Asset Protection for Florida Residents: Life Insurance and Annuities

Most Americans don’t consider asset protection in the normal course of living. Most of us will buy homeowners insurance to protect our homes from loss or buy car insurance to protect our cars and ourselves while driving. However we do very little about protecting our other assets. Some of which are considerable in value. In fact, most people don’t understand that they are even at risk to begin with.

So "how do I cover my assets from lawsuits?” Or, “How do I keep my retirement or investment dollars from declining in value?”

Laws exist in most states that protect retirement accounts, homes, and other assets from creditors.

Certain trusts can also provide limited or total protection. Your individual circumstances and/or

The first thing you should do is remove your name from ownership of your assets, while maintaining control of those assets. You want to be rich but look poor.

Created a limited liability company (LLC) will accomplish this goal. A personal creditor cannot touch the shares of an LLC. Your LLC shares are protected from creditor liens. Judgment holders are limited to merely owning a charging order against distributions made by the LLC.The creditors won’t be able to grab any of the LLCs assets. They can’t even touch your salary (without and order of garnishment) , nor any of the assets bought or sold through the LLC. As long as you avoid any distributions, your assets are completely shielded.

Another way to beat the vampires is through an irrevocable trust. With an irrevocable trust, you technically no longer own the assets and therefore no debts can be levied against them. Through an irrevocable trust you can retain control,while transferring legal ownership to anyone you choose. In addition, the content of the trust do not need to be listed in an asset sheet, since they are no longer your assets. While shares of an LLC must still be listed on an asset sheet, those shares are fully protected.

Another method is to convert your assets to other creditor-exempt vehicles, such as annuities, IRAs homestead properties, pension plans and life insurance policies. Homestead property, annuities, IRAs, pension plans and life insurance policies are the most common creditor-exempt entities.

For Florida residents, the most convenient vehicle of asset protection is through the Florida Homestead statute, since any value added to a Florida homestead is protected. The only creditors that are able to attach a lien to your homestead property are those creditors that hold direct liens resulting from work done on your property, or the property itself.

The three most common liens of this type are mortgage liens, Federal tax liens, Association liens, and mechanic’s liens (money owed to someone you hired to do work on your property).

The cash value of an life insurance policy of a Florida resident is also immune to creditor claims as long as the death benefit passes to a beneficiary and not the decedent’s estate.

The proceeds of an annuity contract issued to a resident of Florida are also not subject to the claims of creditors.
If you have any questions about how to protect your assets in Florida, please call one of our specialist at Mintco Financial.

Mintco Financial Team of Independent Financial Advisors have more than 17 years of experience and have helped many individuals and families with a properly Asset Protection Planning.

Call 813-964-7100 or visit the website www.MintcoFinancial.com