What an important topic! But sadly one that elicits so little interest!

I have been practicing law for about 25 years, and I have sadly concluded that people will not pay attention to asset protection issues until they lose everything they have, or they get pretty close to it and are scared. Fear seems to be the only motivation for asset protection planning. Sadly I must admit to suffering from this same problem myself when I was younger.

I was recently asked what is the most common mistake in Asset Protection?

My Answer:

Thinking nothing bad will ever happen to you and doing nothing.

There are so many good strategies out there. But you actually have to do something before they sue you, or you get the service of divorce papers, etc. I find people don’t like to think about depressing things. Thus they fail to prepare for them.

I like to consider myself a stoic (not the kind that stands around in hair shirts and such), and one of the lessons is to consider all the things that can go wrong in your life without getting hysterical about it. It helps you to prioritize and prepare.

Some good reading: