Asset Protection Blog

IRS Announces Third Amnesty Program for Offshore Accounts

» Posted on Monday, January 09, 2012 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

The Internal Revenue Service today reopened the offshore voluntary disclosure program to help people hiding offshore accounts get current with their taxes and announced the collection of more than $4.4 billion so far from the two previous international programs. The IRS reopened the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP…

Rumor Heard: Sweeping Settlement with Swiss Banks

» Posted on Monday, October 24, 2011 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

There is a rumor going round that the Swiss banks may enter into a sweeping settlement with the U.S. government to settle civil claims. The banks will hand over names of thousands of U.S. clients and pay billions of dollars. The settlement will not cover criminal charges pending against several Swiss and Israeli banks. Read…

Legal Treatise on Asset Protection Planning in California Published

» Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

Press Release Los Angeles, CA, September 22, 2011 ? Over the past decade attorney Jacob Stein has represented over one thousand clients seeking to protect their assets from claims of creditors. During the same time Mr. Stein taught several hundred seminars, educating thousands of lawyers and accountants on how to properly pr…

Several More Swiss Banks Under Scrutinty

» Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

The U.S. government is requesting information on American account holders from several more Swiss banks. These banks include the giant Credit Suisse, as well as HSBC, Julius Baer Group Ltd., Wegelin & Co., Basler Kantonalbank and Zuercher Kantonalbank. These banks are apparently under secret grand jury investigation in the U.S…

The High Cost of a Corporate Trustee

» Posted on Tuesday, August 02, 2011 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

A corporate trustee is a bank or a licensed trust company that provides trustee services on a professional basis. A corporate trustee may be as large as the trust department of Bank of America or the Northern Trust Company, or a little organization you have never heard of. All corporate trustees charge for their services. Som…

Latest Article on Asset Protection Published

» Posted on Monday, June 06, 2011 by Jacob Stein, Esq.

Read my latest article, A Practical Primer and a Radical Approach to Asset Protection, published in the June 2011 issue of Estate Planning, a Thomson Reuters publication. You can download the article here: http://maximumassetprotection.com/scripts/Download.aspx?filename=Article_[Practical_Primer_and_Radical_Approach_to_Asset_Pr…

Asset Protection for a Married Couple

» Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Jacob Stein

There are several scenarios for married couples to consider in asset protection planning: To protect assets from creditors or potential lawsuits, to provide for a spouse and/or minor children after death, and to protect oneself in the event of a divorce. When it comes to ownership of assets between spouses there are two leg…

IRS Announces Second Amnesty for Foreign Bank Accounts

» Posted on Tuesday, February 08, 2011 by Jacob Stein

According to a press release issued by the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. taxpayers with foreign bank accounts now have a second chance to come forward a plead mia culpa. The new program has a deadline of August 31, 2011. The taxpayers who come forward will be subject to penalties and interest on unpaid taxes for the past 8 ye…

Upcoming Seminars on Asset Protection

» Posted on Monday, January 17, 2011 by Jacob Stein

I have a few seminars coming up on asset protection planning. On January 19, 2011 I will be teaching a morning webinar, with nation-wide distribution, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, and an evening seminar at the Los Angeles County Bar in Downtown, Los Angeles. On February 16, 2011 I will be teaching a nation-wide webinar on ass…

Is Your Living Trust About to Become Obsolete?

» Posted on Saturday, December 04, 2010 by Robert Klueger

This morning, the Senate rejected a bill that would have extended the Bush-era income tax cuts. We don?t know how this issue will resolve itself, but tucked into the bill was a provision that will have a profound effect on estate tax law. What is worse, it may make your living trust obsolete at best, and dangerous at worst. W…

New Class on Estate Planning

» Posted on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 by Jacob Stein

By the time 2010 draws to a close I will end up having taught well over 50 seminars this calendar year. Most are full day programs. It is hard work, but I enjoy teaching, and it keeps me out of trouble. Starting next year I am adding another full-day course to my repertoire. It will be an introductory course on estate plan…

Offshore Banking Shifts to Asia

» Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2010 by Jacob Stein

Yesterday’s New York Times had an interesting article on offshore banking. Apparently, following the shameful conduct of UBS and the Swiss government (yes, shameful), hundreds of billions of dollars left Swiss bank accounts and moved to Singapore and Hong Kong. It is estimated that at least $200 billion left UBS alone. …

McCourt Divorce Sheds Light on Asset Protection

» Posted on Thursday, September 02, 2010 by Jacob Stein

Show of hands, who has not heard of the McCourt divorce case? If you live in Los Angeles there is barely any other news coverage. While public divorces of the rich have always made great fodder for gossip journalists, this divorce sheds some light on a frequently used, but infrequently discussed, asset protection technique. …

