The next step in asset protection is identifying your liabilities and isolating them away from your assets and money. In theory, that concept may sound very simple, but in practice it becomes very complicated, as you do not want to violate any state or federal laws in doing so. In addition, despite what you see on television, the best way to protect your assets and money is usually not to put them offshore in some country that is unfriendly to the United States from both a tax and liability standpoint.

The safest way to protect your assets and money under most circumstances, is to do so within the United States, in a transparent manner, so that you are not exposed to additional liability for fraud or create the appearance of any impropriety. Therefore, the key to successful asset protection is to ensure most of your assets and money reside in a company with the least potential for liability. As an attorney who has spent a significant part of their career doing collection work and protecting creditors' rights for major financial institutions, I can tell you with utmost certainty that finding assets and money in today's information age is not difficult. I've spent even larger part of my legal career coming up with mechanisms to protect my clients' assets and money from a variety of potentially large liabilities.

I have found one consistent theme in doing asset protection, each situation is unique. This is an area of law that is constantly changing based on changes brought about with changes in the tax code, changes in the law, changes in the way the law is interpreted by the Court and changes in the way we store information as well as do business in the modern information age. The appearance of impropriety can be as great an obstacle to asset protection as actual impropriety because the appearance of impropriety can expose you to potential liability or unnecessary inquiry by third parties. Therefore, all actions must be taken in a manner to appear as transparent as possible, with no negative intent or any intent to conceal or defraud a creditor, and in compliance with all applicable current state, federal, and international law.

For this reason, the first step I always take before even accepting a client is ensuring that I can help them, because there are situations in which no form of asset protection can assist them. For those clients I can help, I create a detailed plan that is as transparent as possible and is easily understood by the client to fulfill their goals of asset protection. I also ensure that the client recognizes the limitations to any asset protection plan, because there are events that occur that are beyond what we could foresee.