The Best Asset Protection Law Firms & Attorneys
Asset protection attorneys whose marketing describes what they actually do. Who they are, what they have actually done, and how to check any of it yourself.
Asset protection planning is not something to hand off to just anyone with a website and a few keywords. It is a specialized corner of the law - part trust and estate work, part tax planning, part risk management - and the gap between a firm that dabbles in it and one that has spent decades focused on it can be the difference between a structure that holds up in court and one that collapses the first time a creditor challenges it.
Over the years we have come to know the firms and attorneys below, either through their work, their writing, or direct interaction. We are listing them here because, in our experience, they practice what they advertise - their marketing materials describe what they actually do, rather than overselling results no attorney can guarantee. That is rarer in this field than it should be, given how many "asset protection" ads promise bulletproof secrecy or guaranteed outcomes no honest lawyer would put their name behind.
A quick note before the list. This is an informational roundup, not legal advice, and it is not a ranking or a survey of the field. See the disclosure at the bottom regarding our relationship to two of the entries. Always do your own due diligence - check bar standing, ask which trustee your attorney works with, and get a clear written explanation of fees and strategy - before hiring any attorney. If you want the criteria rather than the names, we set those out separately in how to choose an asset protection attorney.
Why these firms and attorneys made the list
We did not pick these names at random. Everyone below meets three criteria we think matter more than a slick website or a big ad budget:
- Competence in their area of practice. Each has spent years - often decades - focused specifically on asset protection, not general practice work with a page bolted on for SEO.
- Delivering on promises made to clients. Reputation in this field travels fast. These are people whose track record and standing among peers back up what they tell clients to expect.
- Not everyone below is a law firm. Atlas Trust Company is a licensed Cook Islands trustee and Sovereign Partners is an advisory firm; each entry says which it is, because the difference decides what they can and cannot do for you.
- Honest, accurate marketing. Their websites and materials describe what asset protection planning can realistically do, and its limits, rather than promising guaranteed secrecy or bulletproof results no lawyer can ethically back up.
The list is ordered alphabetically by firm name, not by preference.
James Bowden, Afridi & Angell (Toronto, ON)
James Bowden founded and runs the Toronto office of Afridi & Angell Professional Corporation, which handles private client advisory, succession, estates, residency and tax law. He also serves as Special Counsel to the firm in the UAE, having trained and practised in Ontario and spent many years with Afridi & Angell in Dubai. He is admitted to the Law Society of Ontario as a barrister and solicitor, is registered as a legal consultant with Dubai's Legal Affairs Department, holds an LL.B. from Queen's University, and is a STEP-registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP).
His practice is broader than asset protection - the firm describes his core work as transactional and corporate-commercial, with trusts and estate planning among the sub-specialisations he is sought out for. For a U.S. reader the relevant point is cross-border: Canadian and UAE structuring is a different body of law from U.S. creditor-exemption planning, and that is generally where he is useful.
Jacob Stein, Aliant LLP (Los Angeles, CA)
Jacob Stein is the managing partner of Aliant, LLP and has structured asset protection transactions for clients ranging from small business owners to some of the wealthiest families in the country. He holds a law degree from USC and an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown, is a California Certified Tax Law Specialist, and is ranked by Chambers and Partners in its High Net Worth guide for Private Wealth Law, California: Southern. He is also the author of several books on California asset protection planning, including Asset Protection for California Residents, and has taught more than a thousand continuing-education seminars to attorneys and CPAs on the subject.
Jon Alper & Gideon Alper, Alper Law (Lake Mary, FL)
Jon Alper has practiced Florida asset protection law since 1991 and played a role in shaping how Florida's homestead and creditor-exemption law is applied today. His firm describes his planning as having been "at the heart of" BankFirst v. UBS Paine Webber, Inc., the Florida decision on attorney-assisted asset protection planning.
His son, Gideon Alper, leads the firm's offshore practice - Cook Islands trusts, offshore LLCs, and IRS compliance - and previously served as a federal attorney with the IRS Office of Chief Counsel in the Large Business and International Division. Between them they have written hundreds of articles on Florida exemption planning and offshore structures, and both are known for handling client calls and documents personally rather than routing everything through junior associates.
