How to Protect Your Business From Creditors and Predators

By Nina Kaufman, Esq.

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There’s a personal side to business planning that often gets overlooked. Would your spouse be on the hook for the business decisions you make? Will your kids get roped into a lawsuit if you die unexpectedly? How can you make sure you’re not vulnerable?

In this episode, family and asset protection attorney Natalie Elisha, Esq., identifies the simple steps business owners can take to protect their business from creditors, “predators,” lawsuits and taxes.

 

How to Protect Your Business From Creditors and Predators…cob089_natalie-elisha

  • Take inventory. What do you have? What is it worth? What are the passwords (especially for digital assets)? When you know what’s involved, you can make a better plan.
  • Use your business entity properly. If you’re using your own name (not the company’s) on a business bank account, it’s vulnerable to creditors.
  • Consider setting up a trust. This can protect your personal assets–including all the hard-earned money you get from working in (or selling) your business. It also provides a foundation for creating your legacy so those assets can go to your children or causes that are important to you–especially if you don’t have a “traditional” family situation.
  • Note any personal guaranties you’ve signed. Loans, landlords, and company car leases can all come back to bite you personally, even if you took them out for the benefit of your business. 
  • Check your insurance limits–both business and personal. Do you have enough to fund your buy/sell agreement with your partners (if any)? Can your family make do with the life insurance you have? Keep your beneficiary designations up-to-date. (Listen to Natalie’s story of what happened to the business owner who didn’t….)

Risk management is a vital part of building and growing your company. If you want to discover how to protect your business and your personal wealth, be sure to listen to Cash Out BIG!

 

Natalie Elisha, Esq. is the founder of Elisha Law PLLC. The firm specializes in trusts and estates, asset protection and elder law. Natalie’s practice area is focused on Family and Asset Protection. She specializes in implementing intricate planning structures into the overall business and estate plan to protect those assets from creditors, predators, lawsuits and taxes.

Natalie’s prior experience was at a boutique trusts and estates and elder law firm and a real estate development company in Manhattan, and she has spoken on television about estate planning and asset protection law. Natalie also serves as a coach and judge at St. John’s University School of Law where she has taken teams national in mediation and negotiation competitions. Natalie is a proud graduate of SUNY Binghamton where she finished her undergraduate degree with a double major in PPL and Philosophy, two years early. She is an advocate and a mentor for college students encouraging them to attain their goals and reach unbelievable success.

Favorite Quote: 

“JUST DO IT.” ~ Nike slogan

Learn more about Natalie Elisha:

Website: MYASSETESQ.COM

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Have questions about working with Kaufman Business Law? This is the video to watch.

About Nina Kaufman, Esq.