What’s a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust?

A Lifetime Asset Protection Trust allows your beneficiary to control their inheritance, how it is distributed, as well as who may receive it when they pass away. It is a special kind of trust acquired from your living trust document. You’re able to put special protections in place for your money once it gets passed on to your beneficiaries.

Most living trusts are designed to have your assets transferred to beneficiaries immediately or shortly after your death. This can prove to be risky in some cases, ending in the loss of some or even all the inheritance depending on the circumstances of the people who are receiving your assets. 

What’s Different About It?

You worked hard for what you had in life. You want to protect that and pass it on how you want to, right? ALifetime Asset Protection Trust (aka a "LAPT") gives you the ability to pass on your wealth while having control over it. Such control as who, how, and where you wish for your assets and funds to be spent.

lifetime asset protection trust diagram

There is the power for you to designate conditions and keep your hard-earned money in the family. You can also protect your inheritance from creditors or lawsuits that the beneficiaries you name may be prone to once they receive the money. 

This trust is meant to be flexible. It’s meant to adapt to a beneficiary’s changing situations or life stages. It will also adapt to changes in the law - state or federal

How Can This Trust Help My Beneficiaries?

Like we said, this type of trust is designed to help you protect your hard-earned life savings so you’re able to pass them on to your loved ones. Instead of them collecting their inheritance immediately, you can create trust for each beneficiary and then transfer each asset to the trust. Then, you can give them access to the trust based on the rules you have decided on.

The beneficiary may be his or her own initial Trustee in control of his or her own "Lifetime Asset Protection Trust." The beneficiary may control the investing of his or her inheritance, how and when it is distributed and even who may receive it when that beneficiary passes away (if you wish, this right may be limited, such as only to your lineal descendants). The level of asset protection needed may be determined by the beneficiary after you're gone with the advantage of "20/20 hindsight," looking at the beneficiary's circumstances at that time. For example, if a moderate level of protection is appropriate, an independent Co-Trustee or sole Trustee may be brought in to sign on distributions. Or, if a greater level of asset protection is needed, an independent "Trust Protector" can "lockdown" the Trust even more tightly from the attack of third parties. In either case, the beneficiary may continue to indirectly control his or her inheritance, while enjoying additional asset protection.  

Overall, a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust can help shield your assets from third parties. It allows you to decide who will be in charge of your money and assets. 

We Didn't Invent It

The Lifetime Asset Protection Trust is based upon over 100 years of Asset Protection Law. The Quraishi Law Firm merely adapted and "incorporated this technology" into our Living Trust. The Lifetime Asset Protection Trust is NOT what other attorneys may commonly refer to as a "Generation-Skipping Trust," "Discretionary Trust," or "Dynasty Trust." Lifetime Asset Protection Trust uniquely utilizes many of the asset protection concepts utilized in foreign and domestic asset protection trusts.

Take Advantage of This Unique Opportunity

Quraishi Law Firm provides the Lifetime Asset Protection Trust as just one feature of its complete Living Trust package - - and the entire package costs only a fraction of the price many attorneys charge for an Asset Protection Trust alone. If you have not yet added this Lifetime Asset Protection Trust feature to your existing Living Trust, you should seriously consider doing so right away! We believe that it's so important, we now offer the Lifetime Asset Protection Trust as an available feature in every new Living Trust vehicle we build!

Is a Lifetime Asset Protection Trust Right For Me?

As it goes for anything, each person has a different plan. Everyone is unique and has different factors that go into your integrated legal, financial and life planning. 

At Quraishi Law and Wealth, our dedicated team extensively studies your situation and helps you decide if a Lifetime Asset Protection Trustis right for you. Our estate planning attorneys are available at our Jonesboro and Little Rock office locations to serve clients throughout Northeast and Central Arkansas. We are also available to meet with clients in our Memphis, Tennessee office, so don't hesitate to contact us or schedule a Strategy Session online.

 

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Carrie Russom Quraishi, JD, CAPP
Carrie provides personalized wealth management, tax and estate planning services to clients in AR, TX & TN.