It's obvious to all of us that clients' assets, including family businesses, real estate, stocks, and bonds, are subject to significant loss for two reasons: taxation costs our clients profit; and litigation can cost them everything. Asset protection depends on how title to the assets is held. For example, if a client holds title to property in their own name, they have no asset protection for any claim against them; while in some states, if they hold property titled jointly with their spouse, they are treated as tenants by the entireties.

Tenancy by the entireties is a legal fiction accepted in some states which assumes that both owners have an undivided 100% ownership interest in that asset, so that the asset is only subject to the claims of any joint creditors of the client and his or her spouse. For high risk professionals like physicians, that means that property titled jointly with their spouse can't be taken to satisfy a medical malpractice claim.

The best protection comes from owning some or all of your assets in an asset protection trust domiciled in a country that does not enforce U.S. judgments. Instead of exporting assets to a foreign country, you import the more favorable law of the foreign country to govern your U.S. assets.

To accomplish this, you use the same planning techniques utilized by the family offices of some of the wealthiest families in America, who protect their assets and reduce their taxes using IRS-compliant international financial structures.