ALERT! New reason to consider asset protection!

If you thought that because you were just a humble wage or salary earning employee you didn't need to consider asset protection - well think again!

The High Court has recently determined in a unanimous decision that employees can be individually liable for misleading conduct in which they engage, even though it was done in the course of their employment and on behalf of their employer (see Houghton v Arms [2006] HCA 59).

It used to be the law that an employee acting within the scope of his or her authority was not liable and the employer company was solely responsible for damages resulting from the wrongdoing.

I'll post some more about this in due course, but in the interim be aware that a whole new avenue of potential liability has been opened up. It's too early to tell whether there will be a legislative response to close the window, but this decision represents yet another reason why all investors who are also employees need to seriously consider structuring their investments for asset protection.

Cheers
N.

 

Thanks Nigel,

Now we should all go out and setup HDT trusts, that will fix it

 

Cheeky!

No. But we should all think about appropriate investment holding structures...

Cheers
N.