Wealth Preservation & Asset Protection

Fort Lauderdale Asset Protection Attorneys

Florida is one of the most debtor-friendly states in the country. Some of the strongest protections — like homestead — are written into the state constitution itself, not just a statute a future legislature could trim back. People have famously moved to Florida just to take advantage of them.

But here’s what most people get wrong: asset protection is something you do before there’s a problem. It’s the legal structuring of what you own — how your home is titled, how accounts are held between spouses, where retirement and insurance assets sit, how a business is organized — so that what you’ve built is positioned defensively long before anyone has a claim against you.

What it is not: hiding assets after you’ve been sued, transferring the house to your kids when a judgment is coming, or moving money offshore once a creditor is at the door. Florida has a fraudulent transfer statute for exactly those moves, and courts unwind them. Worse, a late transfer can convert a protected asset into an unprotected one and drag your family into the fight.

The difference between the two is timing. Done early, asset protection is ordinary, legitimate planning that courts respect. Done late, it usually fails — and can make things worse. That’s the honest frame for everything below.

Florida Homestead: The Strongest Shield Most People Already Own

If you own the home you live in, you already hold Florida’s most powerful asset protection tool. Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution protects your homestead from forced sale by creditors — and the protection is unlimited in dollar value. A $400,000 house and a $14 million house get the same shield.

There are boundaries, and they’re literal ones: the protection covers up to half an acre inside a municipality, or 160 acres outside one. You (or your family) have to actually live there — it protects your residence, not your rental property or your vacation condo.

And it doesn’t stop everyone. Your mortgage lender can still foreclose. The property appraiser still collects taxes. A contractor who worked on the house can still lien it. And the IRS is not bound by Florida’s homestead protection at all — federal tax debt cuts straight through it.

Homestead also has a trap built in: the same constitutional provision restricts who you can leave the home to at death if you have a surviving spouse or minor child, and a lifetime deed transfer done for “protection” can forfeit the very shield you were trying to use. We’ve written about both — see our posts on Florida’s homestead devise restriction, what happens to your homestead after death, and why homestead protection doesn’t beat the deed.

Getting homestead right — titled correctly, occupied correctly, and left alone — is step one of every Florida asset protection plan we build.

Tenancy by the Entireties: The Married-Couple Protection Hiding in Your Account Titles

Florida gives married couples a form of joint ownership called tenancy by the entireties. Property owned this way belongs to the marriage itself, not to either spouse individually — so a creditor with a judgment against just one spouse can’t touch it. If a lawsuit lands on one of you, entireties property is off the table.

It can cover more than the house: bank accounts, brokerage accounts, even vehicles can be held this way. For most married Florida clients this is the first thing we look at, because it costs nothing — it’s a titling decision, not a product you buy.

But it breaks easily, and usually by accident. The protection only works while you’re both alive and married — it ends at divorce or a spouse’s death. It does nothing against debts you both signed for; if both spouses guaranteed the business loan, the whole account is exposed. And an account opened the wrong way, or titled “joint tenants with right of survivorship” instead of as entireties property, may not carry the protection you assumed it did. Florida law has gone back and forth for years on exactly what paperwork it takes; recent Florida Supreme Court authority has made spousal joint accounts easier to protect, but the account documents still matter.

One more honest caveat: like homestead, entireties ownership does not stop the IRS.

The Assets Florida Law Protects by Statute

Beyond the constitution, Chapter 222 of the Florida Statutes exempts a list of specific assets from creditors — and for many clients, a surprising share of their net worth already sits in protected categories:

Retirement accounts. 401(k)s, pensions, IRAs, and Roth IRAs are exempt. For most working families this is the single largest protected bucket after the home. (Inherited IRAs follow different rules, especially in bankruptcy — that’s a conversation, not a checkbox.)

Life insurance. The cash value of a policy you own on your own life is exempt from your creditors, and the death benefit is protected too as long as it’s payable to a named beneficiary rather than to your estate. A beneficiary designation mistake can undo that second one.

Annuities. Florida exempts annuity proceeds with no dollar cap — one of the broadest annuity exemptions in the country.

Wages. If you’re the head of your family, your earnings are largely exempt from garnishment.

College savings. Florida-qualified 529 tuition plans are protected as well.

