There are many ways to protect your assets, and your exact strategy will depend on your personal circumstances. At Gibson & Associates, we recognise this, and are committed to providing the specialist advice you require.

Our solicitors are experts in asset protection strategies and laws, and can advise you on the following:

• Helping you assess any potential risks to the value of your assets
• Discussing your asset protection options, including family protection trusts and gifting, and determining which would best suit your situation
• Advising you on executing your asset protection strategy, including helping you set up a trust or restructure your will
• Assisting you in drafting any relevant documentation or official applications in a way that is legally thorough

Throughout this process, we will keep things as simple and straightforward as possible, and provide you with guidance at every stage. By working to understand your specific aims, we can help you come up with an asset protection plan that really works for you.

We have experience of working with a wide variety of individuals and organisations from across Ireland, the EU and overseas, meaning we have the expertise to handle your case with the professionalism and efficiency that you deserve.

Why protect your assets?

Your personal assets are acquired over an entire lifetime, and most people will be keen to ensure that as much of this wealth can be passed on to your loved ones as possible. However, there are a number of factors that could jeopardise this, including:

• Capital Acquisitions Tax upon your death
• The cost of long-term care fees
• Lawsuits and bankruptcies
• Incomplete wills failing to specify who should inherit an asset
• Money and assets leaving the family due to divorce

Unless you take specific action to strategically protect your assets against these risks, you could face a situation where your family is left out of pocket after you die. At the same time, making too much of your wealth inaccessible during your lifetime can undermine your own quality of life, which is why it is important to seek professional advice on how to find the right balance.

What are the most common asset protection strategies?

There are numerous ways of ensuring your assets can be protected, depending on how much you are looking to safeguard, and for what purpose. Some of the most common methods include:

• Asset protection trusts – trusts allow you to set up a fund to shelter your assets, which can only be used and released under specific circumstances that you can determine. Family protection trusts can help you to ring-fence a portion of your wealth to support your family, for example, while property protection trusts are used to protect the capital value of a home
• Will writing – writing a comprehensive will can ensure that all of your assets pass to their intended recipients, rather than being left to the discretion of the executor or the state
• Gifting – lifetime gifting can be a way of passing on assets to loved ones and other beneficiaries while you are still alive, and can help to avoid tax issues if they are properly documented

Each of these solutions will have different pros and cons depending on your situation, so in order to determine the right strategy, it is best to get advice from an expert solicitor.