• Alaska has corrected a major defect common in self-settled laws.
• It now provides a definition for a “pre-existing creditor”.
• Now, one can name a non-resident beneficiary as a co-trustee without compromising creditor protection.
• No need to worry now that a judge might order a distribution, which a creditor could then attach.

A recent U.S. Bankruptcy Court decision, 111 re Huber,’ held that an Alaska self-settled trust essentially was invalid with respect to claims of the settlor’s creditors in bankruptcy. The case doesn’t appear to break new ground and, in some ways, seems flawed. However, it’s important to review the decision to help determine how best to protect assets using a self-settled trust. In any case, the ruling doesn’t seem to thwart using a self-settled trust to keep assets from being included in the gross estate of the settlor for federal estate tax purposes.

Alaska recently ban enacted legislation similar to laws in certain foreign asset protection jurisdiction. As a consequence, an American in any state can create a trust for his or her own benefit which is protected from creditors provided, among other things, is is not a transfer intended to defraud known creditors. Perhaps of greater importance, Alaska trusts open a new dimension in estate planning. One of this article’s co-authors, Jonathon Blattmachr, was the principle draftman of this new Alaska legislation

The substantial concerns held by Americans about the potential of financially devastating legal judgements have been a primary motivator have been a primary motivator for them to create trusts for their own benefit in certain offshore jurisdictions where creditors cannot, as a general rule, attach the trust assets.

The state of Alaska has adopted a new community property law by which a married couple may elect to treat all of their assets or specific as-sets as communicy property. This ar-ticle discusses the estate planning uses and implications of converting one·s separate properry to communi-ty property, and how non-Alaskans may use an Alaska Community Prop-erty Trust to obtain the cax and non-c:i.x benefits of community property status for select assets.

Life insurance is one of the least understood financial products in the world. In just a few minutes of study, one can reasonably grasp the concept of equity interests in a business (e.g., common stock, preferred stock), bonds and other forms of debt. Even more complicated financial products, such as derivatives and options can be readily understood.

However, even some people who have spent a career in the life insurance industry do not really understand the financial aspects of this product. Indeed, after finishing a lecture on how life insurance “works,” a 30 year life insurance agent came up to me and said, “Until today, I never really understood what I’ve been selling.” Once, when I asked another very successful CLU how many of his clients really understood what they were buying, he said, “virtually zero.”