When you are operating in the real estate sector, there is a danger that you may lose your assets to creditors or former spouses as a result of different circumstances. Your property rights can also be infringed by other unscrupulous players in the same industry. However, the good news is that you can utilize real estate law to protect your valuable assets. There are different legal devices available and these are specifically designed to ensure that your assets cannot be repossessed willy-nilly.
Asset protection helps individuals and businesses alike to prevent the creditors from accessing your valuable assets. As such, read on to learn how estate law protects you and your valuable assets.
Significance Of Estate Planning
Estate planning involves the process of creating a legal plan that can be used in managing and protecting your assets after your death or when you are still alive. Estate is not a preserve for the rich only since it involves properties, personal belongings, insurance benefits as well as business interests among others. Legal experts at www.atlantaestatelawcenter.com explain that asset protection can give you peace of mind when you know that your estate is protected for the benefit of your children when you are gone. Poor estate planning can cause unwarranted suffering to your loved ones when you are dead, so you should seek legal advice from fixed fee conveyancers Melbourne to protect your assets today.
Exempt Property
There is a federal and state law that is specifically designed to protect assets that are regarded as exempt and these cannot be accessed by creditors. There are exempt assets such as personal property like clothing, household property, tools of business as well as jewelry. In other states, life insurance benefits, annuities, and primary residence are regarded as exempt and the creditors cannot reach them.
Additionally, owners of corporations and limited liability corporations (LLCs) are shielded from liability by different state laws. The choice of state can significantly impact factors such as annual fees, tax implications, and the ease of forming and managing the business, making it crucial in selecting the best state for LLC formation or corporation to maximize these protections.
Qualified retirement plans such as employee stock ownership, pension plans as well as 401 (k) plans are protected by the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Qualified retirement plans include profit sharing, pension plans, 401(k) plans and employee stock ownership plans. Creditors cannot reach assets that have no legal title.
Copyright And Patent Laws
Copyright law helps protect your original work that involves written documents, musical creation as well as artistic work. Copyright law is designed to prevent other people from copying or using your work without your consent. Some people tend to copy information from different websites without permission and this constitutes copyright infringement. You can get compensation if you realize that someone is using your work without permission but you need to talk to your IP lawyer first.
Similarly, patent law is specifically meant to protect inventions. You will get exclusive rights to sell a product that constitutes your patented invention for 20 years. This means that no other person will be able to use the patented product for the period your patent is existing.
Trademark
Trademark law is crucial in business since it is designed to protect your brand. When you register your trademark, the law will prevent other businesses from copying your brand features. Copycats are unscrupulous since they try to make money using similar features of a popular brand. Therefore, a trademark is meant to stop other businesses from imitating the features that make your brand stand out of the rest.
Trusts And Family Limited Partnerships
Assets registered as trusts or family partnerships are protected and they cannot be accessed by creditors. You need to get full details of how the laws govern the operations of the trust. Similarly, you can also transfer your property to another person or a trust to shield it from creditors. However, you need to be careful when you transfer property to ensure that it remains protected and the trustee does not expose it to the creditors.
Wills
A will is another important legal device that you can consider to protect your estate. In most cases, when you die, your close relatives may grab all your valuable assets and live your family in poverty. To protect your children and spouse, you need to write a will that clearly states what each individual will get from your estate.
Protecting your estate is very important since it helps to safeguard your hard-earned work. In the case of real estate, there is a risk that you can lose your property to creditors but with the right legal protection, this may not happen. It is also important to protect your intellectual property so that it is not used by other people without your permission. You can get peace of mind when you protect your estate since your children will be covered even when you are dead.