Marcos Almeida, Atlas Trust Company
Marcos Almeida is a lawyer admitted to the Brazilian Bar (OAB/MG 132.407) and an international trust and private client advisor with more than 14 years of post-qualification experience. He holds an LLB and a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Business, and is a STEP-registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP no. 280712). He came to trust work from private practice in Brazil, where he was managing partner of a law firm.
Before co-founding Atlas Trust Company, where he serves as CEO, he spent close to seven years at an established offshore trust provider operating in the Cook Islands, Nevis, and New Zealand - first as legal counsel, then as head of legal and client services leading its legal team. He has also served as a director of two licensed New Zealand trust companies.
Blake Harris & Ali El-Haj, Blake Harris Law (Miami, FL & Denver, CO)
Blake Harris founded Blake Harris Law in 2013 as a firm focused exclusively on offshore asset protection, particularly Cook Islands trusts. He holds a finance degree and a J.D. from the University of Florida, has been recognized as a "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers Magazine, and holds Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent rating. He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council, has written on asset protection for national outlets, and is the author of Don't Let a Lawsuit Take Away Everything.
Ali El-Haj, an attorney at the firm, focuses on structuring offshore asset protection trusts - including Cook Islands and Nevis trusts - for entrepreneurs and international clients. Before joining, he was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and lectured in law at Humboldt University of Berlin. He holds an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge and an LL.B. with First Class Honours from University College London, and is licensed to practice in New York State.
William Healey, Connell Foley LLP (Roseland, NJ)
William Healey is Of Counsel at Connell Foley LLP, a multi-office firm with locations across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The firm lists his practice as "estate, gift and income tax planning; business succession planning; multi-generational wealth transfers; charitable giving strategies; asset protection; wills and trusts; and other complex wealth preservation and strategic planning issues," along with elder law planning and guardianships. He is admitted in New Jersey and New York and holds a J.D. cum laude from Seton Hall University School of Law.
Asset protection here sits inside a broader tax and estate planning practice rather than being the whole of it, which is the ordinary arrangement at a firm of this size and worth knowing when you are deciding who to call.
Howard Rosen & Patricia Donlevy-Rosen, Donlevy-Rosen & Rosen PA (Coral Gables, FL)
Howard Rosen and Patricia Donlevy-Rosen have practiced offshore and domestic asset protection together for decades and co-authored Asset Protection: A Guide for Professionals, a reference text for attorneys, CPAs, and estate planners. Howard is a CPA as well as an attorney and wrote the BNA Tax Management Portfolio titled Asset Protection Planning; Patricia authored the RIA Tax Advisors Planning Series volume of the same name, is admitted in both Florida and New York, and has written extensively on protecting real estate from creditors. Both hold Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent rating.
Jim Duggan, Duggan Bertsch LLC (Chicago, IL)
James M. Duggan is the founding principal of Duggan Bertsch, a Chicago firm built around the intersection of business law, tax, estate planning, and asset protection for closely held businesses and high-net-worth families. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (magna cum laude), an MBA in Finance from the DePaul University Graduate School of Business (summa cum laude), and a Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law, where he served on both the DePaul Law Review and the DePaul Business Law Journal. He has served as an adjunct professor with the Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin, the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and the Chicago-Kent College of Law's LL.M. program in taxation, and is a frequent speaker on succession planning and asset protection for family-owned businesses.
Jeffrey Verdon, Jeffrey M. Verdon Law Group LLP (Newport Beach, CA)
Jeffrey M. Verdon has practiced estate and asset protection planning for more than 40 years, holding an LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University since 1979. He is the managing partner of the Jeffrey M. Verdon Law Group, LLP in Newport Beach, and a partner at Falcon Rappaport & Berkman LLP. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, has been a contributor to Kiplinger's Wealth Creation column since 2016, has been quoted in outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and is a frequent CLE lecturer on offshore asset protection strategies and U.S. tax compliance.
Craig Redler, Law Offices of Craig S. Redler (Newport Beach, CA)
Craig Redler brings a genuinely unusual credential to asset protection: before practicing law he worked inside the Cook Islands fiduciary industry itself, serving as trustee for offshore trusts settled by high-net-worth clients while holding positions at Amicorp, in Auckland and Miami, and at Southpac Trust International, in the Cook Islands and Tauranga. That hands-on experience administering offshore trusts - rather than only drafting them - shapes how he advises clients on both foreign and domestic planning. He is admitted to practice in California and Illinois, holds the Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation from the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and chairs STEP's Orange County, California branch.
