Fortifying What You Have Built
Asset protection is the foundation of responsible business management. “If you want peace, prepare for war” — wrote Vegetius in the fourth century. Sixteen centuries later, this maxim remains as relevant as ever. An entrepreneur who builds wealth without thinking about its protection is like a castle builder without walls — everything he has erected lies open to the first attacker.
Anatomy of Threat
Running a business means managing risk, including asset protection. A counterparty who fails to pay. An investment that does not pan out. A market crisis that changes the rules of the game. An administrative decision that calls years of work into question. Sébastien de Vauban, the brilliant fortifier of Louis XIV, used to say: “A good fortress is one that repels not just one attack, but every possible one.” Asset protection works the same way — it must anticipate threats that are not yet visible.
Carl von Clausewitz wrote about the “fog of war” — the uncertainty that accompanies every decision in conditions of conflict. An entrepreneur operates in a similar fog. He does not know which counterparty will prove insolvent. Which authority will launch an audit. Which creditor will become aggressive. And in recent years, the state’s arsenal has been systematically expanding — the irreversibility of criminal repression expansion means that instruments once introduced remain in place and are used with increasing frequency. Effective asset protection means building a position that will hold even when the fog lifts and reveals the worst-case scenario.
Asset Protection — Law as Shield and Sword
Sun Tzu taught: “Invincibility lies in defence; the possibility of victory — in attack.” The Polish legal system offers tools of defence — one simply needs to know how to use them.
A limited company separates personal assets from business assets. The family foundation — available in Poland since 2023 — protects assets from claims against the founder and enables controlled succession. International structures add another layer: jurisdictions that respect privacy and impede enforcement.
But a shield is not enough. Sometimes you need to counterattack. An opposition to enforcement action allows you to challenge the very title on which execution is based. A complaint against a bailiff corrects procedural abuses. Asset protection is not passive waiting for a blow — it is actively shaping the battlefield.
Threats from State Authorities
Entrepreneurs must reckon not only with private creditors. Increasingly, it is the state that becomes a source of threat to assets — and it has instruments whose effectiveness is difficult to overestimate.
Asset seizure by tax authorities can occur quickly and without warning when the tax authority determines that a liability is at risk. The law defines conditions for securing claims against company assets, but practice shows that authorities interpret them broadly. Security over a taxpayer’s assets must have justified grounds — but this is cold comfort when accounts are already frozen.
Extended confiscation goes even further, allowing the state to reach assets acquired many years before proceedings were initiated. And the mechanism of asset seizure without a court judgment means an entrepreneur can lose liquidity before ever appearing in court.
Time as a Strategic Variable
Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, Chief of the German Imperial General Staff, maintained that “mistakes made at the stage of strategic deployment cannot be corrected during the campaign.” In asset protection, this principle applies with full force.
Protective structures must be established before a threat materialises. A transfer of assets made in the face of enforcement may be challenged as fraudulent. A foundation established the day before a property security order will protect nothing. The best fortification is one built in peacetime, when no one is yet knocking at the gates.
Understanding the relationship between asset security measures and asset protection is crucial — actions taken after proceedings have commenced are already too late and may be deemed ineffective or even criminal.
Niccolò Machiavelli warned: “A prince who relies solely on fortune falls with it.” An entrepreneur who relies on problems passing him by is playing roulette with fate. Asset protection means replacing gambling with planning.
Psychology of the Besieged
Asset protection is also psychological protection — the peace of mind that comes from knowing that not everything can be taken. That there is a line enforcement cannot cross. That your family will not be left without means of subsistence. Seneca wrote: “It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who craves more.” But it is difficult to philosophise about moderation when a bailiff is seizing your account.
Read more about when asset protection can become a crime:
- Fleeing with Assets from Creditors (Article 300 of the Criminal Code)
- Money Laundering (Article 299 of the Criminal Code)
- Bankruptcy as a Crime (Article 301 of the Criminal Code)
- Preferential Treatment of Creditors (Article 302 of the Criminal Code)
Multi-Layered Architecture
Sébastien de Vauban did not build single walls — he created fortification systems: moats, bastions, outworks that forced the attacker to assault repeatedly. Each obstacle conquered revealed the next. Effective asset protection against creditors works the same way.
The first layer: a corporate structure that separates business risk from personal assets. The second: asset diversification across jurisdictions. The third: legal instruments — private foundations (including offshore foundations), trusts, investment policies, offshore companies in “tax havens” — which add further levels of separation. The fourth: procedural — knowledge of defence measures in the course of enforcement.
None of these layers is impenetrable on its own. But together they create a system that radically increases the cost and difficulty of attack. And in the logic of conflict — as Liddell Hart taught — you win not when you destroy your opponent, but when you make continuing the fight no longer worth his while.
Ethics of Defence
There is a difference between protecting assets and hiding them from legitimate claims. The former is legal and ethically justified. The latter leads to criminal liability and reputational destruction.
Skarbiec Legal — Law Firm
Since 2006, we have been helping entrepreneurs protect their assets — through selecting the right legal structure, establishing foundations and international vehicles, and representation in enforcement proceedings. We know that every situation is different: a different business profile, different character of assets, different level of threat.
We do not offer magic solutions. We offer legal architecture tailored to the client’s situation — and the experience to build that architecture before it is too late.
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” — said Sun Tzu. In asset protection, this principle carries particular weight. The best enforcement is one that cannot begin because there is nothing to seize. Our task is to make it so.
Further Publications:
