September 10, 2013

By the time a person retires, he or she should have created an asset base that is sufficient to allow him or her to retire without dramatically reducing his or her standard of living. Moreover, most individuals would also like to pass down assets to the next generation. As a recent article explains, those who succeed in creating a sufficient asset base for retirement need to be careful to protect it from any liability that may arise down the road.

Asset protection strategies cannot fully protect all assets from all claims. However, a good asset protection strategy can effectively reduce threats to many assets, such as real property, investments, businesses, and various other assets.

One common asset protection strategy is holding property under Tenancy by the Entirety. This is a type of co-ownership that is available exclusively to married couples. Couples who own asset(s) through Tenancy by the Entirety each have a right of survivorship, meaning that the surviving spouse automatically takes the deceased spouse’s share. In certain states, assets held in this form are protected from lawsuits that fail to name both spouses as defendants.

Another common asset protection strategy is transferring the ownership of assets to a limited partnership. Limited partnerships are popular for holding investments and liquid assets. In order to form a limited partnership, you need one or more general partners, and one or more limited partners. These particular strategies will allow for the effective protection of assets for retirement.