Asset Protection

We are here to help you develop an all-encompassing asset protection strategy, estate plan, and business strategy.

Our firm specializes in protecting clients' assets from future and unforeseen claims and creditors, and assisting families in preserving their wealth for generations to come. To achieve these goals we work closely with clients, accountants, attorneys, and other advisors in creating and designing your estate and asset protection plan to:

• Shield your business or professional practice from future claims
• Safeguard family assets from business or professional risks
• Utilize offshore asset protection strategies to maximize asset protection and tax benefits
• Use double and/or triple the discounting of an estate value
• Provide for business succession
• Address the needs of the affluent client
• Protect real estate investments
  

Your will may not be enough to protect your assets. While your will is an important document to direct the distribution of many of your assets, and even provide direction as to the care of any orphaned children, a will does not offer the asset protection that can be achieved through proper estate planning. Leaving only a will with no other means for asset transfer increases the time your estate will spend in probate, causing unnecessary costs and headaches for your surviving loved ones.

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Living Trust

A living trust is a practical and flexible legal tool designed to reduce the costs and time of probate for anyone, not just the ultra-rich. It can also be used to minimize estate taxes that might otherwise become due. We may recommend that you consider trusts for one or more of the following purposes:

• Tax minimization or avoidance
• Increased wealth transfer
• Sharing the profits of assets among beneficiaries
• Management of inherited assets for children or heirs of advancing age or impaired health
• Reduction in probate expenses and time

A trust can enhance your family's wealth, while allowing for complete control of all assets. Family members often serve as trustees, either alone or with professional independent co-trustees.

Other Tools to Protect Your Assets

• Indirect prenuptials can be used to protect assets from the spouses of children
• Setting up a domestic trust in certain states where (even though a grantor is the potential beneficiary of the trust) the trust assets are still protected from creditors
• Setting up a family limited partnership where a general partner has discretion to limit distributions of partnership income or assets
• Creating lifetime gifts
• Using life insurance as an asset protection vehicle (money infused into insurance and retirement planning is harder for litigants to reach)
• Transferring assets to a spouse or a trust

Even with a living trust, your valuable assets may not be protected from creditors, especially if you are in a profession where you may become personally liable for large cash settlements (such as medicine or rental real estate). Family Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Corporations, and Off-Shore Accounts can all be used to protect your wealth. Please contact us to discuss these options.

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Estate Planning

Trusts and Estates

This Firm emphasizes Estate Planning matters. Estate Planning is the area dealing with the use and control of an individual's property during the person's lifetime, and the distribution of that property at his or her death. The creation of Living Trusts coupled with supporting documents such as Durable Powers of Attorney often comprises how to best carry out the person's wishes after taking into account the person's desires and preferences regarding family, wills, taxes, insurance, and property. Trusts help avoid the embarrassment of a court conservatorship in the event of disability, in addition to avoiding probate upon death. Probate is the court proceeding through which a will is proved to be valid and the estate of a decedent is administered. The process, generally, includes collecting a decedent's assets, liquidating liabilities, paying necessary taxes, and distribution of property to heirs. Probate (and conservatorships) are expensive, lengthy, and public proceedings.

Estate Planning and Administration

At the Liu Law Firm here in San Gabriel, we help our clients preserve and protect their assets for their heirs with our sophisticated estate planning services. From preparation of wills and trusts to asset preservation planning, we assist executives, entrepreneurs, and other individuals and entities strategically manage their wealth to ensure maximum value in the future. Attorney Long Z. Liu provides our clients with experienced counsel and representation throughout all the personal and tax matters of family asset transmission, trusts and decedent estates, marital property, and fiduciary litigation. The Liu Law Firm is equipped to handle the following estate planning transactions:

• Preparation of Wills and Trusts
• Gift Planning
• Conservatorships and Guardianships
• Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Planning
• Planning for Corporations and Partnerships Owned by Family Members
• Income Tax Planning Related to Wealth Transmission
• Income Taxation of Estate and Trusts
• Will Contests Premarital Agreements
• Estate Planning: Wills, trusts, business succession planning, medical directives
  (living wills)
• Probate and Estate Administration
• Probate Dispute Resolution
• Probate Dispute Litigation

Whether you are considering taking the first step in preparing for your future or whether you need to re-examine the arrangements you have made since your marriage or divorce, we encourage you to speak with an experienced estate planning attorney who can help to ensure the security of your assets.

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Probate Law

The Liu Law Firm assists clients with all aspects of the probate administration process. Probate administration refers to the process of implementing and carrying out the provisions of one's last will and testament. Probate administration involves a number of subtle income tax, property tax and estate tax issues including the identification of available deductions. An experienced lawyer is needed to favorably resolve those issues. We will assist the client with the many steps needed to complete the administration of the estate. Those steps include overseeing the payment of the deceased's funeral costs and last expenses. Filing final tax returns with the federal and state governments, providing that assets remaining from the person's life are collected and properly inventoried, and that wills or trust documents the deceased person prepared are examined and the wishes contained within them fulfilled. Finally, the Law Offices of Long Z. Liu will assist with the computation of any inheritance or estate taxes that may be required including the identification of available deductions. Other probate administration services our firm provides include:

• Determination of whether a probate court proceeding is required to process assets
• Inventory of the remaining assets and obligations
• Appointment of successor trustees or a personal representative with authority to act for the deceased's estate
• Distribution of remaining assets in accordance with the terms of a will or trust document

For more information, please contact us.

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