Florida Asset Protection Trust

A Florida Asset Protection Trust is designed to protect assets from future creditors. They can be used to protect assets from traditional creditors as well as Medicaid. When used to protect assets from Medicaid, there can be a 60 month look back period.

Attached is a link to a Law Review Article on Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trusts and their use in protecting assets.

This article will describe how the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust can be used to help clients who are not subject to estate tax, but want to maintain control and protect what they have, for their needs and their family. It will provide an objective analysis of several areas of law and include statistics, legal citations and other scholarly writings that demonstrate how the legal strategies or features used in the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust make it uniquely different from other irrevocable trusts. Experts have different opinions on the impact of these features when used in an irrevocable trust where the grantor retains a benefit (“self-settled trusts”), but the analysis will confirm universal agreement and well established law on the applicability of each legal feature and its result when used in the Irrevocable Pure Grantor Trust. It is easy for attorneys to become confused and disagree on the impact of a feature when a different outcome can occur when it is used in different legal contexts. For example, retaining a “power of appointment” to a grantor produces a different result when used in a trust intended for tax, asset protection, Medicaid, or general estate planning purposes. In addition, variations of a feature, such as a “general,” “non-general,” or “limited” power of appointment, when used in each area of planning, can have a significantly different impact. What makes it confusing is that a negative impact created by using a feature in one planning area, may cause a positive impact in another.

Follow this link to download the Asset Protection Law Review Article.