What is Asset Protection?

Asset protection does exactly what it says on the tin: methods by which you can effectively protect your assets.

Protection from what?

Think of asset protection as a type of insurance policy covering a future risk of claims against you from financial predators.

If you own property and other assets and have a healthy bank account, you will be seeking to protect your wealth from anyone else who may seek to stake a hold on it – or otherwise have a legal right to your assets.  You may need to protect your assets from third parties such as a greedy spouse, or you may be seeking to restructure your assets to make them work harder and more efficiently.

Potential claimants could be a greedy or dishonest spouse on the breakdown of a marriage.  Ex-husbands and ex-wives can, in many cases, make extortionate claims against their spouse when the relationship breaks down.  We are highly experienced in helping spouses protect their assets to ensure their wealth is protected, and ensuring opportunist spouses do not succeed in excessive claims against you.

Others who could seek to stake a claim on your wealth include business creditors, the CRA, and dependents in the case of your death. 

Onshore and offshore

Whether your assets are domestic, such as your Canadian bank account or the family home; or assets held in other jurisdictions – there are many effective ways in which we can help to protect your assets.

Asset protection can involve, for instance:

1. The creation of specialist trusts
2. The creation of International Business Corporations (‘IBCs’)
3. Insolvency vehicles and bankruptcy
4. Property transfers
5. Segregated funds

Why is it necessary to consider asset protection now?

Plan to protect your wealth now – before it is too late.  With our help, you can do a number of things, depending on the nature and extent of your assets, to take action to protect your assets from potential claims further down the line.

If you wait until a claim or dispute arises – it may well be too late.  And critically, if you try to take steps to protect your assets if a claim were to arise, your attempts will probably fail – and you could be at risk of a fraud claim.

How can we help?

Our asset protection team are highly experienced in both onshore and offshore jurisdictions.  Our practice head, Andrew Rogerson, is an internationally known, award winning asset protection specialist barrister with many years’ practical experience in offshore jurisdictions.