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Imagine you want to protect an irreplaceable family heirloom. You spend countless hours researching and purchasing the best indestructible safe that money can buy. It is fireproof, waterproof, and was made with drill-resistant hard plates and high-grade steel. You feel confident this will fit your needs. However, after purchasing the safe, you keep the precious family heirloom on your kitchen counter.

The legal field is in large part reactive. Case law is formed from experiences of the past. Legislation often arises after people have experienced various grievances and challenges. This reactivity often results in people making decisions and acting in a way that has unintended—and often unfavorable—legal consequences. Artificial intelligence (AI) is no exception. In United States v. Heppner, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York, addressed a “question of first impression nationwide” about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the protections afforded.

When you sell a business, the transaction may represent a lifetime of work. However, without thoughtful planning and preparation, a significant portion of the proceeds can be lost to immediate capital gains taxes.

For business owners, investors, and high-net-worth individuals planning liquidity events or major charitable gifts, Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) provide one of the most tax efficient and flexible philanthropic tools available. A DAF works like a private foundation with less overhead and fewer complex management rules.

For individuals residing in high-tax jurisdictions, optimizing wealth transfer while minimizing tax liability is a constant challenge. While traditional revocable trusts help to avoid probate, they do not offer income or estate tax savings.

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on July 4, 2025, has fundamentally reshaped the landscape for business founders and investors, particularly regarding Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS). This landmark legislation enhances the existing Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code, offering an unprecedented opportunity to exclude up to $15,000,000 in capital gains from federal income tax upon the sale of qualifying stock.

Before you commit to sell your business, you should consult with an attorney to determine whether any of the following tax planning strategies should be implemented:

There are many different opinions about the best way to protect your assets. In the end, unless those opinions are backed by actual court cases, they have little relevance. As a general rule, if an asset protection strategy is proven to work well in many court cases over many years, then it is a good strategy. In contrast, if an asset protection strategy is new and untested, it is difficult to know whether it is a good strategy or not. Furthermore, if an asset protection strategy is proven to fail in many court cases, then it is a poor strategy despite any alluring marketing materials.

In the world of estate planning, “ING” is more than just a suffix. It’s an acronym for Incomplete Non-Grantor (trust) and often has another letter in front of it to indicate the state under which the trust is governed—often Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming, or Alaska (NING, DING, WING, and AING, respectively). It’s a highly sophisticated, beneficial estate planning strategy that intentionally straddles the line separating grantor trusts and non-grantor trusts, offering the best of both worlds—resulting in potentially massive state tax savings—to those who successfully create and operate them.

If you have something worth protecting, it’s worth protecting right. Be it a vehicle, a valuable collection, your life savings, or the home you live in, you want to make sure your assets are safe—both for you and for your family.

To protect your assets most effectively, you should rely on a structure with a proven history of strong, reliable asset protection, rather than leaning on untested and unproven concepts. McCullough utilizes very old and well-established laws to create asset protection trusts that work. We have fine-tuned our trusts and seen them tested numerous times over the past 27 years. We call our primary asset protection trust a “541 Trust™” because one of its most powerful features is supported by Section 541(b)(1) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The best asset protection strategies eliminate personal ownership by placing valuable assets in an irrevocable trust. This is crucial. If you get sued or go bankrupt, you will be asked to disclose everything you own. If your assets are in one of our 541 Trusts™, they don’t need to be disclosed because you don’t own them.