What Does "Asset Protection" Mean in 2026?

Which makes sense. Although our firm has been offering “asset protection” for more than 40 years, what it means has changed greatly over the decades.

In the “old” days – the 80s and 90s – asset protection broadly meant protection against lawsuits. The usual solution was to use structures that included trusts, limited liability partnerships, and/or limited liability companies.

Sometimes domestic. Sometimes overseas. Sometimes a mix of the two.

But over time, things happened that expanded the definition. To name just a few…

9/11 showed the markets could be closed by government fiat.

The financial crash kicked off in 2008 showed the fragility of our banking and financial systems.

COVID showed that the government could conjure trillions of dollars out of thin air overnight — and hand the resulting bill, in the form of the worst inflation in forty years, to anyone who had done the responsible thing and saved.

Over the last few years, decisions in Washington have put tremendous pressure on the US dollar, causing it to decline greatly against other world currencies.

With every passing crisis, the number of things that needed protectin’ from grew ever longer.

At the same time, the tools needed to address those problems have expanded and become more complicated.

And that’s where we are today.

So what does asset protection mean? At its heart, it’s about:

#1: Identifying the specific, quantifiable threats to your wealth.

Some of those threats are private – private lawsuits mostly.

Others are systemic – the fragility of the markets, the US financial system, the US banking system.

A few are political – inflation, trade policy, and geopolitics.

If you can quantify, you can do something about them.

#2: Choosing the right strategies and tools to reduce or eliminate your exposure to those threats.

There are plenty of options out there from entities to specific asset classes to “platforms” like foreign banking and investment management.

But what will work best for you can only be answered by looking at threats first.

#3: Developing a plan to implement and maintain those structures over time.

A plan that sits there gathering dust is as useful as no plan at all.

So circling back to the story that started today’s piece, every client was looking for something different.

One was firmly in the “protect me against lawsuit” camp.

Another was really focused on getting their retirement accounts into a safer bank and into more conservative investments not so exposed to AI stocks.

The third was deeply uncomfortable with the politics of the country and wanted help moving their assets overseas in preparation for a personal move.

Although the end result was very different for each, our approach was the same for all three – quantify, choose the right strategy, and implement.

No matter what you’re dealing with, it’s a model that should work for you as well.

We’ve developed a specialty for taking on complex cases where multiple aspects of asset protection are involved. If you have a “complex” case where:

• You have at least USD 1 million overseas,
• You plan to move USD 1 million or more overseas,
• You want to diversify your retirement accounts internationally,
• You have investments in more than two countries, or,
• You have foreign real estate or are thinking about it.

… please feel free to get in touch to see how we might help.