Traditional estate planning is death planning not life planning. Why is it for most business owners that an estate plan may not cover the everyday liabilities of life or sudden impactful events that no one sees coming. Ike says, “Not a week passes when he doesn’t talk to someone who says, “I’ve got this covered, I think. I have my home, cars, and investments all titled in my Trust.” But the real reality is with a little probing on Ike’s part the layperson he’s speaking to feels that the transfer of their assets to a vehicle like an estate planning trust, commonly referred to as Revocable Living Trust, is effective protection.  But Ike says, “It’s not!” The first word in the trust is “revocable” and in most cases, a judge will simply order you to revoke the trust and tender the assets for a judgment. All good financial advisers and estate attorneys favor estate planning, and estate tax exposure is one of the issues on many a client’s checklist. But that’s death planning. What have you done about life planning and the exposures everyone faces on a daily basis while practicing your profession or driving a car or through the activities of   Read more…

There may be a sizable portion of Americans that make up the Procrastination Nation and many of them are small business owners. Somewhere in the thought process of a procrastinator lies the assumption that there is plenty of time to do proper planning. Where did they get that idea? After all, time waits for no one and life just happens. Failure to act is as egregious as your business experiencing a major theft. The only problem with failing to act is that you are the one who is culpable.  Asset protection planning cannot be retroactive after an event.  When something disastrous occurs, your life, your family and your business can be affected for years, if not forever. Asset protection planning is the forgotten part of financial and estate planning that can cost you everything you own. Asset Protection is best analogized to “net worth insurance” and like insurance, you have the best, most effective and legally supportable options available to you when you implement the planning before a crisis exists. Transfer of assets into plans after you have specific exposures is costly, ineffective and in some cases illegal (fraudulent conveyance) if used against a pre-existing liability. The best time to   Read more…