One of the realities of building wealth is that the more you have, the more you have to lose. Asset protection and estate planning aren’t just legal technicalities—they’re essential parts of safeguarding everything you’ve worked for. 

The worst time to plan is when you actually need it. If you wait until you’re facing a lawsuit, a creditor, or a sudden death in the family, it’s already too late.

Think of asset protection like insurance. Most of us wouldn’t drive without auto insurance or own a home without homeowners’ insurance. Yet many wealthy people operate businesses, hold investments, and build family wealth without putting legal structures in place to shield those assets. One lawsuit or one major life event can undo decades of hard work.

On the estate side, not having a proper plan doesn’t just cost money—it creates stress and hardship for your loved ones. Without a solid estate plan, your family could end up tied up in probate courts, fighting over assets, and losing valuable time and resources. 

We’ve talked on this show before about basic steps everyone should take—like forming entities to protect your business or making sure you have not only a will, but also a living trust. Those are the starting points.

But as your wealth continues to grow, your planning needs to grow with it. High-net-worth families have to think about more robust strategies—things like dynasty trusts, asset protection trusts, and the best jurisdictions to set them up. 

These aren’t just technical details. They’re the difference between wealth that gets preserved and multiplies across generations and wealth that gets chipped away by taxes, lawsuits, and poor planning.

To help us understand these tools at the highest level, I’ve invited perhaps the most respected attorney in this space—someone who is seen by other attorneys as the thought leader in asset protection and estate planning—Steve Oshins. Steve has pioneered strategies that are now industry standards, and his work has shaped how families across the country protect and grow their wealth. You’re going to want to pay attention this conversation closely.

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com.

 If your trust is drafted really well at the inception or via the first decanting, you probably will never have to decant the trust again simply because you’ve already built the flexibilities into the trust.

Welcome everybody. This is Buck Joffrey with the Wealth Formula Podcast coming to you from Montecito, California. Before we begin, reminder. There is a website associated with this podcast called wealth formula.com. Go check it out for the latest resources there. And also, uh, remember that if you are an accredited investor and you would like to potentially see deal flow, uh, go to wealth formula.com and sign up for the investor club.

You’ll get onboarded. At that point, potentially, uh, see opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise see that are limited for accredit investors. Again, that’s wealth formula.com. Sign up for investor club. Now let’s, uh, let’s talk a little bit about issues, uh, related to, uh, building of wealth. One of the realities of building wealth is that the more you have, the more you have to lose asset protection and estate planning Art.

Just legal technicalities. They’re really an essential part of safeguarding everything you’ve worked for. You know, the worst time to plan this stuff is when you actually need it. So if you wait until you’re facing a lawsuit, a creditor or a sudden death in the family, it’s already too late. Right? Think of asset protection like insurance.

That’s basically what it is. Most of us would drive without auto insurance or own a home without homeowner’s insurance yet. Many wealthy people operate businesses, hold investments, build family wealth without putting legal structures in place to shield those assets. And all it takes is one lawsuit, one major life event that can undo decades of work on the estate side.

Not having a proper plan doesn’t just cost money. It actually creates an enormous amount of stress and hardship for your loved ones. Without a solid estate plan, your family could end up tied up in probate courts fighting over assets, losing valuable time and resources. Now, we’ve talked on this show a lot about the basics.

Everyone should take forming entities on the asset protection side, of course. And when it comes to the estate planning, you gotta have both a will and a living trust. Okay? You’ve got to do that. If you don’t, uh, if you don’t look it up right now and, and you’ll understand why it has to do with probate, but.

We’re going beyond that today, but your, as your wealth continues to grow, your planning needs to grow with it. High net worth families have to think about more robust strategies. Things like dynasty trust, asset protection trust, and the best jurisdictions to set them up. So these aren’t just technical details, they’re really the difference between wealth that gets preserved, uh, and.

Debt that does not. So to help understand the nuances of this stuff, particularly this concept of the dynasty trust, I’ve invited, um, one of the most respected attorneys in this space. Someone who’s really seen by other attorneys as a thought leader who essentially kind of follow his lead. Uh, Steve Oshins.

He’s pioneered strategies that are now industry standards and his work has shaped really how. Families, uh, across the country, high net worth families really protect and grow their wealth. You’re going to wanna listen to this ’cause even if you are not wealthy today, probably are on your way. And, uh, this, this could very much be about your.

Your future self, and we will have that interview with Steve Oshins right after these messages. Wealth Formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net, the strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate.

Much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you’ve borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps paying you compound interest on that money even though you’ve borrowed it.

Net result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique. It’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its backbone. Turbocharge your investments.

Visit Wealth formula banking.com. Again, that’s wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Today my guest on Wealth Formula podcast is Steve  Oshins.  He’s one of the nation’s leading experts on estate planning and asset protection. He’s based in Nevada and is really best known for pioneering strategies like the Nevada Dynasty Trust Hybrid Asset Protection Trust.

Uh, he also publishes the annual state rankings for Dynasty and Asset Protection Trust tools that attorneys across the country really rely on. He is really a thought leader in this field, and I really want to emphasize that. Um, a lot of people kind of listen to what he does and kind of pivot their own law practice based on what Steve is, is coming up with.

Uh, so really excited to have him. Steve, uh, welcome to the show. Thank you, buck. It’s great to be here. So Steve, let’s, let’s start out with this. Um, people in this, um, you know, in this audience, they hear about all sorts of different kind of trusts. What exactly is a Nevada dynasty trust and why is, uh, Nevada often considered one of the best jurisdictions for these types of things?

Well, let’s start with what a dynasty trust is. A dynasty trust is an irrevocable trust that continues for as long as applicable state law allows. Um, in many states that will be roughly 120 years, and in other states like Nevada, it can be 365 years, and there are other states where it can be perpetual.

So why would we wanna set that up? Because for as long as the trust is in existence, those assets are protected from estate taxes. Creditors and divorce and spouses are the beneficiaries. So all in all, we want to maximize the duration of the trust so we can protect the assets from estate, taxes, creditors, and divorce for the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren, and so on and so forth.

So why is Nevada one of the leaders? Well, Nevada and South Dakota are the leaders and no state is even close. There’s a. Big drop off before you get to the next batch of states. Nevada and South Dakota are basically neck and neck. The, the dis, the difference is that South Dakota allows a perpetual trust, whereas Nevada allows a 365 year trust.

In my opinion, the world might not even be here in year 360 6, so that’s not a big deal. Uh, basically you go somewhere where you have a relationship with a well reasonably priced trust company. Uh, that that bills on a flat fee basis and it’s a low number that it’s not gonna scare anyone away. And then you, whether it’s South Dakota or Nevada, wherever your relationship is, and my best relationships are obviously in Nevada, that’s where you go.

These, you can’t go wrong with either of these two states. Got it. So with, uh, for someone with significant wealth, what are the real benefits of setting up a dynasty trust? Um, obviously, you know. You can talk about them, but asset protection, estate planning, something else. Sure. There are three different thin