George Scopetta, NJP Law Group PLLC (Sunrise, FL)
NJP Law Group is a boutique firm in Sunrise, Florida, serving clients from offices in Florida and Pennsylvania and describing 25-plus years of experience. Its published practice areas are unusually on-point for this list: Cook Islands trusts, domestic asset protection trusts, land trusts, 1031 exchanges, tax advisory and controversy, estate planning and entity formation. George Scopetta is the firm's contact for asset protection matters.
One note in the spirit of the advice further down this page: the firm does not publish individual attorney biographies, so his bar admissions, year of call and credentials are not available on its website, and we have not independently verified them. Ask him directly, as you should of anyone on this list.
Sovereign Partners (Netherlands)
Sovereign Partners is a Netherlands-based advisory firm founded and led by Antony v. Nieuwkoop. Its published services are international tax advisory, corporate structuring, residency planning, banking, and accounting and payroll, with asset protection offered alongside them. The firm says it works across the European Union and the United States.
It is an advisory firm rather than a law firm, which is the thing to hold onto when comparing it with the rest of this list. That is not a criticism - cross-border structuring, residency and tax work is a real discipline and often sits outside what a U.S. asset protection attorney does. But two consequences follow for a U.S. reader. Advice on creditor exposure under U.S. law is legal advice, and a non-lawyer generally cannot give it or carry professional liability for it. And what you tell a non-lawyer adviser is generally not covered by attorney-client privilege, which matters most in exactly the situation the planning is for.
Conner Watts, Watts Legal (Atlanta, GA)
Conner Watts practises business planning and transactions, wealth protection and transfer, taxation, trusts and estates, and estate planning. He holds a J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law and is admitted before the Supreme Court of Georgia and all Georgia Superior Courts, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and the United States Tax Court. Before returning to the college as a professor of practice he focused on trusts and estates work, particularly intra-family transactions structured around federal estate and gift tax.
He also teaches in Georgia State's Philip C. Cook Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, supervising students representing clients before the IRS and the Tax Court. Tax-court admission is worth noting on a list like this, because offshore structures are reportable and the filings are where a lot of plans come unstuck.
Asset Protection Service Providers We Do Not Recommend
Asset Protection is a legitimate, ethical, and important industry that serves families worldwide. Unfortunately, like many industries, certain individuals engage in behavior which could mislead potential consumers of asset protection services. To help protect the public from these bad actors, we created the Offshore Watchdog to shine a light on these individuals and companies.
Disclosure
Blake Harris and Ali El-Haj are attorneys at Blake Harris Law, the firm publishing this list. Their inclusion reflects that relationship and should not be read as an independent, third-party endorsement.
Four firms on this list were introduced to us through Atlas Trust Company: Afridi & Angell, Connell Foley, NJP Law Group and Watts Legal. They are firms Atlas works with, not firms that paid for placement, and no fee is exchanged in either direction for their inclusion here. We note it because the introduction route is part of what a reader should be able to weigh.
This page is a roundup of firms we have come to know, not an independent survey, a ranking, or a recommendation that any particular firm is right for your situation.
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Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions
No one holds that title, and any firm claiming it should be treated with caution. Asset protection is a small field with a handful of practitioners who have shaped it in different ways - domestic trust legislation, offshore planning, tax, and litigation. The better question is who has spent years focused specifically on the problem you have, and whether their marketing describes what the planning can realistically do.
Check bar standing through the relevant state bar's public directory, ask which trustee your attorney works with, and get a clear written explanation of fees and strategy before you engage anyone. Ratings and directory listings are a starting point, not a substitute for those three steps.
Promises of guaranteed outcomes or bulletproof secrecy. No attorney can guarantee how a court will rule, and planning marketed on secrecy tends to be planning that will not survive disclosure. A firm that explains the limits of what it sells is describing the work honestly.
No. The firms below are listed alphabetically by firm name, and this is not a survey of the field or an independent ranking. It is a roundup of firms we have come to know through their work, their writing, or direct interaction. Two of the entries are this firm and an affiliated trust company, both disclosed below.