As of July 1, 2012, Virginia became the 13th state to pass legislation approving the use of Asset Protection Trusts. The new law, similar in purpose to statutes in Delaware, Nevada and other states, allows individuals to protect assets within a self-settled trust. That is, under the new law, a person can transfer property to a trust for his or her own benefit, while still protecting that property from future claims of creditors, if the requirements of the statute are met.
See Delaware Trusts for a further discussion of these Domestic Asset Protection Trusts.