Yes, we do handle trusts. Trusts can be used in business and they are called “Business Trusts”. Trusts are private documents between one or more people, and they would not be regulated by the government because they would usually be considered private.
Business trusts and trusts in general could be used to protect assets. They could also be used to set terms on assets and most of all they could be used to protect people from spying on the individual’s assets and knowing what they have. They could be protected by keeping those types of things anonymous which is how we use business or business trusts through businesses.
Would A Business Trust Protect A Business Owner’s Private Or Personal Assets?
Yes, it absolutely would. The smaller the company, the more there would tend to be a merger of the owner and the business. We call this an Alter Ego, meaning it was one and the same. The more the business grew or evolved and became its own entity and its own person, the more we would really need to separate out the business owner and his or her personal assets.
The person might run into trouble if this was not done through trusts and through other titling issues, meaning when the business did something, the business would get sued, like a construction company that got involved in some type of injury or destroyed some property. If there was no proper separation of the business from the person, which is something that could be done with a trust, then that business owner would get involved in a lawsuit that would name them personally.
If the business was found liable and the owner was found liable, then instead of just going after business assets, the person who sued the company would also be able to go after the owner’s assets, meaning they could go after their home or their cars and they would be able to get anything they wanted that was owned by that person. Having things in a trust would make another level of separation from that business owner. If the business owner’s house was in a trust, for example, and it was owned by the trust, then the trust would protect it from any potential creditors or potential losses.
Can Only Certain Types Of Property Or Assets Be Owned By A Trust?
The law right now states that essentially anything that is titled or anything that exists could be owned by a trust. It could be a table, a chair, a piece of real estate or even a bank account. Essentially, trusts, just like an individual, would be able to own essentially anything, including intellectual property.
Would A Trust Be Able To Protect A Retirement Fund?
Retirement funds, at least in the state of Utah, are protected by the state statute. There is an exemption under Utah law that protects any type of retirement going into protecting them from creditors, judgments or lawsuits.
A retirement would not need to be in a trust, but a trust could be set up to receive retirement benefits when that individual became of certain age and had to make mandatory withdrawals or things like that. The trust could be a conduit for those retirements if they needed protection once they were out or once the retirement was disbursed, whether it was a small amount or a large amount because it would then become subject to any type of creditor claims.
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