Asset protection is work done in advance. We structure how wealth is held and transferred, at home and offshore, so that when exposure arrives the architecture is already in place and the record is clean.
Under the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act a transfer made to hinder a creditor can be unwound for four years, and courts read intent largely from timing. A trust funded with a lawsuit on the horizon is an exhibit. Funded years earlier, with a solvency affidavit in the file, the same trust is simply how a physician, a landlord or a business owner holds what they have earned.
Firm facts · ReachA corporate and private-capital boutique with international reach: a principal office in Chicago, a second office in Oakbrook Terrace, offices in London and Dubai through partner firms, meeting locations by appointment in seven further US cities, and a partner network across ~51 jurisdictions on five continents. Founded 2013.
The conversation about timing comes before the one about jurisdictions. We inventory what you own and what can reach it, confirm solvency, and only then match each asset class to a vehicle: a domestic asset-protection trust or its offshore counterpart for liquid wealth, a family limited partnership for the operating company, a captive for risk the market will not insure at a sensible price.
Offshore layers are lawful when they are reported in full, so FATCA filings, the FBAR and Form 3520 go into the calendar on the day the structure is signed. The firm has represented clients in matters before the SEC, the CFTC and the IRS, and it builds these structures knowing what an examiner asks for.
Domestic asset-protection trusts and related structures under familiar U.S. frameworks, with lower cost, easier management, and established precedent and accessible courts behind them.
Enter the practice: Domestic Asset Protection & DAPT →Foreign corporate entities and offshore trust structures for diversification and stronger creditor-protection regimes, kept in full U.S. compliance, including annual IRS reporting, FATCA, and FBAR.
Enter the practice: International Asset Protection →Formation and governance of captive insurance companies that fund self-insured and hard-to-insure risk, structured so the captive's primary purpose is insurance, which is the line the IRS watches most closely.
Enter the practice: Captive Insurance →Formation, governance, and ongoing compliance for charities, foundations, and other tax-exempt entities, structured to obtain and hold exempt status as IRS examinations of the sector grow more frequent.
Enter the practice: Tax-Exempt & Charitable Planning →Tax-efficient family limited partnerships that hold and transfer assets across generations, combining creditor protection with the estate-planning and governance discipline a family enterprise needs.
Enter the practice: Family Limited Partnerships →Profession-specific protection for healthcare providers, landlords, and business owners, using irrevocable, pre-inheritance, and real-estate-holding trusts coordinated with the broader estate plan.
Enter the practice: Professionals & Owners →Protection must be implemented well before any threat emerges. Arrangements put in place too late, or once a claim is foreseeable, invite fraudulent-transfer challenges that can unwind the plan.
Durable protection rarely rests on one tool. Trusts, partnerships, corporate entities, and insurance are combined so that no single failure point exposes the whole.
Asset protection belongs inside the estate and tax plan from the start, so the same structures that shield wealth also move it efficiently across generations.
Offshore planning is lawful only when fully reported. We account for annual IRS reporting, FATCA, and FBAR, and for the political and legal stability of any foreign jurisdiction, from the outset.
Before a structure is put to work, we run it through adversarial diligence. We test it the way an aggressive creditor's counsel would, mapping the failure modes and the fraudulent-transfer arguments before anyone makes them against you. The work is partner-led and done before the first transfer.
Wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, and dynasty and charitable planning, the wealth-transfer architecture that asset protection is built into.
Estate Planning →Cross-border, trust, and estate taxation, plus controversy work, so the structures that shield wealth are also efficient and defensible.
Tax →Counsel to sponsors, fund managers, and family offices, where personal wealth, the operating enterprise, and the fund all have to be held cleanly.
Private Capital →Hart David Carson LLP's asset protection practice structures how wealth is held and transferred, domestically and offshore, so that when exposure arrives the architecture is already in place. The work spans domestic asset-protection trusts (DAPTs), international structures, captive insurance, tax-exempt and charitable planning, family limited partnerships, and profession-specific protection for owners and professionals.
Asset protection must be implemented well before any threat emerges. Arrangements made once a claim is foreseeable invite a fraudulent-transfer challenge that can unwind the plan, so the discipline is to build early and leave the structure to season.
Yes, offshore planning is lawful when it is fully reported. We account for annual IRS reporting, FATCA, and FBAR, and for the political and legal stability of any foreign jurisdiction, from the first draft onward.
No. Durable protection rarely rests on one tool. Trusts, partnerships, corporate entities, and insurance are combined so that no single failure point exposes the whole. The structure is matched to the client's exposure, jurisdiction, and long-term plan.
Asset protection belongs inside the estate and tax plan from the start, so the same structures that shield wealth also move it efficiently across generations. It draws on corporate, trust, tax, and cross-border law at once, and that is what makes it a planning practice.
Yes. Hart David Carson LLP works from Chicago, London, and Dubai, layering domestic and international structures and coordinating locally admitted counsel where a foreign jurisdiction requires it.
Before any entity is formed, we inventory what you own and what can reach it, from professional liability and personal guarantees to pending disputes, and we confirm solvency, because a structure funded against a known claim is a voidable transfer rather than a plan.
We match each asset class to its vehicle and jurisdiction: a domestic asset-protection trust or its offshore counterpart for liquid wealth, family limited partnerships for operating and legacy assets, and captives for insurable risk, with each layer chosen for how it interacts with the others.
Transfers are executed with solvency affidavits, appraisals, and clean paper, then left to season through the voidable-transaction lookback. Timing is documented as carefully as the deeds, because the date of funding is the first thing a future creditor's counsel will examine.
The structure is run against hypothetical creditor scenarios, then maintained through trustee minutes, entity formalities, and FBAR and Form 3520 reporting for offshore layers, so it holds as law, assets, and family circumstances change.
A structure built the day you need it is evidence against you. Built years before, it is architecture.
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
The Cook Islands asset-protection trust is the model most other jurisdictions copied, and its statute remains the reference point for creditor-resistant wealth preservation. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
Nevis is known for asset-protection statutes that impose high evidentiary and procedural hurdles on foreign creditors. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
Belize offers a low-cost, English-speaking common-law platform for international companies and trusts, historically valued for speed and confidentiality. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
Cayman is the principal jurisdiction for offshore investment funds and cross-border SPVs, valued for tax neutrality and creditor-tested case law. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.