At Smith Hurst we recognize that asset protection and wealth preservation are essential areas of law that should be addressed in any comprehensive business plan or estate plan.  We strive to assist our clients in protecting their wealth from possible legal risks and work closely with our clients’ tax and financial advisers to provide a comprehensive plan.  Legal risks, such as personal injury lawsuits and failed business and personal relationships, are a real possibility in all of our lives, and so we provide a variety of planning solutions and opportunities to meet the needs of our clients.

In addition to primary estate and business planning techniques, we offer innovative and sophisticated options that can be used by high net worth clients, business executives, entrepreneurs and their families to ensure that family and corporate wealth stay within the family and company.  Some wealth preservation and asset protection techniques that we use include family limited liability companies, family limited partnerships, foreign and domestic asset protection trusts and multigenerational dynasty trusts.

We have experience in working closely with our clients’ tax advisors and investment advisers in properly and effectively structuring and implementing Private Family Funds (“PFF’s”).  As investments in family portfolios have become increasingly sophisticated over the past several years, wealthy families have become more and more interested in exploring the use of a single vehicle that is capable of handling the complexity of managing and supporting their portfolios.  The PFF is an umbrella structure to aggregate portfolios, pool assets and possibly defer taxes and, in appropriate cases, is a beneficial asset protection and wealth preservation technique that we have implemented for our clients.