Options for Protecting Your Assets in Montana 
Lawsuits, injuries, catastrophic losses, market downturns — anything can happen at the drop of the hat. Without proper asset protection, your most precious resources and the wealth you had built over decades could all be jeopardized. These losses could impact your entire family, going down many generations that you had intended to endow with opportunity.
Luckily, we are not the first people to face these risks. Since Lloyd’s of London first began to see sailors trading slips of paper with underwriters, human society has been seeking ways to protect our assets and reduce our risk.
You can take advantage of the evolution of finance and law to shore up your risk of loss and protect your most critical assets against the unforeseen. Here are three ways how:
1. Incorporate Your Ventures
Your first step is to separate your cash flows to prevent one from affecting the other if you have not done so already. Forming a limited liability company, S corporation or similar entity can shield your personal assets against business losses.
Intermingling business and personal accounts mean that a bad day at the office could affect your personal bank statement. Worse than that, a lawsuit from an employee, creditor or competitor could put all your personal assets at risk.
Prevent these potential issues by working with a Montana business attorney to form an airtight legal structure for your business followed by sound accounting practices.
2. Extend Your Insurance Coverage
Medical insurance, homeowner’s insurance and life insurance are a given these days, but many people fail to consider other insurance products that could help them greatly in the event of the unforeseen.
One of the most useful of these products is long-term care insurance. General medical insurance and public programs like Medicare can only cover so much. These limitations mean that people who have major health issues like alzheimer’s or a traumatic brain injury could be facing million-dollar healthcare costs every year.
Long-term care plans protect against these losses. However, make sure to review exactly what it will and will not cover to ensure you get your money’s worth.
3. Trusts and Estate Planning
Without a doubt, estate planning is the most critical form of asset protection because it concerns all of your assets. Since your posthumous wishes can only be interpreted from legal documents, ensuring that your will and any needed trusts are set up properly is paramount to seeing those wishes honored.
Since they protect assets from going through probate court and shields them from creditors, forming trusts can safeguard the bulk of your assets. Irrevocable trusts offer the most protection from creditors, but must be formed correctly to be legally viable. Other types of trusts can be accessed or modified during your life while still offering moderate asset protection compared to holding them liquidly.
Reviewing Protecting Your Assets with a Montana Estate Planning Lawyer
In addition to irrevocable trusts and incorporation, you may have a host of options at your disposal to protect assets from falling into unintended hands. Review your options today with a Montana estate planning attorney to ensure that your assets are protected and entrusted to the right parties at all times, even after your death.
Call (406) 257-3711 to start protecting your assets today.