The use of wills and asset protection trusts in fraud and other financial crimes.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, 2.9 million Form 1041 (domestic trust) tax returns were filed in 2009. It is predicted that beneficiaries will receive wealth transfers in the tens of billions passing via trusts. Accompanying this growth has been a proliferation of abusive estate planning, such as asset protection trust schemes to reduce income and tax liability; illegal techniques to depreciate personal assets, deduct personal expenses, and underreport income; and participation in money laundering. This Article highlights and analyzes wealth transfer and preservation fraud and trust schemes, scrutinizes both offshore and domestic asset protection trusts, and provides red flags of fraud to assist in the prevention and detection of wealth transfer and preservation fraud schemes.