One of The Ultimate Estate Planner’s main teleconference speakers, estate planning and asset protection attorney, Steve Oshins, was featured in an article posted by The Nevada Trust Reporter entitled, “Nevada Ranked as the #1 Jurisdiction for Domestic Asset Protection Trusts in Steve Oshins’ Mid-Year State Rankings Chart“.
Nationally known estate planning and asset protection attorney Steve Oshins (www.oshins.com) is the creator of the Domestic Asset Protection Trust State Rankings Chart (which can be accessed on our Free Resources page) that he publishes each year and updates as the various states modify their laws. He recently did a mid-year update to reflect some significant changes made by some of the ranked states. We asked him to do an interview for The Nevada Trust Reporter to give us some details about the chart and the recent updates. The interview questions and answers are below.
Why did you decide to create the Domestic Asset Protection Trust State Rankings Chart a few years ago?
People are fascinated with rankings. You see this in the sports world where fans seem obsessed at times with where their team is ranked. I wanted to bring that same excitement to the asset protection industry.
Rankings are subjective to a great extent, so I wanted to put together a concise chart which shows why the states are ranked a certain way. When I published and marketed the initial rankings, I was surprised how much discussion it generated, so I have tried my best to follow each state’s changes through the years to be as accurate as possible so the rankings chart would be respected as more than just a marketing piece.
For years, there has been a lot of competition among the leading asset protection jurisdictions and I have seen marketing pieces that are so inaccurate that I felt that the industry needed a chart that could fit on one page and could allow the planner and client to make an informed decision.
How do you respond to people who ask you whether the chart is subjective even though you are a Nevada attorney?
Ironically, I rarely get that question, probably because people just look at the chart and can make up their own mind since the chart has all of the material jurisdictional differences in chart format. The few times I have been asked whether it’s truly subjective, I like to joke that they should just “look at the chart — the chart doesn’t lie!” Nevada is so far ahead of all of the other states in the amount of protection it provides from creditors that this question hasn’t been a problem. Having the shortest statute of limitations period of all the states and being the only state without any exception creditors who can pierce through the trust, Nevada is the choice when the client wants the greatest protection. I don’t think that’s disputable.
Each year, I solicit national input on different listservs to make sure the chart is fair and balanced. Thousands of practitioners are able to provide comments that I will consider. I think the fact that I solicit these comments is a big reason why the chart has become so respected in the industry.
It was also very helpful that Forbes magazine published an article on Domestic Asset Protection Trusts in 2010 and made Nevada the only state with an A+ letter grade… READ MORE
Steve Oshins does several teleconferences on various asset protection planning for The Ultimate Estate Planner. You can see what upcoming teleconferences we have with Steve and access our past programs with Steve by visiting our Past Teleconferences page.
Photo Credit: Steven J. Oshins, Esq.