You’ve built something real: a business, a few rental properties, a retirement nest egg, a home your family loves. It only takes one serious accident on a jobsite, one injured tenant, or one lawsuit that goes past your insurance limits to put all of it at risk.

Asset protection planning is how you lower that risk ahead of time, openly and legally, so a single claim can’t take everything you’ve worked for. At Wealth & Estate Law in St. George, we help Southern Utah business owners, tradespeople, landlords, and professionals build practical, layered protection, explained in plain English.

Worried about your exposure? Book a consultation or call 435-673-5009. The best time to plan is before there’s a problem.

What Asset Protection Is, and What It Isn’t

Asset protection is arranging how you own things (through insurance, business entities, and certain trusts) so that your risks are separated and your hard-earned savings aren’t sitting exposed to every claim.

Asset protection isn’t hiding money, lying to creditors, dodging taxes or child support, or scrambling to move assets after you’ve been sued. We don’t do that, and it doesn’t work anyway. Utah law lets courts undo transfers made to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, and those cases often end worse for the person who tried it.

Start Here: A Revocable Living Trust Does Not Protect You From Creditors

This surprises a lot of people. A revocable living trust is a great tool for avoiding probate, keeping your affairs private, and planning for incapacity. But because you can revoke it at any time, the law treats its assets as still belonging to you. If you’re sued, assets in your revocable trust are generally just as reachable as assets in your own name.

Real protection comes from different tools, used in layers.

The Layers of a Utah Asset Protection Plan

Layer 1: Insurance Is Your First Line of Defense

Insurance is usually the cheapest protection you can buy, and it pays for your legal defense, not just a judgment. Depending on your situation, that may include:

  • General liability and commercial auto coverage for your business
  • Professional liability (malpractice or errors and omissions) coverage
  • Landlord and rental property policies
  • A personal umbrella policy above your home and auto coverage

We don’t sell insurance, but we make sure your structure lines up with your coverage (for example, that your LLCs are named insureds) and flag questions for your agent.

Layer 2: LLCs for Your Business and Rental Real Estate

A properly formed and maintained limited liability company gives you two kinds of protection:

  • Inside protection: Debts and claims that arise from the business generally stay with the business, so your home and personal savings aren’t on the line.
  • Outside protection: If you’re personally sued for something unrelated to the business, Utah’s LLC act generally limits your creditor’s remedy against your LLC interest to a charging order (Utah Code § 48-3a-503). That’s a lien on distributions, not a right to take over the company or its property.

There are important limits. Charging-order protection is weaker for a single-member LLC, because a court can order a foreclosure sale where the buyer steps in as the member. An LLC also doesn’t shield you from your own personal negligence or from debts you personally guarantee. And the protection only holds if you treat the LLC as a separate business, with its own bank account, contracts in the company’s name, and annual renewals kept current.

For landlords, holding rental properties in one or more LLCs can keep a claim at one property from reaching the others. How many LLCs makes sense depends on the value, risk, and cost involved. Learn more about business formation and estate planning for small business owners.

Layer 3: Use the Protections Utah Law Already Gives You

Utah’s exemption laws protect certain assets from most creditors. A few to know about:

  • Retirement accounts: Utah law generally exempts qualified retirement plans and IRAs, including inherited IRAs, from most creditor claims, with some exceptions such as certain domestic relations orders and some recent contributions (Utah Code § 78B-5-505). That’s one reason maximizing retirement savings can double as protection.
  • Your home: Utah’s homestead exemption protects a limited amount of equity in your primary residence. The amount is adjusted every year and, for most St. George homeowners, covers only a fraction of their equity. Some situations require recording a homestead declaration.
  • Life insurance: Certain life insurance proceeds and cash values are protected if specific conditions are met.

Layer 4: The Utah Asset Protection Trust (UAPT)

Utah is one of a limited number of states that allow you to create an irrevocable trust for your own benefit that is designed to be protected from your own future creditors. The rules are in Utah Code Title 75B, Chapter 1, Part 3 (§§ 75B-1-301 through 75B-1-310). The statute was moved there from Utah Code § 25-6-502 in 2024 and updated in 2025.

To qualify for protection, a UAPT must meet the statute’s requirements. Among them:

  • The trust must be irrevocable, governed by Utah law, and established under the statute.
  • At least one trustee must at all times be a Utah resident or a Utah trust company. You can serve as a co-trustee or advisor, but you can’t be the one who decides discretionary distributions to yourself.
  • The trust must include a spendthrift provision that prevents you from transferring your interest.
  • The trust can’t require mandatory distributions to you, with limited statutory exceptions.
  • When you transfer assets in, you can’t be behind on child support or similar domestic support obligations, intend to defraud a known creditor, or be made insolvent by the transfer.

