With the new year comes the time to think not only of the future, but of the lessons learned in the past year. With asset protection being a big focus last year there were many developments in the area of trusts. There was the Bellinger offshore trust case in which the creditor failed in its motion to hold Bellinger in contempt for failing to pay a final judgment and acted as a significant win for offshore trusts since their success rate in litigation is roughly ten percent. In the Domestic Asset Protection Trust realm, the litigation concerning the Daniel Kloiber Delaware dynasty trust illustrated the complications that can arise and jurisdictional lines blurred through divorce or other proceedings in a separate state. Additionally, in Castellano an expanded application of Bankruptcy Code section 548(e) was used in that self-settled trust case.
See Jay Adkisson, The Year in Wealth Preservation 2014, Forbes, Dec. 31, 2014.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
