Pre-Litigation
Planning
The protection that holds is the protection you put in place before a claim exists. Once a lawsuit is on the horizon, the options narrow and every move you make invites scrutiny.
Request a consultationProtection is decided before the dispute.
Pre-litigation planning is the work done ahead of any dispute — positioning assets and structures before a claim is pending or threatened.
If a structure is ever tested, a court looks at when it was set up, why, and whether you still controlled what you moved. Done early, those answers are clean.
When you act matters.
The same step reads very differently depending on when it was taken.
Everything reads as genuine.
- Assets can be positioned on clean terms
- Transfers sit years before any dispute
- Structures have time to settle and hold
- Solvency is clear and documented
- Nothing looks like a reaction
Every move draws scrutiny.
- Transfers look like an attempt to defeat creditors
- The timeline becomes the evidence
- A court can unwind what was moved
- Options shrink to defense
- What remains is damage control
Courts weigh the pattern, not one fact.
These are the factors that decide whether a structure holds. Planning gets ahead of each one.
The time to plan is before you need to.
If any of these is ahead of you, the window is open now.
You have a liquidity event, a sale, or a raise on the horizon.
You are entering a marriage or a business without a plan for either ending.
You work in a profession that carries real personal liability.
You hold appreciated property, equity, or crypto with no protection around it.
Plan while you still can.
Map your exposure
Where a future claim could reach, across your assets, your roles, and your relationships.
Act while solvent and clear
Put structures in place before anything is pending or threatened, when timing is on your side.
Structure clean transfers
On proper terms, proportionate, with control placed where it belongs.
Build the record
Documented purpose and solvency, so the plan reads as genuine if it is ever examined.
Frequently asked.
Because that is exactly when it works. The value comes from acting before a claim is pending or threatened.
Done then, it is ordinary planning. Done later, the same step can look like a reaction to trouble.
Moving assets to defeat a claim you already face is a fraudulent transfer, and not something we do.
Planning done early, while you are solvent and no claim is in view, is lawful and routine. The difference is timing and intent.
In bankruptcy, certain transfers to self-settled trusts can be looked at up to ten years back, and intent is judged as of the time of the transfer.
That is one more reason to plan early and to document why the step was taken.
How much you keep is part of the plan, and one of the first things to decide.
Keeping too much control can weaken protection, since courts look at who really holds the reins. The right balance depends on what you are planning against.
The strongest options belong to the period before a claim is in view.
If something is already brewing, lawful steps may still exist, but they are narrower — and worth assessing quickly and honestly.
Plan before you need to.
A confidential consultation on where you are exposed and what to put in place before it matters.
Request a consultation