How a Santa Clara Estate Planning Lawyer Can Help Protect Your Assets

There’s a fairly constant drive that Santa Clara estate planning lawyers see in our society to continually acquire assets.  After all, that’s one of the ways we accumulate wealth, which we then ask the estate planning lawyer to help us pass on.  Simply gathering more and more assets isn’t always the best approach to building wealth, however. Those assets also need to be protected.  A good Santa Clara estate planning lawyer will likely want to go over ways to do just that, which can include:

1. Estate planning.  Of course your estate planning lawyer is going to want to help you put together a long-term plan that can provide for your loved ones. Most people don’t necessarily understand all of the tax implications that go along with various aspects of estate planning, though.  For example, a fairly simple trust can help your heirs avoid a lot of taxes, which means the amount you leave to them will be larger. Certain types of trusts can also be used to shield your assets from the risks of life (both for you and your heirs), including lawsuits, divorce, and bankruptcy. If you’ve always thought trusts were just for super-rich people, then this is definitely something to discuss with a Santa Clara estate planning lawyer. You will likely be amazed at the difference a trust can make.
2. Insurance. There are so many different types of insurance on the market, and the types that will most benefit you will differ from those of someone else. The important thing to note when it comes to protecting your assets is that having insurance provides a way to pay for the unexpected without depleting your own financial resources. Yes, it costs up front, but it usually works out to be so much less expensive than not having insurance when you need it.
3. Business structure.  If you are a business owner, you may not have considered the structure of your business as a means for protecting it. In fact, the right business structure will protect more than just the business. For example, if a sole proprietor gets sued for a faulty product or workplace injury, his or her personal assets can be used to pay for damages. Operating under a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), on the other hand, can separate your business and personal assets so that one is not affected by the other.

These are just a couple of the myriad of ways that estate planning lawyers in Santa Clara protect their clients’ assets. Every situation is different and has its own needs, of course, and your attorney should be willing to look at yours from every angle to advise you on the best route to take.