Protecting Personal Assets

Question: How frequently do physicians lose personal assets, such as their houses, when they lose medical malpractice lawsuits?

Answer: Unfortunately, there is no hard data (like physicians are used to) in the legal world because the courts do not track settlements out of court or post-judgment remedy collection. We have no way of knowing gross number or a percentage. I do know personally of many collection activities or large malpractice judgments (above coverage limits) in which doctors have had to borrow significantly against their home equity to pay off the judgment or where the plaintiff's attorney has filed a lien against the home until the excess judgment was paid.

Behind your question is another question: "Is it worth it to protect my home?" I can understand that; all planning has a cost-benefit analysis. The percent risk that a woman may get breast cancer may be small, but because the test is relatively inexpensive and noninvasive, many women get tested for it. The key issue is what type of "preventive medicine" someone will endure to prevent something that may or may not ever occur.

Asset protection follows the same principle, but here that bad event is a lawsuit, not a disease. However, unlike medicine, our procedure can significantly improve your situation even if you're never sued. That's because we can actually structure the asset protection for your home where there is no cost at all. In fact, you may be able to build significant wealth by doing it.

See the article Protect Your Home: Asset Protection Can Build Your Wealth by David Mandell and Brian Breuel.