV flashlights have several practical uses other than the ones mentioned above, like, pinpointing refrigerant leaks etc.
There are multiple varieties of UV Flashlights available in the market manufactured under many brand names. You have to choose that one that goes best with your basic requirements. There are some UV Flashlights that run on a single AA battery, with say, 10 hour run time, single UV LED with coated glass optics, wavelength 395 nm, while the other model many run on 3C’s, Xenon Lamp and 6 White UV LED bulbs, wavelength 390 nm etc. You should carefully check out all the specifications and your goals and requirements before finalizing the type of UV Led Flashlight.
You should also check out the pricing of UV led Flashlight and other options available before getting yourself one to use it towards asset protection.
