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Estate planning considerations when you have properties in more than one state. To make this theme clearer, I'll begin with an inquiry that came to me. A Gentleman's Dilemma: A Case Study A gentleman's father had properties in Texas and in Nevada. He left Texas and spent his latter year...

Estate planning considerations when you have properties in multiple states. Many people use wills as their primary estate planning source. Now you have an option. You can have a will and that's fine. And you can also have an irrevocable family trust. Pros and Cons of Irrevocable Family Tru...

  What is a reciprocal will? Generally speaking it's when a husband and wife are on one accord and they share the same assets and if one predeceases the other the surviving spouse takes it all. In other words, in the wife's will she's going to give everything to her husband and in the husba...

Why should you have a will? Do you still need to have a will if you don't own any property, don't have any bank accounts, or maybe you just have one piece of property and you're married and your spouse owns one-half interest, and you think that, okay, the other half will go to your spouse on yo...

I would say yes. I would say yes if you have more than one piece of property, but this is just a preference. Many people don't want to, it's like six of one and a half a dozen or the other. What the family trust does is it takes your assets and you transfer them while you are alive to the famil...

Taking inventory is a pre-planning step to take when you're contemplating your estate plan. I've discussed this previously but I want to just take this time to hone in on inventorying. What I want you to do is take a look at all of your assets and put them in a category. Because many of you all...

We're back and now we're going to talk about insurance. I do not profess to be an insurance agent, but I tell you, you need to have a great insurance agent in your pocket or on your Rolodex or on your speed dial or on your contact list. Because most of what I'm discussing is about financing you...

Business owners, how are you doing business? What is your entity formation? Are you a sole proprietor? A partnership? General partnership? A limited liability company? A limited liability partnership? C-corp? S-corp? How are you doing business? The Decisions Behind Business Formation A lo...

Do you need a lawyer to help you with your business succession planning? I recommend that you hire one. Do you also need a lawyer for your estate planning? Absolutely. If you have questions If you would like to talk to me about the specifics of your particular business and your particular p...

We've done a lot of talking about business succession planning, which deals with how you can continue your business and how the business would continue if you or a key person were no longer there. So we understand what we need to do to keep your business running. We also understand how we ca...

Let's think about your business. You went through different stages to create and form your business entity. Then you basically looked for the right people to carry out your business concern. And of course you made decisions in order to make your business sustainable and profitable. The key q...

Should I have more than one successor? The answer is YES. But you need to prioritize the order in which the persons would serve. Let me give you an analogy... A hypothetical scenario Let's say you're going to give the power of attorney to a loved one or a trusted friend. What happens if B...

Baby boomers don't like to think about exit strategies. We want to live forever. However, one thing that I would recommend is that you know the date that you want to leave the company. And during the last three years of that time, use your time to mentor your replacement. Of course, by that ...

Let's talk about your business succession plan and retirement. We already know that you want to have a business succession plan for the business to continue when you're no longer a part of it. And you may not be a part of it if there should be some incapacity or a death. If you want to retir...

Business succession plans work whether you're a sole owner or you're in a partnership, a limited liability company, a large corporation, or a small corporation. The key part of the business succession plan is to make sure that you are taking steps to replace key people during the life of you...

When selecting a successor, you always begin with the end in mind. It's important to look within your organization to see if there's a talent or a person that you could groom to be your replacement. You often don't have the benefit of knowing though. If you're planning your retirement and there...

Entity Purchase Agreements can be used as vehicles to ensure the continuity of your business. Here is how it works: The entity would purchase life insurance policies on all of the owners, and thereby the entity would be both the owner of the policy and the beneficiary. In other words, that w...

Let's talk about family owned businesses and succession plans. You've had the discussion with your family members, but you also need to have the discussion with yourself and maybe other people who are involved in the organization. They have contributed to building your company but do not have a...

Cross purchase agreements are a fantastic way of continuing your business. Let me explain how this can work. Let's say you have three people who are co-owners of a business. The proper steps to take First and foremost, we would have the business evaluated. And if the business were to be val...

You may have a situation where either your partners are not in agreement about having a business succession plan or you just can't get everybody to the table because it's a low priority item. In such a case, it's critical to basically invest in the people who work around you to lift their moral...

Are you wondering whether or not you can modify your business succession plan? Yes, you can. While you want to have a framework, you always want to review it at least annually to see whether or not you're on track. What you should review You always want to understand whether you have talent...

Can a business succession plan include the sale of a business? Absolutely. The key is to valuate the business, and try to identify potential persons of interest to do this transaction with. You also need to make sure that there is no family member who wants to buy out the interest. But selling ...

It's very important to look at your formation documents. If you are a limited liability company, we would like to look at your operating agreement. We would also like to look at your organizational chart that deals with the departments, the people, how your business is run, and who the key peop...

Planning is critical in any business endeavor. You made all of these plans to start, build, and continue your business. Now it is equally important to do your business succession planning and your estate planning. Of course you should do them together. Why this is important Even though they...

Many people prefer to continue their business as opposed to selling it outright. Your options Here are the options that you have when you have formed a business entity: You can continue the business with the succession plan, you can sell it outright, or you can do nothing. If you do nothing, ...