San Diego Asset Protection Lawyers

If you’ve been searching for San Diego or Orange County asset protection lawyers or offshore asset protection attorneys in San Diego or Orange County 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 San Diego or Orange County, 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.

Asset planning today is a world apart from the offshore asset protection tax shelters offered by big accounting firms, banks and asset protection attorneys in the 1990s and early 2000s which were promised to shelter huge gains made by investors in the internet boom and which caught the attention of the IRS. Such tax shelters are no longer offered except by the unscrupulous promoters who can still sometimes be found on the internet and in spam e-mails. What has always held true in the past is still valid today. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Asset protection is not tax sheltering. It’s not even tax minimization at its core, and it’s certainly not tax avoidance. Proper asset protection, if done properly, is tax-compliant every step of the way and it must be properly reported on one’s taxes yearly.

Asset protection isn’t simply used by debtors seeking to protect their money from creditors. It’s also used by business owners and professionals who can’t obtain insurance or sufficient amounts of insurance for everything from malpractice judgments to environmental claims.

Offshore asset protection can take the form of a foreign trust, an LLC, or simply an offshore bank account. Strategies include the use of foreign trusts, combinations of foreign trusts and LLC’s, and having a limited partnership owned by an offshore trust as its limited partner with the grantor the general partner. Another strategy is to make the individual the managing director of a foreign company which is owned by a foreign trust with the trust funds invested in the foreign company.

A common strategy recommended by offshore asset protection attorneys is to utilize a Nevis LLC and a foreign trust in the Cook Islands. All of the membership ownership of the Nevis LLC is placed in the Cook Islands trust. The U.S. taxpayer remains the manager of the Nevis LLC and thus retains control over the assets. In the event of litigation, the manager is temporarily replaced by a foreign trustee, with a trust protector who watches and has power over the trustee. The trust protector must not be the trust beneficiary if the U.S. taxpayer wishes to maintain true asset protection. When the litigation is dismissed, the U.S. taxpayer is restored as the LLC’s manager.

Some foreign jurisdictions do not recognize judgments obtained in United States federal or state courts. In jurisdictions in which this is the case, creditors must retry their claim in the foreign jurisdiction. With the daunting prospect of having to hire local attorneys who may not even be hired on a contingency basis, the costs of pursuing such an action can deter all but the most determined creditor and prompt a settlement for pennies on the dollar.

U.S. taxpayers often utilize foreign trusts to accomplish their asset protection. The taxpayer typically chooses a jurisdiction favorable to judgment debtors in which there is a very short (one or two year) statute of limitations for lawsuits for fraudulent conveyances and a high burden of proof required of creditors. Foreign trusts today also utilize a "duress" clause making the trust irrevocable and 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.

Those judgment creditors seeking a further layer of confidentiality and protection from creditors often create an offshore corporation. The corporation through its nominee officers and directors is used to hold title to bank accounts, brokerage accounts and other assets. Bearer shares are sometimes controlled by an offshore trust and the offshore corporation is formed in a jurisdiction that is different from that of the offshore trust.

U.S. taxpayers without claims against them, pending litigation or judgments in U.S. courts can seek to protect their assets by a number of domestic actions, such as the creation of a family limited partnership in states such as Nevada or Delaware or by homesteading homes in states such as Florida and Texas.

The greater the variety of asset protection vehicles utilized by persons of wealth, the greater the asset protection that can be afforded to them with a properly implemented asset protection plan. With proper planning and implementation, creditors can find the maze involved in reaching such assets nearly impossible to navigate. And if all offshore reporting requirements are met, as onerous as they may be today, a U.S. taxpayer may still take advantage of these asset planning protections without running afoul of U.S. tax laws.

In compliance with IRS requirements, we must advise you that any U.S. federal tax offshore asset protection advice provided in this informational article by our asset protection attorneys 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 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, San Diego and Orange County 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 San Diego and Orange County asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson. When it’s time to hire a San Diego and Orange County asset protection attorney, hire a legend.