The real question is where the asset is, not where you live. The goal of the DAPT is to protect the ‘asset’ from your liabilities, not to protect ‘you’.

When to Use the Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT)?

The Domestic Asset Protection Trust is one of the most cutting-edge asset protection tools. It protects your assets from you and your businesses. However, every state does not lawfully recognize them. This means one has to be careful when and how to use this specialized trust.

They are commonly known as the DAPT. It acts as a type of trust that can give you significant asset protection in any type of lawsuit. They were created as one of the best ways to protect a personal residence from creditors. Particularly, in a situation where there is a great deal of equity in the home. 

The Basics 

The DAPT is a self-settled trust in which an independent trustee controls and/or distributes trust assets to the beneficiaries. This allows the person who created the trust (known as the “settlor” or “trustor”), to reap the dual benefits of:

1. Asset protection from outside creditors. 
2. The beneficial use of the assets of the trust.

We’ve all heard the phrase “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Right? It means you can’t have it both ways, or have the best of both worlds.

Well, the beauty of the DAPT is that you don’t have to give up the use of the asset or the control to sell and buy a new home. Moreover, you don’t have to file a separate tax return. You get asset protection for your home from a lawsuit…that sounds like having your cake and eating it too!

In the states with DAPT statutes, you can create an irrevocable trust affordably. You can appoint a trustee for a reasonable annual fee. You, the settlor, gets to dictate how the assets of the trust are held, sold, and invested. Yes, there are ‘strings’ and ‘provisions’ that limit the control. Hence providing the arms-length asset protection, but the DAPT is quite flexible. 

Which states have the DAPT law?

Twenty (20) states currently recognize the DAPT: Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Traditionally, the states regarded as having the strongest DAPT statutes have been Nevada, South Dakota, Alaska, and Delaware. However, Utah enacted one of the most robust DAPT statutes in the Country. Since then we have been creating DAPT’s under the Utah statute when possible.

When drafted carefully and executed correctly, the Utah DAPT provides some of the following benefits:

• Placing assets in a trust immediately protects against future creditors. Nevada’s statute doesn’t begin protecting assets against future creditors until the assets have been in the trust for two years.
• Placing assets in the trust protects them against existing creditors after two years, which is similar to Nevada. However, you can reduce that statute of limitations by sending notice of the DAPT to creditors you are aware of. Also by publishing notice of the DAPT for creditors you are not aware of.
• There are no blanket exceptions for child support, alimony, or preexisting torts.
• Placing your personal residence in the DAPT does not hinder your use of the “sale of home exemption” to avoid paying taxes on any gain when you sell that residence, as long as the trust is drafted as a “grantor” trust.

What if I don’t live in a DAPT state?

The real question is where the asset is, not where you live. The goal of the DAPT is to protect the “asset” from your liabilities, not to protect you. The most resilient and effective DAPT holding an asset is in a state where both it is lawfully authorized AND the asset resides. For example, a Wyoming cabin in a Wyoming DAPT.

Some professionals argue the DAPT is useless if not authorized and established in the state where the asset is. Lawyers on the other end of the spectrum will use a well-designed DAPT and hold assets in any state and promise they are bulletproof. The truth always lies somewhere in the middle when the standard legal answer is: ‘it depends’.

Thus, most lawyers in the middle will concede that creditors seeking to enforce a judgment against a DAPT-owned asset located in a non-DAPT state will likely have to incur the time, headache, and expense of litigation in order to unwind the DAPT structure and collect such assets. They may eventually be successful in doing so, but that extra time and cost involved can give you a leg up in negotiating a possible settlement.

PRO TIP: The moral of the story is that if the equity is enough, a DAPT can’t hurt and the cost-benefit analysis is worth calculating.

Using a DAPT as an Overall and Well-Designed Plan

I have always argued that there never was or will be a “Silver Bullet” when it comes to asset protection (watch out for the Nevada corporate set-up scam).Good or quality asset protection is the implementation of a comprehensive structural design of multiple strategies depending on how many assets we’re trying to protect.

The goal in asset protection is to minimize the occurrence of a lawsuit and losses when a lawsuit does occur. We call this the “multiple barrier approach.” A DAPT can be a perfect “extra barrier” in this approach, and part of a well-designed overall plan.

In the end, for Americans with equity in their personal home, investments in a brokerage account, cryptocurrency, or even cash sitting in the bank, the DAPT could provide an affordable option to the complexity and cost of an offshore trust or business entity. It is important to know when to use a Domestic Asset Protection Trust.