* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ASSET PROTECTION PLANNING: Understanding the Links and the Conflicts Between Estate Planning and Debtor/Creditor Law HECKSCHER, TEILLON, TERRILL & SAGER, P.C. John A. Terrill, II, Esquire Jennifer A. Kosteva, Esquire 100 Four Falls Corporate Center, Suite 300 West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2983 (610) 940-2600
[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * © 2017 Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager, P.C. All rights reserved. Printed September 8, 2017 I. INTRODUCTION Lawyers and other advisors involved to any extent in estate planning are well aware of their clients’ interest in mechanisms that will avoid exposing their assets unnecessarily to the claims of present and future creditors. This interest in “asset protection planning” is prompted in part by seminars and articles in the general and professional press and in part by high-profile cases where defendants in lawsuits either have or have not made themselves judgment-proof. Although it is the authors’ view that the estate planner should consider asset protection planning in conjunction with virtually every estate planning engagement, an increasing number of clients will come to the estate planner with the sole or primary goal of modifying the ownership of their assets to protect them from existing or anticipated creditors. It is important that the estate planner have a general familiarity with the various techniques available to accomplish these goals, including their technical underpinning. It is perhaps equally important to understand that asset protection laws vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. While some relevant laws are founded on federal legislation and case law (the laws providing protection for certain retirement plans, for example, and the laws giving “super creditor” status to certain federal claims), many are founded on state legislative, constitutional and case law.