Multiple businesses should be a separate corporation or LLC. You can also set up physical assets in one corporation which can hold physical and tangible assets that can make up the corporation. Income through another corporation or LLC is no assets. You can use those assets as lease agreement. 

 

You want to set up the legal entity before it is needed. There can be fraudulent conveyance. Set up a structure before it's needed to avoid possible legal action and  transfer assets for the purpose of asset protection. The penalties of fraudulent conveyance could be criminal or civil also a loss of protection. 

Lawsuits are very time consuming and you want to keep a low profile for purposes of keeping your amount of assets private. That way, if a lawsuit occurs there is a very small chance of the courts finding out how much your assets are worth. Most lawsuits are settled before they go to court. Keep no public record; searches can be done for real estate and assets that are in your name. You can designate an account for a certain amount just in case for legal fees.  

 

The estate tax can be a penalty for poor estate planning. In many cases, the fees can amount to over 1 million dollars which comes out of the beneficiary's proceeds. So by proper planning, large amounts of money can be saved. What can also be done is an AB Trust. We take the Living Trust and upon death the trust is split into 2 parts. The have 1 portion which is the Survivor's half and we have the deceased's portion. We take 600,000.00 from the deceased's portion and put that into a special bypass trust just for the purpose of the beneficiary's which normally are the children, typically we don't make the distribution right away- we defer it. This is an advantage which helps you avoid the State Tax exclusion. Between spouses there is an unlimited marital exclusion so you can designate husband or wife or vice versa to access the funds. There are cases that we don't need an AB Trust, if the combined estate is over 1 million then you can decide on an AB Trust- the exemption can be doubled and pay 0 to State tax- which again can be a penalty for poor planning. 
 
In our economy, we have a booming real estate; stock market and etc, where people see their funds grow tremendously. Now estates are growing so large, State taxes can be as much as 55 %. Planning on is crucial to avoid large amounts of taxes. 

With some trusts, you can plan opportunities for gifting. You can gift the funds the money to the next generation, but still have control of it. The problem with gifting is you don't want to break up such a sizeable chunk of money because you can manage it well, When it is a large amount, you have asset allocation, minimize risk, buy portfolios and buy large stocks. If the money is broken up, people tend to buy treasury bills and series E bonds which can only earn 4-5 % which isn't really a good method of minimizing risk and maximizing return. What needs to be done is give the children (beneficiary's) gifts while maintaining control- so we set up a Limited Partnership.

Each child gets a percentage, choose a percentage, and don't give a tangible amount due to the effect of receiving the funds. Keep the funds within the Limited partnership structure. So we have a Limited Partnership for each child. 1 % of belongs to the children while the rest belongs to the Husband/Wife/Living Trust- which is all completely tax free and transfers while you still have control as the funds that go the children are still in the account. The funds are still intact for the beneficiary's, we gave them a tangible amount, which is where they own a portion but have no control. With this plan, you can invest the funds while still having protection.