Saturday, January 11, 2014

A Deeper Look At Asset Protection Trusts

By Marissa Velazquez


Asset protection trusts can be termed as intentionally defective grantor schemes. This means that they treat the assets in the trust in a different way for income tax purposes unlike for estate and gift tax purposes. The veteran in this case will not be the beneficially but a grantor.

The residence of the veteran is his main asset. He only needs to retain the home and it will not be counted as part of his net worth for purposes of administration eligibility. It will be a non-countable resource but if he qualifies for the monthly benefit of getting pensioned and then sells his home, the proceeds will definitely disqualify him from receiving pension benefits again. He can only do so when he spends down to a level of assets that is allowable.

Many people establish a living revocable trust in a bid to create a trust for protecting their assets. This however cannot happen when dealing with a revocable trust. As long as it is revocable, even if it is a land, family or a living trust, it does not protect the property in case the grantor is sued.

This is not the case though when dealing with the irrevocable ones. Unlike the revocable trust, this type of trusts can protect assets if the grantor is sued. It becomes some sort of asset protecting schemes but it is important to note that once you have established it and then move your assets there, they seize to be yours from then on. This means they are gone for good and you cannot get them back.

There is a special kind of schemes called the asset protection trust. States are now signing laws which create them. They offer protection to the assets and the holdings are retained for many centuries. Major tax advantages come along with this. Alaska was the first to create it and it had its reasons for doing so.

All the states that created this scheme did it to have a source of new investment and they allowed its formation as it protected the assets. Alaska was aiming to bring in money from other states into its own banking industry. The shield they offered drove outside investors into the state and they brought a lot of money with them. All states that followed suite did it to achieve this as well.

People who are from the state in which the trust is authorized by the laws of the state however cannot establish it. The state is aiming at bringing in money which is from other states so they can only benefit from this by investing in other states. Other states will usually come up with something unique of their own as well.

People are however not comfortable with giving their properties away in the manner that the state wants them to. They learn about the asset protection trusts but do not take them up for this reason. They feel that there are easier ways in which one would gain these benefits. For instance with a limited liability company which has a living revocable trust. It is however necessary that one consults the professionals and gathers all sorts of necessary information to help in making the right decision.




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