Health Care Provider Asset Protection
Most health care providers have an estate plan that adequately transfers assets to heirs while avoiding excessive taxation, but very few have a well designed asset protection plan to safeguard their assets from litigants in a malpractice suit. In our 20+ years of serving the health care industry, we have found this to be the greatest area of neglect among physicians and other health care providers.
When a malpractice suit is filed, the first questions we hear are:
How bad is it?
Will my E&O policy cover this?
Can they take my personal assets?
The Watkins Ludlam Winter & Stennis health care team includes lawyers who specialize in malpractice, regulatory law, business operations, and asset protection. The combination of these lawyers gives health care providers a team that understands all of the challenges a physician faces both professionally and personally.
Developing a comprehensive and effective asset protection plan, as well as providing efficient advice in estate and trust administration, often involves various disciplines in addition to legal expertise. Our attorneys maintain close working relationships with accountants, insurance agents, trust officers, valuation experts, and other essential professionals. Efficiency and experience are the cornerstones of our estate planning and administration practice, providing our clients with a cohesive network of competent professionals.
Our services include:
• Gift planning
• Drafting Wills and lifetime and testamentary trusts
• Drafting Advance Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney
• Planning for families with members having special needs
• Creating guardianship and conservatorships
• Asset protection and retirement planning
• Drafting marital property agreements
• Forming of charitable foundations
• Creating charitable split interest trusts such as Charitable Lead Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts,
• Forming family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and other entities
• Business succession planning for closely-held businesses and professionals
• Estate administration (domiciliary and ancillary)
• Post-mortem planning
• Representing individual and corporate fiduciaries
• Estate, gift, trust and estate income tax controversies with IRS and state tax authorities
• Estate and trust litigation including Will contests and administration disputes