LEGAL
Asset Protection Douglass Lodmell , J . D ., LL . M . & Ian Hasegawa , J . D ., M . B . A .
Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts , records , and judicial proceedings of every other state .
In other words , a judgment in one state must be honored by all other states , whereas FAPTs do not recognize any foreign judgments . Results-oriented judges have broken these domestic trusts several times . Courts in one state will apply local law instead of the stated law of the trust , thereby neutering the DAPT ’ s effectiveness .
We should not be surprised as we live in the most litigious country in the world , by a long shot , and have turned the expansion of liability into an art form . Take Kilker v . Stillman ( 2012 ) where a soil engineer created a Nevada DAPT when he faced no claims or liabilities . Years later he is sued in California where his trust , and the Nevada laws that governed it , were disregarded . The CA court applied local law declaring his trust a “ fraudulent conveyance ” because a future lawsuit was “ reasonably foreseeable ”. This was a legally created trust that was a steel box in NV but a wet paper bag in neighboring CA . Sadly , DAPTs are only effective in narrowly specific situations and should not be relied upon because they are subject to the capricious and unpredictable US legal system . about the author :
Douglass Lodmell
Managing Partner at Lodmell & Lodmell , P . C .
Born in Geneva , Switzerland , attorney Douglass S . Lodmell has excellent knowledge and the highest level of experience in estate planning , taxation and strategic asset protection for domestic and international clients . In addition to a Juris Doctorate from Cardozo School of Law , Douglass has a Bachelor of Science degree in finance as well as an advance law degree ( LL . M .) in taxation from NYU School of Law . Doug ’ s extensive experience in asset protection make him a frequent guest speaker at medical , and professional conferences and seminars throughout the country , as well as teaching concepts of asset protection to other attorneys at continuing legal education seminars throughout the country .
33 TODAY ’ S PRACTICE : CHANGING THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE