While I see some merit in the conclusion reached by Death and Taxes Blog that Forbes magazine hates estate planners , the publication almost always has something noteworthy to say about the subjects near and dear to my heart.  Lewis Saret reports on an article by asset protection maven Jay Adkisson, taking note of two court cases which support the adage: "If it seems too good to be true, it is."  Both of these cases involved transfers designed to avoid creditors.  One was a self-settled trust, meaning a trust in which the trustmaker seeks to make himself the beneficiary of at least part of the assets.  The other was a transfer from husband to wife.   In the latter case the husband had known creditors and was trying to keep the property away from those creditors.  

In both cases, the courts held the transfers did not avoid creditors.  Sometimes, a transfer between spouses can be effective as to some creditors, but it is usually inferior to other asset protection strategies.  There are valid asset protection techniques, but transfers in which you give with one hand and take away with the other, especially with known creditors, will rarely hold up.