Asset protection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asset Protection (sometimes also referred to as debtor-creditor law) refers to a set of legal techniques and a body of statutory and common law dealing with protecting assets of individuals and business entities from civil money judgments.
Asset protection began to develop as a stand-alone area of the law in the late 1970s. It began coming into prominence in the late 1980s, with the advent and the marketing of offshore asset protection trusts. Colorado attorney Barry Engel is credited with the introduction of that concept and the development of asset protection trust law statutes in the Cook Islands.[1]
Over the years, this new field of law enjoyed a marginal reputation, but started going mainstream in the mid-1990s. A 2003 article in the Wall Street Journal claimed that 60% of America's millionaires have considered engaging in asset protection planning.[2]
