No. The Trust may help prevent a lawsuit because it holds assets anonymously and may therefore make it harder for someone to sue, but the Estate Plan is different from an Asset Protection Plan.

You can add Asset Protection elements into your Estate Plan. This includes things like:

• Anonymity of assets with a Trust
• Separation of assets to prevent spillover

The Trust will help with privacy. People will not be able to see the people or assets inside the Trust.

A Will does not help with privacy. It is filed in Probate Court and becomes a public record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYcnRzGVabY

In short, a Trust allows you to specify how things should be used, whereas a Will allows you to hand over total control.

For example, let’s say you give your brother $1,000 for your nieces college fund:

• If you do this with a Trust and your brother is the Trustee, it’s his job to transfer those funds to your niece at the time and in the manner specified in your Trust.
• If you do this with a Will, then if the money goes to your brother (for your niece) there is no way to make sure it gets to her at all. If you say it goes directly to your niece, she could use it to buy a new tv instead of for college. It gives total control to the person you name to receive it. 

This is something we go through during the design process to help you decide which type of document to use in different situations.

Estate Planning includes several different types of documents and services. 

Here’s what we provide as a baseline:

• Pour Over Will
• Trust Agreement
• Power of Attorney
• Advanced Healthcare Directive
• Personal Property Memorandum
• Assignment of Personal Property
• Asset Inventory
• Funding Instructions
• DocuBank Membership
• Kids Protection Plan
• Legacy Interview

There are many other things that can be added, such as a Pet Trust, a Special Needs Trust, etc… These can be addressed during the design meeting.