You’ve worked hard to develop your career. You did it for yourself. You did it for your family. You did it for your retirement. You did it for your family’s future.

You didn’t do it to become a target of some lawsuit designed to take it all away. But unless you protect your assets, you are just such a target.

THE PROBLEM: Litigation Epidemic & Lack of Financial Privacy

LITIGATION EPIDEMIC. There is a litigation epidemic in this country. Predatory contingent fee lawyers file thousands of lawsuits each day, many of them with little or no merit. However, juries are awarding unrealistically high verdicts in many of these cases.

Ever expanding theories of liability continuously fuel this litigation frenzy. Each successful case is a stepping stone for expansion of liability theory. A decade ago people would have laughed at smokers suing tobacco companies, but today it is a reality. The recent recall of the diet drugs Redux, Fen-phen and the pain drug Vioxx has resulted in an explosion of suits suing doctors for prescribing what was a government approved drug.

Also fueling this litigation fever is the modern day version of the “Robin Hood” attitude of “take from the rich and give to the poor.” Suits are rarely brought against someone with no assets or no large insurance policy. In determining whether to sue someone, attorneys will often try and determine whether or not the target of the suit has enough assets to make the suit worthwhile. As discussed in the section below on financial privacy, inexpensive computerized searches can show virtually every asset you own. If the potential pay-off is large enough, a suit will be filed.

Insurance is a two-edged sword. It is a necessary component of all financial planning, but large policies can actually attract litigation. Not only do large liability policies attract litigation, but they can provide a false sense of security. In a substantial number of cases, insurance coverage is NOT available to pay the claim due to policy exclusions for items such as punitive damages, intentional acts, discrimination or sexual harassment. Verdicts have also exceeded the coverage limits of policies that are available, and insurance companies even have gone broke.

Don’t fool yourself by thinking that you will be OK, because you won’t do anything wrong. You don’t need to personally do anything wrong to be held liable for damages. In many cases the person held liable had nothing to do with causing the alleged harm. For example, business owners can be liable for employee sexual harassment and auto owners can be liable for a teenage driver's accident.

Lastly, rarely does anyone with wealth have a trial by a jury of their peers. Successful businessmen and professionals are often able to be excused or find a way to be excused from jury duty. Additionally, they are excluded from juries by attorneys that are trying to “stack the deck” in their favor. Take a look at the twelve people surrounding you next time you are at fast food restaurant and decide whether you want them to decide your financial future.

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