Two cautions. First, these are Florida exemptions — they protect against private creditors, not the IRS. Second, timing rules apply here too: buying a large annuity the month before a judgment lands isn’t planning, it’s a fraudulent transfer waiting to be unwound. The exemptions reward assets positioned early.

When You Need More: LLCs, Partnerships, and Trusts

For business interests, rental properties, and investment assets that don’t fit an exemption, the next layer is entity and trust planning.

LLCs and limited partnerships. When a properly structured Florida LLC has more than one member, a creditor of one member generally can’t seize the company or its assets — the law limits the creditor to a “charging order,” which is essentially a right to wait for distributions that the company doesn’t have to make. The catch: Florida’s Supreme Court has held that single-member LLCs don’t get that same protection. A creditor can take the whole interest. If your LLC has one member, that’s a fixable problem — but it has to be fixed before there’s a claim. Entity structuring is part of our business planning practice.

Trusts for your family. Assets you leave to your children or spouse in a properly drafted irrevocable trust — instead of outright — can be protected from their creditors, their lawsuits, and their divorces for as long as the trust holds them. This is one of the most underused protections in estate planning, and it costs nothing extra beyond drafting the trust correctly. Our irrevocable trusts page covers these structures in more depth.

The trust you can’t use. Florida does not let you create a trust for yourself, keep the benefit of the assets, and shield them from your own creditors. Some states advertise exactly that; for Florida residents, those structures carry real risk and have repeatedly failed in court. Anyone selling you one should be able to explain why the cases say otherwise.

What Asset Protection Can’t Do

This is the part most asset protection marketing leaves out.

It can’t work backwards. If you’ve already been sued, already received a demand letter, or already know the claim is coming, transfers you make now can be unwound under Florida’s fraudulent transfer law — and courts are good at spotting them. Moving assets after a judgment is almost a guaranteed loser, and it can expose the family members who received them — the same reason you shouldn’t put your kids on the deed.

It can’t beat the federal government. The IRS collects through every protection on this page — homestead, entireties property, annuities, all of it. Federal criminal forfeiture works the same way. Anyone who tells you Florida exemptions stop the IRS is wrong.

It can’t erase family obligations. Child support and alimony claimants can pierce protections that stop ordinary creditors.

It can’t protect debts you agreed to. Your mortgage, your guaranteed business loans, anything you pledged collateral for — exemptions don’t apply to creditors you invited in.

So when someone calls us the week after being served and asks what can be done, the honest answer is usually: not much, and attempting too much will make it worse. The people we help most are the ones who call when nothing is wrong — the physician before the bad outcome, the business owner before the guarantee, the retiree before the car accident.

Who Needs Asset Protection Planning

Some people have more surface area for lawsuits than others. We do this planning most often for:

• Physicians and other professionals whose malpractice exposure outlives any policy limit
• Business owners carrying personal guarantees, employees, and commercial leases
• Real estate investors — every tenant and every property is a potential claim
• New Florida residents — if you’ve just moved here, your titling and beneficiary designations were built for another state’s rules, and you may be leaving Florida’s protections on the table
• Retirees whose net worth is finally visible and who can’t earn a judgment back

If you’re in one of these groups and nothing is wrong yet, this is exactly the right time. Asset protection works best woven into your broader estate plan, not bolted on.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Florida a good state for asset protection?

One of the best. Homestead protection is unlimited in value and constitutional, the exemption statutes are broad, and married couples get entireties protection on top. But every protection has conditions, and most failures come from titling mistakes, not weak law.

Can creditors take my house in Florida?

Generally not, if it’s your homestead within the size limits — with exceptions for your mortgage, property taxes, construction liens, and the IRS.

Does an LLC protect my personal assets?

It can protect what’s inside it from your personal creditors — if it’s multi-member and properly maintained. A single-member Florida LLC gives far less protection than most owners assume.

Can I protect my assets after I’ve been sued?

Mostly no. Transfers made with a claim on the horizon can be reversed as fraudulent transfers. What’s already exempt stays exempt — but repositioning after the fact rarely works.

Do I need an offshore trust?

Almost certainly not. For the overwhelming majority of Florida families, homestead, entireties titling, exemptions, entities, and well-drafted trusts do the job without the cost, complexity, and risk of offshore structures.

Talk to Us Before You Need To

Asset protection is a timing game, and the window is open right now. You meet with a board-certified attorney from day one — no associates, no hand-offs. Call (954) 839-8705 or schedule a consultation.