Timing: Generally, a creditor whose claim existed before you moved assets into the trust must bring a challenge within two years of the transfer (or, in limited cases, one year after discovering it). Sending proper notice to known creditors, or publishing notice for unknown creditors, can shorten that window to 120 days. Creditors whose claims arise after the transfer generally can’t challenge it under the statute (Utah Code § 75B-1-307).

Limits to understand: A UAPT is not a force field. Domestic support obligations get special treatment. A federal bankruptcy court can look back up to ten years at transfers to self-settled trusts made with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors. The statute is strongest for Utah residents, and it hasn’t been extensively tested in reported court decisions. Because the trust is irrevocable and needs a qualifying trustee, it also means giving up some control. For the right person, though, it’s a powerful layer.

Layer 5: Protecting What You Leave Behind

A trust that holds your children’s inheritance with spendthrift and discretionary provisions can help protect it from their future creditors or a divorce. See our trust attorney overview.

Timing Matters: Plan Before Trouble Starts

Under Utah’s Uniform Voidable Transfers Act (Utah Code Title 25, Chapter 6), a court can undo transfers made with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor. It can also undo transfers made for less than fair value while you were insolvent. A creditor generally has up to four years to bring those claims, and sometimes longer after a transfer is discovered.

What that means in practice:

  • Plan while things are calm. Protection put in place years before a claim is far stronger than anything done in a hurry.
  • Once a claim is threatened or filed, your options narrow. We won’t help anyone move assets to defeat a known creditor. Even so, it’s worth a conversation: insurance, existing exemptions, and proper business structure may still matter.

Who Needs Asset Protection Planning?

Anyone with something to lose can benefit from a review. These clients often have the most exposure:

  • Contractors and the trades: plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, roofers, landscapers, and builders face jobsite injuries, property damage, workmanship claims, and trucks on the road every day.
  • Landlords and real estate investors: long-term and short-term rentals bring tenant and guest injury claims.
  • Physicians, dentists, and other professionals: malpractice coverage comes first, and personal assets deserve their own layer.
  • Business owners with employees and vehicles: more people and more miles mean more risk.
  • Families with active lives: teenage drivers, pools, and off-road vehicles are all reasons to look at umbrella coverage.

How We Build Your Plan

  1. Risk review. What you own, how it’s titled, and where your real exposure comes from.
  2. Insurance check-in. We flag gaps for you to raise with your insurance agent.
  3. Entity structure and cleanup. We form or restructure LLCs, draft operating agreements, and deed property where it belongs.
  4. Trust planning. A living trust for probate avoidance and incapacity, plus a UAPT or other irrevocable trust if it truly fits.
  5. Maintenance. We help you keep entities in good standing and keep your plan current.

Not every client needs a UAPT. Many people get most of the protection they need from good insurance, well-run LLCs, and smart use of retirement accounts. We’ll tell you honestly what makes sense.

Protect What You’ve Built

Book a consultation with St. George attorney Wes Winsor, or call 435-673-5009. We serve families and business owners throughout Washington County and Southern Utah.

Bring Your Questions to Tacos and Trust

Join us on the last Tuesday of every month for Tacos and Trust, a free, in-person evening of tacos and straight talk about trusts and protecting your family. RSVP here.

Asset Protection FAQs

Does a living trust protect my assets from a lawsuit?

No. A revocable living trust avoids probate and plans for incapacity, but because you can revoke it, its assets are generally reachable by your creditors. Protection comes from insurance, LLCs, exemptions, and certain irrevocable trusts.

What is a Utah Asset Protection Trust?

It’s an irrevocable trust, authorized by Utah Code §§ 75B-1-301 through 75B-1-310, that you can create for your own benefit. If it meets the statute’s requirements, it’s designed to keep trust assets away from your future creditors. It requires at least one Utah-resident or Utah trust company trustee.

How soon does a Utah Asset Protection Trust protect my assets?

It depends on the creditor. Creditors whose claims existed before the transfer generally have two years to challenge it, and proper notice can shorten that to 120 days. Creditors whose claims arise after the transfer generally can’t challenge it under the statute.

Can I be the trustee of my own asset protection trust?

You can serve as a co-trustee or advisor, but at least one trustee must be a Utah resident or Utah trust company, and you can’t be the one who decides discretionary distributions to yourself.

Is an LLC enough to protect my rental properties?

An LLC is an important layer, but it works best alongside adequate insurance and good habits like separate bank accounts and current filings. Single-member LLCs have weaker protection, and how many LLCs you need depends on your properties and risk.

Is asset protection legal?

Yes, when it’s done openly and in advance. Utah law lets courts undo transfers made to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, so we focus on planning before any claim exists, not hiding assets.

Is it too late if I’ve already been sued?

Your options are more limited once a claim exists, and we won’t help move assets to defeat a known creditor. It’s still worth a conversation to review your insurance, exemptions, and structure going forward.

Attorney advertising. This page offers general information about Utah law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Asset protection depends heavily on your specific facts and timing, so please talk with a licensed Utah attorney before taking any action.