[Don Plumley]

It would be good to have an attorney chime in here, but here's my take/understanding:

401K, Ira, Pension - those are hard to get to. Look at OJ in FL as evidence.
Life Insurance - your heirs are the beneficiary, so less of a concern.
Home - Homestead protection varies from state to state. In some states it is automatic. Basically it is designed to prevent the forced sale of your primary residence to satisfy creditors. Some states have very generous provisions (FL again).

Some have suggested putting your assets into an LLC or C Corporation. One of the purposes of a corporation is to shield the assets of the officers and directors from the actions of the entity (Corporate Veil). That means it needs to be a bone fide entity, and in the case of a C or S corp, closely follow the required record keeping and structure. In particular, for a very closely held C or S corp (just family) with just family on the board, a good attorney has a reasonable chance of piercing corporate veil. What is suggested is placing your high value assets into a corporation to make it more difficult for creditors to make a claim. As the has pointed out, if your negligence is established and a judgment is made against your assets, in theory you could be forced to liquidate your stock in the corporation.

Ultimately, what is needed is an umbrella liability policy of sufficient coverage. As has been said, $1M isn't that much anymore. But having an insurance company on the hook means they are supportive in defending a claim.

As for me, we have a bypass trust for the big assets - but that's just set up for tax reasons. And we have a reasonably umbrella policy (which has the net effect of lowering coverage on the auto policies which save a few quid). And a life insurance policy which is as large as my family needs to keep going for quite a few years in the case of my untimely demise.

Sobering, isn't it.