Protecting Your Legacy from Creditors and Lawsuits: Strategies for Securing Your Financial Legacy

Have you ever worried about what would happen to your hard-earned assets if you faced a lawsuit or creditor claims? The truth might surprise you.

Attorney Jordan McIntyre begins with a reality check that makes many clients uncomfortable: there's no such thing as a litigation-proof life or estate plan. However, that doesn't mean you're powerless. Through strategic planning, you can create multiple layers of protection that significantly reduce your risk exposure while ensuring your wealth passes according to your wishes.

Jane Deere-Wester and Jordan explore four powerful protection strategies that work together like Russian nesting dolls to shield your assets. They discuss how properly structured trusts can discourage contests through specific provisions, while beneficiary designations offer a simple yet effective tool anyone can implement today without legal assistance. Jane shares a personal cautionary tale of discovering her ex-husband remained as a beneficiary on an account years after their divorce—a common oversight with potentially serious consequences.

For business owners and real estate investors, placing assets within properly structured LLCs provides crucial separation between personal and business liabilities. Taking this protection further by incorporating these entities into your estate plan creates multiple barriers against potential claims. We also tackle the often-uncomfortable subject of prenuptial agreements, which have become increasingly important in today's world of blended families and multiple marriages.

The podcast wraps up with practical advice on implementing these strategies and emphasizes that protecting your legacy isn't about overnight solutions but rather thoughtful planning that honors the lifetime of work you've invested in building your wealth.

Ready to create your own comprehensive asset protection plan? Reach out to our offices in Hendersonville, Shelby, or Charlotte, and let us help you secure your legacy for generations to come.

Episode Transcript

Jane Dearwester (00:03):
Hi there and welcome to our Elder Law Report.
I'm Jane Dearwester withMcIntyre Elder Law.
I'm based in our Hendersonvilleoffice and I'm joined today by
Jordan McIntyre in our Shelbyoffice.
Hi Jordan, hey Jane, about waysto protect your inheritance and

(00:23):
your assets from creditors andlawsuits.
I am in our litigation division.
I do full-time litigation herefor our firm across the state,
and one question I get quiteoften from clients as we're
doing their estate planningdocuments is I want you to put
these documents together in sucha way that nobody can ever

(00:47):
contest it and nobody can everhave a litigation case coming
out of my estate.
And I apologize for kind ofsnickering while I'm saying that
, but there is no such thing asa litigation proof estate plan
or litigation-proof estate planor a litigation-proof life right

(01:11):
.
So I want to come out and saythat first, there's no hard and
fast way to completely avoidlitigation on the front end,
because attorneys, we'recreative.
We come up with arguments youmight not think about at the
front end.
So there is no such thing as afail safe to absolutely avoid

(01:31):
litigation.
But of course in our processthere are ways to make it harder
to litigate.
There are ways to makelitigation less of a option or
doesn't look like as good of anoption, because we word our
documents in such a way to bevery clear.

(01:53):
We always advise our clients tospeak with their family members
as they're going through theestate planning process so
people know and hear directlyfrom you hey, I just got my
estate plan done.
I want you to be my agent underthe power of attorney when I go
.
I'm going to leave things splitevenly between my children.

(02:16):
Sometimes it's not so easy,right?
Sometimes it's not so easy, buthaving that communication is
key and can be a key factor inavoiding some litigation.
So today, jordan and I are goingto talk about really four
different topics or areas thatwe use as estate planning

(02:37):
attorneys and as litigators tohelp you avoid claims and
litigation over inheritance andover your asset.
So these four items I'llintroduce briefly are trusts and
estate planning documents, agood, solid estate plan having
beneficiary designations.
Third is business entityprotection.

(03:00):
So creating business entitiesas a way to protect your assets,
and also number four prenuptialagreements as a way to protect
your assets and also number fourprenuptial agreements as a way
between married couples to bevery clear about properties that
you may want to remain separateproperties versus those
properties that you may want tobe considered marital properties

(03:21):
.
Prenups come in extremely handyand are very important,
particularly in blended familydynamics, which we see a lot of
these days.
So I'll pause there and maybelet Jordan start out on number
one, which is just about havinga solid estate plan and or trust
in place to again try to avoidlitigation.