Advantages of Foreign LLCs

» Posted on Monday, August 16, 2010 by Jacob Stein

Many foreign jurisdictions have enacted LLC statutes. A lot of these jurisdictions are so-called tax havens, which generally means that an entity organized in that jurisdiction will not be taxed by that jurisdiction if the entity is not conducting any business in the jurisdiction. If a U. S. business or U. S. real estate is ow…

Florida Supreme Courts Limits Charging Order Protection

» Posted on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 by Jacob Stein

In a recent decision (Olmstead v. FTC, Supreme Court of Florida, June 24, 2010), the Florida Supreme Court held that the charging order protection, an "exclusive remedy" for creditors pursuing LLC interests, is actually not the exclusive remedy, despite the plain meaning of the statute. In a fairly difficult to read and follo…

UBS Story Finally Draws to a Close

» Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2010 by Jacob Stein

After many months of suspense, the Swiss parliament has finally approved the deal struck by UBS and the US Justice Department to disclose the names of about 4,500 US-based clients of UBS who are suspected of tax dodging. UBS has until mid-August to provide the names to the Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution. Th…

Swiss Parliament Votes to Block Disclosure, For Now

» Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 by Jacob Stein

A week after the upper house of the Swiss parliament voted to allow disclosure of UBS clients to the US government, the lower house of Switzerland’s parliament voted to prevent the disclosure of the names and financial secrets of as many as 4,450 Americans who held undeclared accounts at UBS. A Swiss court had already …

Update on FBARs and UBS: The Fun Begins

» Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by Jacob Stein

The quagmire involving US taxpayers with unreported foreign bank accounts continues. The latest word: IRS has over 200 dedicated agents conducting audits of those taxpayers who voluntarily disclosed them prior to the October 15, 2009 deadline. These agents are conducting full audits of the taxpayers who came forward (where th…

HIRE Act Incorporation Foreign Account Reporting Requirements

» Posted on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Jacob Stein

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act (Pub. L. No. 111-14) was signed into law on March 18, 2010. The Act creates tax breaks for businesses hiring new workers and extending higher expensing limits for small businesses that make capital investments. The Act also incorporates provisions of the Foreign Account Tax …

Swiss Court Reaches Out to Protect Our Clients

» Posted on Monday, March 01, 2010 by Jacob Stein

On January 22, 2010 the Swiss Federal Administrative Court published its first judgment with respect to the IRS’s request for information. The case relates to a UBS client who failed to provide the bank with a Form W-9. The Swiss Court ruled against the IRS and stated that no information will be provided by UBS to the …

Amnesty Passes; UBS Sends Letters to Clients

» Posted on Friday, October 16, 2009 by Jacob Stein

As the October 15 deadline has come and gone, more and more of our clients have reported receiving letters from UBS. These letters advise clients that after an initial investigation, UBS has determined that the client’s account will likely be disclosed to the IRS. This has, understandbly, sent a wave of panic through…

IRS Extends Amnesty Deadline

» Posted on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 by Jacob Stein

The Internal Revenue Service has extended the deadline to participate in the FBAR amnesty program to October 15, 2009, and has indicated that there will be no more extensions. Most of the clients that we have consulted declined to participate in the amnesty, but it may be a good idea in some cases. The amnesty would work w…

Details of UBS Deal Revealed

» Posted on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 by Jacob Stein

The IRS has announced today that UBS will reveal names of 4,450 American account holders. The actual names have not yet been released, and over the next few months these account holders will receive notices from UBS that their names will be disclosed to the IRS. The account holders will then have the option of appealing the pr…

New Guidance on Private Retirement Plans in California

» Posted on Monday, August 03, 2009 by Jacob Stein

Earlier this summer, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals released an opinion that sheds some light on the level of protection granted by the California exemption for private retirement plans. In Cunning v. Rucker, the debtor, to avoid having the creditor reach his assets, established several retirement plans and proceeded to o…

Shutting Down Valuation Discounts

» Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 by Jacob Stein

As Congress frantically looks for ways to pay for the various stimulus and other wasteful spending proposals, increasing estate and gift taxes seems like a natural solution. Although these two transfer taxes account for a small percentage of the government’s revenues, these taxes are not on the radar screen of the middle …

Restricted LLCs

» Posted on Friday, June 05, 2009 by Jacob Stein

On May 29 the Governor of Nevada approved Nevada Senate Bill 350 which creates a new type of limited liability companies and limited partnerships. For simplicity, we will focus on the LLCs only. These new LLCs are called "restricted" and the enabling legislation can be found in the newly enacted NRS 86.161. The legislation go…

Swiss Banks Close Their Doors

» Posted on Wednesday, May 06, 2009 by Jacob Stein

Every day more and more Swiss banks say "no" to US business. This year alone 7 Swiss banks that we regularly did business with told us that they will be kicking out all US clients and not accepting any new business. This alarming trend continues. Even banks that are SEC compliant are not accepting any new business waiting to …

