By Rock Rocheleau and Shane Jasmine Young
The Nevada Asset Protection Trust (NAPT) is a self-settled spendthrift trust allowed under NRS Chapter 166. It lets a person (the “Settlor”) transfer assets into a permanent trust for their own benefit while protecting those assets from future creditors.
Nevada is widely seen as the strongest state for domestic asset protection because of our short two-year time limit on transfers, no exception creditors (including divorcing spouses), and consistently favorable court decisions.
When properly set up, the NAPT allows the Settlor to keep rights, control, and flexibility without giving up creditor protection. It’s a powerful planning tool for those who want to reduce lawsuit risk, improve long-term wealth preservation, and protect separate property.
If there was ever an example of “having your cake and eating it too” in estate planning, this would be it. In fact, the only way for a creditor to collect on someone’s NAPT assets would be by proving the Settlor’s initial transfer of assets to the NAPT was a fraudulent transfer under NRS 112, made with actual intent to defraud that specific creditor.
Nevada law also allows the Settlor to name a “Trust Protector,” who sits above all trustees of the trust. The Trust Protector can work in a non-fiduciary role and has the power to change or update the terms of the trust, even if the trust is permanent. A Trust Protector is one of the most strategically valuable features of the NAPT, offering an extra layer of oversight, flexibility, and legal strength.
How does the NAPT compare to a Prenuptial Agreement (Prenup)?
While prenups certainly have their place, they also come with well-known weaknesses: intense court scrutiny, enforceability challenges, and the emotional difficulty of negotiation. In contrast, the NAPT can offer a more predictable, lasting, and strategically better structure, especially for clients who want to shield separate property from future marital claims.
Enforceability is the main advantage of a NAPT. Prenups, even when carefully written, can be challenged. A spouse can fight a prenup on grounds such as pressure, lack of independent legal advice, or unfairness, and courts regularly throw out prenups based on such factors.
The NAPT, on the other hand, avoids these challenges because the divorce court doesn’t have authority over assets placed in a NAPT before the marriage. Once the trust is properly funded and the required waiting period has passed, the assets are better protected from community property claims raised in a divorce.
A NAPT can even designate assets acquired during the marriage, which are normally considered community property, to be separate property and not divided in a divorce.
Nevada is a community property state. This means any assets acquired during the marriage (regardless of the name on a deed, title, account, or trust document) will be considered community property and divided equally in a divorce. Separate property is an asset acquired before marriage and is mostly protected from claims raised in a divorce.
NRS 125.125 allows spouses to transfer assets into a permanent trust and designate them as separate property. Even assets acquired during a marriage can be transferred into a trust and designated as one spouse’s separate property. This is where a NAPT works like legal separation with an advantage. The NAPT limits the separate property to only those assets placed in the trust.
Another advantage of a NAPT over a prenup is the personal tension that prenups can create. Couples often hesitate to bring up the topic of a prenup for fear of hurting the relationship. A trust created well before marriage avoids the negotiation process entirely.
Finally, a NAPT offers broader usefulness than a prenup. While a prenup addresses only marital rights, the NAPT shields assets from a wide range of potential creditors, business debts, professional malpractice claims, and general lawsuit exposure. For high-risk professionals or business owners, this dual-purpose protection is a significant advantage.
The NAPT offers a more resilient, private strategy for preserving separate property from the possibility of a divorce. In certain situations, the NAPT is better than the prenup.
About the authors
Rock Rocheleau is the managing partner at Right Lawyers, which only handles divorce and custody cases. Right Lawyers are unique in only charging flat fees and in their passion of promoting “No Fight Divorce” services. Rock and Right Lawyers have been voted Best of Las Vegas Divorce Lawyer eight times.
Shane Jasmine Young is an attorney and founder of Young Law Group: 46-time Best of Las Vegas Gold Winner. Shane focuses her practice on legal life planning, including asset protection, trusts and estates, and business. She is passionate about educating, counseling, and providing innovative, comprehensive, customized asset protection solutions and strategies.
About the article
This article was originally published in the Communiqué (Apr. 2026), the official publication of the Clark County Bar Association. See https://clarkcountybar.org/about/member-benefits/communique-2026/communique-apr-2026/.
The articles and advertisements appearing in Communiqué magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the CCBA, the CCBA Publications Committee, the editorial board, or the other authors. All legal and other issues discussed are not for the purpose of answering specific legal questions. Attorneys and others are strongly advised to independently research all issues.
© 2026 Clark County Bar Association (CCBA). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any portion of this issue is allowed without written permission from the publisher. Editorial policy available upon request.