Jordan McIntyre (03:43):
Yeah, so that was a great intro, jane.
So, regardless of the route youtry to go, typically at
McIntyre Elder Law we're goingto suggest getting out assets
outside of probate or using sometype of trust to do that.
You want to have an estate planin place that is difficult to

(04:03):
challenge, right?
We don't want to draft adocument for you that has any
type of ambiguous language.
You want to have cleardistributions to beneficiaries
and then have individuals rightthat you trust to actually do
that, whether it's a trustee oran executor.
And, yeah, so with theRevocable Living Trust you're

(04:25):
going to be able to avoidprobate.
You can control how and whenassets are distributed, and here
we're going to have no contestprovisions within these
documents to try to avoidlitigation, meaning that if a
beneficiary does not have a goodfaith basis to contest, I guess
, the drafting of this document,then they're going to be cut

(04:47):
out of that, and that can be ina will or a trust.
Additionally, you can usespendthrift provisions within
trust if you want to try toprotect a child from any losses
they may have or bankruptcyright.
Spendthrift provisions can makeit more difficult for creditors
to actually get assets from thetrust.
If you want to try to shieldassets from any type of

(05:12):
long-term care costs.
Right, you're worried aboutqualifying for some type of
benefit and then your estatebeing responsible for that.
You can use irrevocable trust.
Right, that's a way to shieldassets.
But essentially trust can giveyou control, flexibility and
protection, and then we can tryto avoid any type of litigation

(05:35):
right by doing proper planning.
So I think Jane's going to goin to talk about beneficiary
designations and how that'spretty, you know foolproof to
avoid litigation by just naminga beneficiary on an account.
Yeah, thank you, jordan.

Jane Dearwester (05:46):
That's true, that's a you know foolproof to
avoid litigation by just naminga beneficiary on an account.
Yeah, thank you, jordan.
That's true, that's a perfectsegue into beneficiary
designations and let me be veryclear, this is something you can
do in most cases without theassistance of an attorney, so
this is a freebie for you alllistening, these are things you
can take action and do todaythat you do not have to have an

(06:07):
attorney involved.
Call your bank account, yourbank, your financial advisor.
Make sure you have payable ondeath beneficiaries designated
on every single one of your bankaccounts.
Let me use myself as an example.
About a year ago, I found outthat my ex-husband, who has been

(06:27):
my ex-husband for over 10 years, was still listed as a payable
on death beneficiary on one ofmy bank accounts.
Of course, I've since changedthat, but don't make the same
mistake or some other businessdisillusion.
We forget to go back and checkall of our accounts, especially

(06:49):
those accounts.
We've had a really long time.
We think we did it at thebeginning, but now's as good a
time as any.
Go back and check those bankaccounts.
This includes checking savings,money market, iras, 401ks, life
insurance.
Check your beneficiaries andyour life insurance.

(07:10):
And, just to build on whatJordan was saying, in the estate
planning and trust documentplanning, you can name your
trust as the beneficiary of yourlife insurance policy.
This is the way the Rockefellerfamily really built a lot of
generational wealth was all thefamily members made their life
insurance policies payable intothat big Rockefeller trust and

(07:34):
this is how they built ongenerational wealth.
So, again, those beneficiarydesignations are so important.
You don't have to pay anyonenot an attorney or anyone else.
You don't have to pay anyonenot an attorney or anyone else
to make those.
The tough thing is you justhave to prioritize it and make
sure you actually do it.
So that's a really easy onethat you can do yourself, and I

(07:58):
will ping back to Jordan to talkabout creating business
entities like LLCs or familylimited partnerships to continue
to shield assets or even yoursmall, medium, large businesses.

Jordan McIntyre (08:12):
Yeah.
So using a limited liabilitycompany right, an LLC or even
those professional limitedliability corporations, is a
great way to separate yourpersonal wealth from any type of
potential claims, right slipsand falls on that property.

