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Now United offers you the opportunity to offer your clients the concepts of asset protection coupled with domestic and international estate planning. The planning can be utilized by anybody to accomplish the following goals:
  • Protect assets from creditors, judgments and regulatory seizure,
  • Maintain control of the client's assets throughout their lifetime,
  • Eliminate both estate and where applicable inheritance taxes,
  • Eliminate probate fees,
  • Defer capital gains taxes,
  • Reduce, wherever possible, income taxes,
  • Establish a structure that will provide the security that your client needs to sleep at night, knowing they have accomplished their asset protection estate planning goals.
No matter what business venture or activity in which your client is involved, it is simply foolish for any business or investment position to not be somehow coupled with either a domestic and/or international asset protection/estate plan. There is never an excuse to have an asset or potential asset placed in a position where that asset can be made available to a creditor should a mistake, either in that specific venture or some other venture, be made.

There are so many advantages and benefits from operating in an asset protection/estate planning environment that there should not be one person who does not operate through one of a number of available vehicles associated with such planning.

United Wealth Protection Concepts, LLC is an association of law firms, accountants and asset protection planners. All planning approved by the American Academy of Estate & Asset Protection Planners, LLC.

Over the last 80 years or so it has become more difficult for Americans to keep what they earn. Under today's rules what is yours is yours - until the tax collector or someone else finds a way to take it from you.

Here are what we see as the three main drains.

  1. The Constant Drain   Income from salary and investments is not yours alone. Federal and State Governments can claim up to 50% of your salary. Federal capital gains tax can claim from 15% to 23.8%. This is only the Federal government. Many states also tax income along with capital gains and that adds to the total tax number. Actually you lose a lot more than the raw number on capital gains since inflation can add to your taxable profit but not to your real profit.

  2. Estate Taxes  After paying all of the taxes on your salary and capital gains, you now pay taxes for the right to die.  If not properly structured, your entire estate, everything you have accumulated in a lifetime of paying taxes, is again taxed and at combined Federal and State rates that may top 50%.  Estate taxes are probably the ugliest tax of all.  Estate taxes may force a grieving family to liquidate a business or real estate holdings at fire sale prices.  The Federal exemption for 2013 is $5,250,000.  However, 21 states plus the District of Columbia have much lower exemption amounts.

  3. Lawsuits   An average of 43,000 lawsuits are filed every day in the US. The US accounts for over 94% of all of the lawsuits filed in the world. What isn't lost to taxes is exposed 24 hours a day to the threat of imaginative lawsuits: lawsuits from governmental agencies and lawsuits from individuals hoping for a winning ticket in the litigation lottery. The wealth you've accumulated through decades of hard work can be snatched away at the bang of a judge's gavel. The grounds for a government seizure or a catastrophic lawsuit can seem ludicrous - UNTIL YOU'RE THE TARGET!!!

For many of your clients, the most strongly desired financial goal is peace of mind. They want the comforting knowledge that their lives will not be upset by sudden financial loss. The kind of bullet proof protection that once was only available to the very wealthy is now available to your clients, your business and you.

Here are what we think should be the goals of a good Asset Protection/Estate Plan.

  1. Protect your assets from any predator (creditor)
  2. Control your assets during your lifetime
  3. Eliminate probate
  4. Eliminate estate and inheritance taxes
  5. Reduce Federal and State capital gains taxes
  6. Direct distributions of your assets after death
  7. Have the ability to modify your system
  8. Have the ability to treat your system like building blocks
  9. Feel comfortable with your system
  10. Laws change - Keep your system current

A good asset protection plan redistributes the assets on a balance sheet. A good plan does not render the individual insolvent - a good plan simply makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a creditor/predator to get to the assets.

There are basically two ways to gain asset protection:

  1. Sell, or exchange the asset.
  2. Encumber the asset.

FEDERAL ESTATE TAXES 2013

With the advent of the 2013 Federal Tax Act we have a number of options that at best were previously only available during a limited time period or in a time period that was set to expire.

The 2013 Federal Tax Act made permanent:

  1. The pairing of the estate tax and gift tax exemption. This basically means that a person can pass up to $5,250,000 to anyone they want during their lifetime or at death with no tax. In 2013 amounts over the $5,250,000 amount will be taxed at 40%. This exemption is indexed and is scheduled to raise through the year 2020 or until the amount reaches $7,500,000 for each person. Please keep in mind that 21 states and the District of Columbia have their own exemption that range from 1 Million to many Millions Dollars.

  2. The 2013 Act also made permanent the portability of the Federal estate tax exemption. This portability is only available to Federally recognized spouses. What this portability does is it allows the deceased spouse to pass to their surviving spouse any unused portion of their Federal estate tax exemption.

  3. As an example assume the deceased spouse uses $3,000,000 of their Federal estate tax exemption. The remaining $2,250,000 of the $5,250,000 estate tax exemption will now pass to the surviving spouse giving the surviving spouse a Federal estate tax exemption of $7,500,000 (their own $5,250,000 plus the unused $2,250,000 of the deceased spouse).

    Click here to view flow chart.