As a business owner, you’re all about building your wealth while balancing assets and risks to protect that wealth.

But there’s little point building that wealth if your business and personal financial structure means that someone could take your assets away from you if things go pear-shaped.

Sadly, many business owners are in precisely this predicament, without knowing it!

What’s the issue?

If someone decided to take legal action against your business, your home and other personal assets could be at risk. Here’s the possible situation, and how to protect them:

• Your business inevitably carries unpredictable risks through interaction with customers, employees and creditors.
• There is potential to be sued by any party, because where there are agreements in place, sometimes disagreements can result. Life happens, so it makes sense to accept that, and plan to protect yourself, rather than hope it never happens.
• Litigation is becoming more common, largely driven by lawyers offering ‘no win, no fee’ services. This can encourage people to ‘have a go’ at you’ through legal action – they have nothing to lose, after all.
• This means you need to ‘build a wall’ between your business risks and your personal assets otherwise your risk becomes unacceptable.
• The wall is created by clever use of companies, trusts and directorship strategies. One seemingly simple mistake in this area can cost a family their house.
• The wall also involves your will. The standard type of will puts your family’s assets at risk because, if the person who dies holds the family’s personal assets in their name, ownership of these assets will revert to the person who, through their Directorships in the business is at a much higher risk of being sued.

What is my best course of action?

So what action should you take? If you haven’t looked at your asset protection structure in the past 12 months, you need to make that a priority, and then review it annually. That regular review is important – as your situation changes, your asset protection strategies also need to be current and appropriate.

Kennas’ services encompass both company structure and ensuring your wills, power of attorney and estate planning is in order. We want the legacy you have been working so hard to build to end up in the hands of the people you intend, not a stranger or vulnerable family member.

If you’re anything like our many clients who have these structures in place, we think you’ll find the investment in building these ‘walls’, so to speak, relatively minor compared to the protection and peace of mind they give you and your family.

Let’s get this right.

Get in contact with us to make a time to discuss your options. Our expert team is ready to help you any time.