4 Critical Ways Doctors Can Protect Themselves Against Malpractice Lawsuits
Split Assets With Your Spouse
If you are married, another really easy fix to protect yourself is to make sure that ALL non-qualified assets are either jointly titled, split with your spouse, or simply titled under their name.
I’m assuming that you aren’t in practice with your spouse. I suppose if the two of you are working very closely together in a practice, then yes, this strategy may not work at all since the same patient could sue both of you.
I read a really good article on a CPA’s website that said,
“For married couples, consider transferring assets so that the scales are balanced with an equal amount of assets owned by each spouse.
The personal residence is usually one of the largest assets held jointly consider transferring this asset into the spouse’s name.
But realize once transferred, you expose these assets to your spouse’s personal liabilities.
Alternatively, assets can be titled jointly to both spouses as “tenants by the entirety” making them unreachable to all but creditors of both spouses until the death of either spouse.”
To add a few points to this commentary:
- Be aware of your state and the laws surrounding it. The implications could differ from place to place.
- This switch is SOOOOO EASY to do and it doesn’t cost a single penny. These documents do NOT have to be drawn by a lawyer. Your financial advisor or bank teller or whoever serves you at your financial institutions could easily get these changes done.
- Another common joint titling for accounts
are “Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS)” and “Tenants in Common (TIC)”. This article (and they have a good point) are suggesting to have a DIFFERENT title of “Tenants By The Entirety”. The only disadvantage here is that the tenants by entirety could be potentially difficult to unwind in a divorce. However, in most cases, it should be pretty easy.
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