Heyrebate

Flamboyant politicians are particularly vulnerable to legal attacks. Checking with government agencies could easily unearth the full extent of their estate. Some high public officials have no choice but to disclose the full extent of their estate because they are required by law (R.A. No. 6713) to file their statement of assets and liabilities with the Office of the Ombudsman. The rich and the landed gentry are attractive defendants, just like big companies and corporations that are publicly listed in the stock market. Many people are subliminally drawn by the temptation of big game hunting. Most attorneys will refrain from filing a lawsuit once they receive reliable information that the defendant does not have any capacity to pay the judgment. Some filthy rich individuals prefer a low-key lifestyle so as not to attract attention and envy. The profligate rich often maintain homes and investments abroad just in case anything disastrous happens at home. The middle class property owners are the ones left vulnerable to the vestiges of hard economic times.

Conspicuous consumption without asset protection leads to the path of economic perdition. Predators are constantly roaming the earth in search of easy prey.
Even animals, like porcupines and skunks have defensive ways to ward off attackers who wish to have them for lunch. Albeit humans have developed refined ways to discourage carnivores, they are their own worst enemies because they brag about their net worth. Fortune magazine’s annual “Richest People in the World” issue is a veritable hit list for predators. Living a lavish lifestyle is an open invitation to lawsuits.
Driving a brand new Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Pajero, or Expedition could get you into trouble in more ways than you can imagine. Wearing a Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, or Audemars Piquet wristwatch is a declaration of affluence. If you have a high net worth, you may encounter bigger threats to your properties. Some “bountiful ladies “who dabble in dubious charity work are also at risk. The economist Thorstein Veblen, in his classic work The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) called such work an example of conspicuous leisure, an aspect of conspicuous consumption. “It advertises that the lady has free afternoons to spend on projects with some specious object of amelioration” (Wflls, Certain Trumpets, 1994).

The law protects your property but only up to a certain extent. Property owners generally have the right to prevent others from taking their property against their will (Singer, Property Law, 1993). However, after the legal stumbling blocks are removed, your unprotected property becomes vulnerable to predators unless you have institutionalized a strong secondary line of defense.
Corporations, family limited partnerships, and trusts are legal instruments of asset protection that are sometimes called “sanctuaries,”“shelters, “or “havens.” These devices require more effort, time1 planning and documentation to set up, but the long-term beneficial effects they provide can rescue your properties from an otherwise dreadful ending. Many of us live in fear of losing everything we have saved and acquired. Careful planning is a cure to our worries concerning the potential loss of our properties.
The proceeds of crime are not protected from seizure and forfeiture. Criminals will not find refuge in corporations, limited partnerships, .trusts and banks. Plunderers, kidnappers, gambling lords, money launderers, drug lords, swindlers, cyber criminals, and other underworld persons will find it useless to insulate their ill-gotten wealth and their interests, incomes and assets, including shares of stocks derived from the deposit or investment of these properties.
Once unveiled, these illegally acquired assets may be frozen, seized, and forfeited in favor of the State. In the case of money laundering, the court may order the convicted offender to pay an amount equal to the value of the monetary instrument or property if the order of forfeiture of the property (that is the subject of a money laundering offense) cannot be enforced because the property has been concealed, removed, converted or transferred to another jurisdiction to avoid its forfeiture .