“I want to protect what I’ve built”
How can you protect your family, your home and yourself? A lot of people don’t distinguish between their business and themselves. Asset protection is a bit about planning ahead, and a bit about thinking through risks and change.
01 · What it means
In plain English
Sole trader, company or trust?
If you trade using just an ABN, what risks are you taking? Is the cost of setting up and keeping a company legally compliant worth it for your business? Businesses evolve — two people working together can become a partnership, or at least expose each other to risk.
Fit-for-purpose structures can be fairly straightforward to set up and manage. You do need to act early, get good advice and stay compliant.
Trusts & other strategies
Liquidators will often find and defeat trusts and other structures set up by non-specialist lawyers and untrustworthy advisors. A discussion with an experienced adviser will help you think through costs to set up and maintain something like a trust — and what risks you’re taking, and why.
Protection from creditors
Be very wary if someone tells you how to hide assets from creditors the ‘legal way’. Creditors, liquidators and the regulator will defeat sham deals. Director’s guarantees can be hard to avoid, but be careful — some quite minor trade contracts can hold you personally liable.
02 · Your options
There’s usually more than one way through
Review your structure
Check whether how you trade today still fits the risks you carry.
Plan ahead
Succession, relationships and retirement all change your risk — plan before things go sour, not after.
Director’s advocacy
If liquidation is on the cards, a Director’s Advocate supports you, the director, through the process.
03 · This week
What to do this week
- List every personal guarantee you’ve signed (leases, suppliers, finance).
- Write down who owns what: home, vehicles, equipment, shares, trust assets.
- Find your company and trust documents. If you can’t, that’s a sign to get help.
The information on this website is general in nature and does not take into account your circumstances. It is not legal, financial or tax advice.