(08:37):
Your entire estate could be atrisk if you don't have it in
some type of business.
Additionally, here at McIntyreElder Law we'll put LOCs into
trust to keep everything alignedwith the estate plan and avoid
probate to ensure that thisbusiness is not halted.
So if you have an LOC that goesthrough probate, it can really
halt business operations and youwant some type of succession
plan in place.

(08:59):
Whether you have that within theoperating agreement and the LLC
, I would recommend that peopleput that LLC into the trust.
They get additional liabilityprotection like a Russian
nesting doll, and then we canhave some type of succession
plan in place to ensure that theLLC is still run even after the
owner passes right.
So you just don't want to haveassets in your own name.

(09:22):
If you're worried aboutliability and you want to try to
limit right, I guess how muchpeople can recover from you If
you have things in the LLC,they're only going to go after
things in the LLC, not yourpersonal assets.
So if you've got multiplerental properties or small
businesses, try to place theminto those LLCs and maybe into a

(09:43):
trust in order to limit yourliability, and I think Jane's
going to go into some prenupagreements.
Those are incredibly importantand they're not just for
celebrities.

Jane Dearwester (09:53):
Yeah, isn't that the truth?
We were just talking about thisbefore coming on to the meeting
, the recording here andprenuptial agreements.
We see more and more oftenpeople are on their second,
third, fourth, 10th marriage andblended families are just such

(10:14):
a common occurrence these days.
Where someone has been marriedbefore Now they're getting
remarried.
They may have children fromtheir past marriage and then new
children with the current wife,and there are just so many
issues.
So we are not family lawattorneys, but we work in
conjunction with some excellentfamily law attorneys across

(10:35):
Western North Carolina and allthe way over to Charlotte.
And we want to work inconjunction not only with your
family law attorneys but alsowith other professionals like
your accountants, your financialplanners.
But having that prenuptialagreement or, if you missed the
boat on that, maybe apostnuptial agreement in place
to determine what is separateproperty, what about that

(10:59):
property you inherited from yourgrandfather?
Do you want that to stay inyour sole and separate name so
you can pass it on to yourbiological children, or do you
want your spouse to have a sharein that?
All these things are sometimesa tough discussion, but they are
so much easier to have on thefront end than on the back end

(11:22):
in litigation.
So setting yourself up with aprenuptial or postnuptial
agreement is just pivotal toprotecting your assets and
securing your legacy, so thatyou know what's going to happen.
I think with anything, with allof these four modalities,
you're educating yourself in away to know what's going to

(11:45):
happen if you're eitherincapacitated or when you pass
away.
So the incapacitations and ifthe pass away is a win,
capacitations and if the passaway is a win, right, we don't
know of any way to keep anybodyalive forever, so that is
something all of us eventuallyare going to have to deal with.
So having a solid estate planin place and really educating

(12:09):
yourself on what happens tostuff your business, your money,
your real estate they're alltreated a little bit differently
, so just having the knowledgeis incredibly empowering and we
just encourage you all to takethe next step after watching

(12:29):
this video.
Give our offices a call.
We have offices inHendersonville, shelby and
Charlotte.
We're here to serve our fellowNorth Carolinians and get our
estate plans in place and helpyou secure your legacies for
future generations.
Anything else, jordan.
Anything else I missed there.

Jordan McIntyre (12:51):
You don't build this legacy overnight.
You spend your entire lifeworking, saving, investing,
forming businesses, buyingproperties.
So make sure you haveprotections in place, whether
you do it yourself or through anattorney, to not let your
legacy disappear.
Litigation's not overnight, butyou could lose everything

(13:15):
pretty quickly if it's notprotected, and there's always
liability out there.
You never know what's going tohappen.
So just make sure you protectyourself and we can do that for
you here.

Jane Dearwester (13:25):
That's right.
That's right.
Thanks again for joining ustoday.
If you have any questions,please check out our website at
wwwmcelderlawcom, and we lookforward to assisting you and
seeing y'all in the office soon.
Thanks, jordan.

Jordan McIntyre (13:41):
Thank you, Jane .

Jane Dearwester (13:42):
Bye.