Woburn Asset Protection Attorney

Safeguarding Your Wealth and Your Future

At the Heritage Law Center located in eastern Massachusetts, we know how much work you’ve put into accumulating the assets that make your family secure and how eager you are to protect both your nest egg and those you love. While you doubtlessly want to build on that foundation and increase your financial well-being, our estate planning team understands that you need the peace of mind comes from knowing your assets are protected now and in the future.

As a savvy asset protection attorney, Matthew Karr, Esq., will use legal techniques to help preserve your wealth and safeguard your assets. His years of experience in the field of estate planning have provided him with the in-depth knowledge and well-honed skills to strategize a comprehensive plan to protect your assets from excessive taxation, creditors, and a variety of other dangers. It’s important to be proactive about protecting your assets since the economy is unpredictable. By working with us, you’ll feel the relief of knowing your assets and your family are financially safe.

For a consultation and to learn more about our services, contact the Heritage Law Center by calling (617) 765-9307 today.

What Is Asset Protection and What Are We Protecting Your Assets From?

Even seemingly well-protected assets—in safety deposit boxes, carefully chosen investments, insured collections, stable bank accounts—while definitely safer than money stuffed in mattresses, may be at risk from a number of hazards, such as:

• Excessive taxation
• Unpaid debts
• Predatory lenders
• Scams or fraudulent schemes
• Long-term medical and nursing care costs
• Expensive probate

There’s no shortcut to asset protection, and this isn’t a do-it-yourself project. The process requires professional legal assistance from a knowledgeable asset protection lawyer like our own Matthew Karr, Esq. Matthew is savvy about how best to insulate your hard-earned assets from forces that seek to diminish your estate and weaken your legacy. He’s successfully helped many clients safeguard their assets by using estate planning tools and techniques.

Our Comprehensive Legal Knowledge Regarding Asset Protection

At the Heritage Law Center, our law firm prides itself on having keen insight as well as comprehensive knowledge of state and federal law. You can rest assured that the information we share with you is completely current and that we know how to protect assets. Also, we’ll debunk the misconceptions that abound in this area of estate planning and its related legal issues. You should always consult with us before you give a gift to a friend or put a property in the name of your corporation in order to avoid taxation or a large debt. In fact, even an inherited IRA may be fair game for creditors.

The Unpredictability of Life Requires Asset Protection

You may feel confident that you’re too fit to need nursing care in the foreseeable future, too sharp to be taken in by a fraudster, and too friendly and flexible to be involved in a lawsuit. However, the unpredictable does occur and can become a reality in the blink of an eye.

Long-Term Medical or Nursing Care Can Quickly Deplete Assets

You’ve likely heard about people suffering catastrophic injuries while riding home from the drug store or falling victim to heart attacks while having a quiet dinner with friends. A spinal cord injury, a stroke, multiple fractures—any one of these can suddenly alter your life and use up your savings. Also, unless you have properly prepared, your assets may prevent you from being eligible for government benefits. If you or your loved one needs long-term care in the future, it’s important to plan now for MassHealth eligibility so you can get the services you need without losing your life savings.

Scams and Schemes Can Rob You of Assets

Similarly, you likely know or have read about someone intelligent who was fleeced out of a large sum of money by a scam artist or con man. Successful con artists can skillfully overcome an intelligent person’s defenses and get that person into an emotional state that overrides logical thinking. Don’t be so sure that you wouldn’t succumb to doubt and fear during a 3 a.m. phone call if someone claiming to be a police officer says your grandson is in jail.

Lawsuits Galore

In our extremely litigious country, it’s also unwise to bet on the fact that you’ll never be sued for an enormous amount of money by another driver, a neighbor, an employee, or a business competitor. If you’re a professional, you may well be sued by a student, a patient, a legal or financial client, or even an assistant. Every day, individuals’ life savings are put in jeopardy by lawsuits claiming:

• Malpractice liability
• Premises liability
• Personal injury
• Sexual harassment
• Fraudulent claims not easily disproven
• Domestic violence

The legal system can be imperfect, so it’s essential to protect your assets from lawsuit verdicts that demand a large, unfair settlement.

How Can You Protect Your Family Home?

Asset protection also involves safeguarding your assets to pass along to your family members. Your family home and other assets must be protected from potential liabilities to ensure your family is taken care of after you pass away. There are many ways to protect your home and ensure it stays in the family.

Some of those ways include:

• Life estate: A life estate deed is when two or more people each have ownership in a piece of real property, but they have it for different periods of time. A common scenario: Aging parents living in their home want to pass the home to an adult child when they die. The parents become the life tenants keeping the ability to use and occupy the property during their lifetime. When the parents die, ownership of the property automatically transfers to their adult child. Sometimes a life estate deed is used to make sure a house avoids probate or to protect the home in case the parents ever need MassHealth for long-term care coverage.
• Outright transfer: By signing a new deed to a family member, you can gift your home to another individual. The value of your home will not be counted as part of your estate assets, minimizing your estate taxes. However, you will lose your real estate tax exemptions.
• Irrevocable trust: Once a person’s home has been in an irrevocable trust for five years, it’s considered a non-countable asset for purposes of qualifying for MassHealth for long-term care and it’s protected from MassHealth estate recovery. This type of trust also preserves the full capital gains tax exclusion on the primary residence.

What Our Asset Protection Attorney Can Do

As an accomplished asset protection attorney, Matthew Karr, Esq., can use a large number of preventive measures to keep your wealth, property, and possessions secure. We recognize that you come to us with a unique set of circumstances, so we make sure our asset protection strategies serve your particular needs. We’re also sensitive to your privacy, realizing that we’re being trusted with personal information about your funds and your family.

There are many ways we may recommend to protect your assets, including:

• Limited liability companies (LLCS): A business owner can create a limited liability company, which is a business entity that offers asset protection provisions. As the business owner, you’re generally protected from being personally pursued for repayment of the company’s debts or liabilities. It’s a way to safeguard your personal assets and separate them from the business. 
• Irrevocable trusts: Putting assets in an irrevocable trust creates a legal barrier that makes it difficult for creditors to access those assets. Transferring assets to an irrevocable trust removes them from the total value of your estate, which helps minimize estate taxes. Also, once assets have been in this type of trust for five years, if you need MassHealth for long-term care, those assets won’t count toward your eligibility, and they will be protected fromMassHealth recovery. 
• AB trusts for married couples: An AB trust is a joint revocable trust that helps married couples minimize estate taxes. This joint trust allows the estate to be split into two trusts after the death of the first spouse, which allows them to take full advantage of the estate tax exemption for each spouse. 
• Strategic gifting: One way to protect your assets from potential creditors or lawsuits is to transfer them to a loved one through gifting. This strategy can limit your exposure to possible financial risks. However, there’s a lot to know about gifting. You want to avoid the appearance of a transfer looking like it’s intentionally being made to keep assets out of the hands of current or impending lawsuits since a court may deem the transfer fraudulent. You’ll also want to make sure you understand the annual gift tax exclusion and the lifetime gift tax exemption. 

You can find more information about estate planning and how to protect assets in our free reports: Estate Planning Essentials Report and Massachusetts Estate Planning: Saving on Taxes Report.

Contact Our Woburn Asset Protection Attorney

Don’t procrastinate when it comes to asset protection and keeping your estate intact. Not only will getting in touch with us give you a sense of security, but it will ensure that those who depend on you can look forward to a brighter future. Contact the Heritage Law Center now for a consultation at (617) 765-9307.