Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
For asset protection purposes, if property is held in joint tenancy, should it be transmuted to separate property of one or the other spouse? How does this process work? Is there a better way?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Chances are that transmuting the property to separate property will accomplish nothing. If you really have liability risks that cannot be handled by insuring against them, you need to sit down with an attorney and come up with a combined asset protection and estate plan. Bear in mind, however, that anything you do to put assets out of the reach of creditors, can almost always be undone by the creditors once they have a judgment against you, especially once you know of liability, or a possibly meritorious claim of liability. The law and the courts are not in the business of letting people evade their obligations. It is exactly the opposite. The courts and the laws are there to enforce just obligations.
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