Looking to put your money where it can't be touched by creditors? Somewhere really iron-clad like an offshore account? You needn't book a flight to Bermuda, but you do need to be fraud-free (a fairly challenging standard these days, it seems).

A little-known asset tool provides the protection of an offshore account, plus, it's legal in the United States. Known as a self-settle trust, it allows individuals or institutions to name themselves as beneficiaries of their own trust, provided they have no pre-existing creditors and haven't committed fraud to fund the trust.

If creditors later come to light, they have four years to contest the funds; beyond that, they're "out of luck," says Daniel Lindley, senior vice president and trust counsel at U.S. Trust Co. of Delaware, who helped draft Delaware's self-settle trust legislation in 1997. If fraud is later discovered, pre-existing creditors have one year to bring suit. The trusts are designed to protect wealth from future liabilities and can be established by out-of-state residents. Three other states, Alaska, Nevada and Rhode Island, have legalized self-settle trusts since 1997.

Because these trusts are relatively new, they've never been tested in court. But offshore accounts are likewise a gamble, because they're viewed with such hostility by the courts that judges have been known to hold trust beneficiaries in contempt, with jail time, for refusing to repatriate assets. Lindley is betting that courts will be more respectful of domestic trust law.

It's not known how many of the trusts have been established, but Lindley admits his company has set up a "significant" number. CEOs who use their companies as personal piggy banks need not apply, Lindley adds. "At U.S. Trust we're extremely vigilant in reviewing a situation before we'll accept an asset trust, because we don't want to be seen as facilitating fraudulent transfers."