The Alec Baldwin Saga: A Case Study

Can Asset Protection Save His Fortune from Manslaughter Charges? By: Stephen Speiser, Esq. February 1, 2024 The once bright future of Alec Baldwin is now in serious peril.  On Friday, January 19, 2024, a New Mexico grand jury indicted the Emmy-award winning actor and director on involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from the October 2021 fatal shooting on the film set …

The Mireva Invasion

Are Mireva Rulings Coming to the United States? Readers of our website know that we have written extensively about the Mareva ruling, a form of ex parte preliminary injunction increasingly granted by courts outside the USA to freeze debtor assets. A 2021 Florida state court decision has created a great deal of unease among debtors’ representatives concerning the reach of …

Asset Protection: Foundations versus Trusts

From time to time, we are asked about using foundations as a substitute for asset protection trusts. In our judgment, there is no substitute for a competent, well crafted trust. This does not mean, however, that foundations should not be used in asset protection planning. For clients with charitable goals and objectives, foundations provide an excellent vehicle to satisfy those …

Is All Asset Protection Planning Bad Under the UVTA?

A state’s enactment of a DAPT law should be regarded as the state legislature’s expression per se “actual intent” under the UVTA not be imputed in any form of asset protection planning.  While this is an incredibly broad inference, it reflects the reality that DAPTs do not exist in a vacuum.

When Is An “Offshore” Asset Protection Plan Not Really Offshore?

There are three basic elements of a true “offshore” asset protection plan: (i) the legal structure (trust or business entity) must be formed outside the U.S. in a safe jurisdiction; (ii) the assets have been successfully migrated to the offshore legal structure; and (iii) legal control of the structure must be vested in persons or trustees who are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Convoy Collateral v. Broad Idea et al.: Going Beyond Anton Piller Orders

The Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court has recently issued a ruling expanding the power of the courts in the British Virgin Islands to issue injunctions in support of foreign proceedings, including injunctions directed at third parties who are not subject to any substantive claims (known as “Chabra” orders). Notably, this relief may be granted even if …