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If you’ve been searching for California asset protection lawyers or offshore asset protection attorneys in California and haven’t found the asset protection attorney in which you can be confident when retaining a lawyer for your asset protection, voluntary disclosure, offshore trust protection and family limited partnership matters in California, Sebastian Gibson is the asset protection attorney you’ve been looking for.

California Asset Protection Lawyer

With over thirty years of experience handling international matters, with law degrees in both California and in Great Britain, and years of international experience in London as well as decades of experience in California, California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson brings a wealth of experience to the table and was chosen one of the 2011 Top Lawyers by Palm Springs Life Magazine.

One of the most useful asset protection weapons in the arsenal of offshore asset protection attorneys are offshore asset protection trusts.

A foreign asset protection trust is a legal entity that allows a beneficial owner of assets distance himself or herself from legal ownership of assets placed overseas while retaining their beneficial enjoyment and a limited degree of control. When structured properly and created in the right jurisdiction, creditors can be impeded and deterred from gaining control of the assets by expensive and sometimes insurmountable obstacles.

Although a foreign trust can hold any type of property, even real property in the U.S., the asset protection afforded by a foreign trust is only truly effective for liquid assets which are held offshore. As a U.S. court can exercise power over U.S. assets, foreign trusts will not afford asset protection to assets such as real property located on American shores.

With such long statutes of limitations domestically in the U.S. for fraudulent transfers of assets, domestic asset protection is often vulnerable to a creditor’s claim that a debtor has recently transferred assets in an effort to defraud a creditor’s attempt to collect on a claim or judgment.

Asset protection trusts today also utilize a "duress" clause making the trust irrevocable or the trustee able to reject the request of the beneficiary to repatriate the assets to the U.S. during times of duress (e.g. U.S. litigation). A further clause is inserted in such trusts today allowing the trustee to move the trust to yet another offshore jurisdiction with similar asset protection statutes during times of duress, thus making it even more difficult for the judgment creditor.

A Choice of law clause, common to foreign trusts, provides that the trust is to be governed by the law of the jurisdiction in which it was set up and is situated.

Offshore asset protection trusts often contain a duress clause which directs the foreign trustee to ignore any instructions to repatriate trust assets or any other instructions made while under duress, such as during any litigation against the settlor.

Another common clause in offshore asset protection trusts is a flee clause, also known as a Cuba clause, which provides not only for the removal and replacement of the trustee, but a change in the jurisdiction of the trust and/or the governing law in the event of duress (litigation). With the new jurisdiction being just as unfavorable toward creditors, this type of clause makes it even more difficult for a creditor to get to the assets of the trust.

Offshore asset protection trusts should only be set up in jurisdictions that are politically, socially and economically stable. They must be set up in such a manner that the settlor cannot demand that they be unwound or the assets repatriated to the U.S. In other words, the settlor must part with all legal control over the trust assets and all trustees. The individual setting up the trust must not have any right to trust assets. Distributions must be at the discretion of the trustee, who should be licensed, bonded, qualified, reputable and, however, still sympathetic to the individual’s wishes, needs and desires, understand the individual’s interests, and respond to communications. And, perhaps most importantly of all, a foreign trust must be set up and maintained in a tax-compliant manner.

In addition to the FBAR yearly reporting requirements, many taxpayers are unaware that their reporting obligations begin as soon as they create a foreign trust. IRC Section 6048(a) requires the responsible party to provide written notice of any reportable event on or before the 90^th day. These reporting requirements include the amount of money or other property transferred to the trust and the identity of the trust and each trustee and beneficiary. A reportable event includes the creation of any foreign trust, the transfer of any money or property to it by a U.S. person, and the death of a citizen or resident of the U.S. if he or she was treated as the owner of any part of it, or if any portion of the trust was included in the decedent’s gross estate.

In compliance with IRS requirements, we must advise you that any U.S. federal tax offshore asset protection advice contained in this informational article about offshore asset protection trusts and offshore asset protection is not intended to be used nor is it published in order for it to be used and you may not use it for the purpose of avoiding penalties or fines under the Internal Revenue Code. It is not intended to be used nor is it being published in order to promote, market or recommend any specific transaction, tax-related matter, offshore asset protection strategy or estate planning tax scheme to any party.

California Asset Protection Attorney, Sebastian Gibson

Sought out to be a writer for California’s two largest and most prestigious legal newspapers, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson’s articles have been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal. Today thousands and thousands of people visit this website and his blogs monthly for useful advice and thousands more follow him on Twitter for his humor.

One of the best asset protection attorneys for people in California to follow for his humor and wit, one of the funniest California asset protection lawyers as well as one of the top humorous California asset protection attorneys people follow on Twitter, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson has been called "brilliant," "hilariously funny" and a "legend."

It matters more than you think who you call for your asset protection and other legal matters. When it matters most, call California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson. When it’s time to hire a California asset protection attorney, hire a legend.