While many people can make money, few know how to protect it.

Legally protecting your hard-earned assets is a must of successful wealth planning. The strategy of titling your savings, property, business, and other assets to protect them from lawsuits and other claims is known as Asset Protection.

An Asset Protection plan isn’t a guarantee that you won't get sued, nor does it mean you’re invincible in a lawsuit. However, Asset Protection acts as a safety net, protecting your otherwise vulnerable and exposed assets and creating impediments and blockades for your lawsuit-obsessed adversaries.

• Protect yourself before you have a problem

Litigation is a trillion-dollar industry. Each year, there are approximately 100 million lawsuits. The sad reality: it’s not if you get sued, it’s when.

Roughly 70% of lawsuits are not fully covered by liability insurance. Your hard-earned assets are vulnerable to being seized by creditors. We have insurance on our houses and cars; Asset Protection is the insurance to protect the rest of our assets.

Asset Protection, like any form of insurance, works best when purchased before the need arises. In other words, you don’t buy car insurance after the accident.

By acting proactively, you allow your Asset Protection Attorney to reach into their tool bag and consider all tools and tactics available. If you wait until after you’ve been sued to speak to a qualified Asset Protection specialist, it doesn’t matter how good they are, the number of Asset Protection tools at their disposal has decreased.

This isn’t to say nothing can be done after you’ve been sued -- every situation is considered on a case-by-case basis. Simply, your options are reduced. Protect yourself before you have a problem.

• Start with a basic plan and add firewalls as needed

I can’t tell you how many times a prospective client calls asking if I can create for them a complicated, expensive Asset Protection plan. I tell them “No.”

Asset Protection plans should start off very simple and inexpensive. Sometimes when people try to do everything at once, they don’t end up honoring the structure and following the correct rules and procedures of the Asset Protection plan they have in place. Personally, I’d rather see a client do less and follow the structure than attempt to do everything and not honor it.

The way to start is by selecting your most important asset. For instance, liquid assets or your business. Once an Asset Protection plan has been created, wait six months. Did you follow the rules and procedures? And only after everything has been done properly, would we select your next biggest asset and devise an appropriate protection plan.

You can always add on to your plan. It can grow alongside your assets, education, and comfort levels. Start small and add on as necessary.

• Don’t look for magic bullet

Asset Protection is not cookie-cutter. You need an individualized and customized plan tailored to fit your specific needs.

Your assets are not the same as someone else’s. Nor are your potential threats, creditors, and liabilities. So why assume that a plan that fits anyone else would fit you? In fact, chances are that the plan which works incredibly well for one person, won’t work for another.

Hillel L. Presser, Esq., MBA represents individuals and businesses in connection with the establishment of comprehensive asset protection plans that incorporate both domestic and international components.

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