IRS Extends Its Hand to Taxpayers and Once Again Reaches Deep into Our Pockets

» Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Jacob Stein

Several years ago the Justice Department subpoenaed names of Americans who had Visa and MasterCard accounts with offshore banks. The IRS then offered these taxpayers a choice, come forward voluntarily and we will waive criminal prosecution and some monetary penalties, or wait until we get to you and then take the risk of crimina…

Update on Swiss Banks

» Posted on Saturday, March 21, 2009 by Jacob Stein

Last week I travelled to Zurich to meet with several Swiss private banks. We do a lot of business with Swiss banks, and the past few months have brought about many changes. All of the recent changes in the Swiss banking regime are due to the scandal at UBS and the economic downturn. UBS has forced the United States Treasur…

Too Late!

» Posted on Wednesday, February 04, 2009 by Jacob Stein

Is it ever too late to protect assets? The answer is of course! How about when a lien is placed by a creditor on the debtor?s assets. We occasionally get inquiries from prospective clients of the following nature: "They just got a judgment against me, but they still haven?t gotten my assets. Can I still protect them?" Whil…

Protecting Madoff Investors

» Posted on Friday, December 19, 2008 by Jacob Stein

It is bad enough that most of the people who invested with Madoff will lose a significant amount of their wealth. It is also possible, in fact, likely, that many of the investors who received distributions from Madoff or pulled their money out in time may have to return the money. When the inevitable bankruptcy engulfs Bernar…

Anticipating a Change in Capital Gain Rates

» Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by Jacob Stein

There is a lot of excitement in Washington coming on the heels of the election. Change is in the air, and with this change comes the promise of higher income taxes. None of us can predict how the new administration and the new Congress will change the tax Code. We can be fairly certain that they will increase the marginal tax…

Economic Downturn a Boon for Asset Protection

» Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 by Jacob Stein

The economic woes that have already impacted so many businesses are a boon for those of us who practice in the area of asset protection. About one year ago the flood gates opened and mortgage bankers, mortgage brokers and real estate developers poured in. There is still a steady flow of real estate developers and investors w…

Continued Fallout from UBS

» Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008 by Jacob Stein

The UBS scandal may have had a more profound impact on asset protection planning than previously suspected. While no one was surprised that UBS caved to the IRS summons, few expected that other Swiss banks will significantly change their business operations. They have. We are getting information from many of our Swiss bank…

The Ten Largest Banks in the World

» Posted on Monday, August 11, 2008 by Jacob Stein

It always surprises Americans that the U.S. banks that they have all heard about so much are not necessarily the largest banks in the world. Given the recent IndyMac collapse, it is becoming easier for investors to realize that U.S. banks are not necessarily the largest or the safest. In February 2008, Bloomberg released a l…

IRS Goes After UBS AG

» Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 by Jacob Stein

Following the indictment of several UBS AG (Switzerland) employees, the Justice Department requested permission from federal court to have the Internal Revenue Service issue John Doe summons to UBS AG (the Swiss parent of UBS). The John Doe summons will instruct the Swiss bank to provide to the IRS information on all U.S. taxpay…

Forecasting Capital Gain Rates

» Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 by Jacob Stein

A recent Wall Street Journal has an article entitled Property Investors Fear Gains-Tax Rise, Shift 1031 Strategy. [URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120528549398629221.html] Anticipating a change in the administration and an increasingly Democratic Congress, real estate investors are concerned about a possible hike in c…

New York Targets Internet Retailers

» Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2008 by Jacob Stein

The State of New York has passed a new law scheduled to go into effect June 1, 2008, requiring internet retailers to collect sales taxes. The new law is expected to generate an additional $78 million of revenue per year for the state. Several other states, including California, are considering similar laws. For any state to i…

Tax Fraud Pays Off?

» Posted on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 by Jacob Stein

The big tax news this month was the Justice Department?s loss in the Wesley Snipes case. Snipes has been cleared of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return. He now faces up-to three years in a prison for the misdemeanor convictions. Snipes fell vi…

Tax Pandering or Tax Incentive?

» Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 by Jacob Stein

In response to Sen. McCain?s proposed tax plan an article in today?s Washington Post (McCain?s Plan for Working Class Offers Plenty for Corporate World) blasted the tax plan as pandering to corporations and businesses. The cry was picked up by several other publications as well. What is the proposed plan and does it amount to pa…

Downturn in the Real Estate Market Leads to More Asset Protection Planning

» Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2008 by Jacob Stein

Following the credit crunch of August 2007, the real estate market has experienced a significant decline. Many of our clients are heavily invested in real estate or are involved in various development projects. For them, the reality of the declining market means a lot more than an interesting headline. It means that their entire…

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