Asset protection has to be built before the claim exists. Afterward, the law calls it something else.
A structure that moves assets after a claim arises is a fraudulent transfer, and courts unwind it. A structure built while the horizon is clear is ordinary planning, and it holds. The difference is timing, documentation, and design. Our attorneys design entity, trust, and exemption strategies that fit your assets and your risk, and the firm’s tax side handles the reporting each one creates.
By separating what you own from what can be reached: operating risk inside an entity, personal and investment assets outside it, exempt assets funded to their limits, adequate insurance underneath, and trusts for what remains. Each layer is documented at the time it is created, because the documentation is what a court examines later.
Once a claim is known or reasonably foreseeable. Transfers made to defeat a creditor can be reversed under fraudulent transfer law, and the attempt itself becomes evidence. Planning done while things are calm is the only kind that works, which is why business owners, physicians, landlords, and investors do it before there is a reason.
It depends on the structure: an operating entity and a holding entity are a different engagement from a domestic asset protection trust or an offshore structure with annual reporting. In the consultation the attorney reviews what you own and what you are exposed to, then quotes the plan and the ongoing reporting so you can weigh both against the risk.
What we do
We start with what you own, what could be claimed against it, and what protections already exist under Illinois and federal law: retirement accounts, homestead, tenancy by the entirety, and insurance. Then we add what is missing: the right entities for operating and holding assets, domestic or offshore asset protection trusts where they fit, and the transfers documented so they survive scrutiny. The firm is in Skokie and works with clients nationwide and abroad.
Every structure carries reporting obligations, and missing them is the most common way a protective structure becomes a tax problem. Those returns are prepared here.
The attorneys who handle asset protection
Structures are designed by a corporate attorney and reviewed for tax reporting by a tax attorney and CPA.
Andrew Gordon
MANAGING PARTNER
Michael Brandwein
PARTNER | CORPORATE LAW
Asset protection for cryptocurrency and digital assets
Digital assets raise their own questions: how a trust or LLC holds private keys, how custody is documented, how transfers are valued, and how the reporting on Forms 1040, 8938, and 3520 is handled. The firm has worked in crypto since 2014 and structures holdings for founders, investors, and funds.
The reporting that comes with offshore structures
Offshore trusts and foreign entities are reported to the IRS every year: Form 3520 and 3520-A for foreign trusts, FBAR and Form 8938 for foreign accounts, and 5471 or 8865 for foreign companies and partnerships. The penalties for missing them start at 10,000 dollars and are assessed automatically. We build the structure and file the reporting. International tax
