PLEASE NOTE: To protect your safety in response to the threats of COVID-19, we are offering our clients the ability to meet with us in person, via telephone or through video conferencing. Please call our office to discuss your options.
You have a significant amount of time, money and effort invested in the business you started. Eventually, though, you must either step aside and let someone else take the reins or wrap up your venture. After all, you simply cannot work forever.
A business succession plan outlines what happens to your business before, during and after your departure. Not all succession plans are easy to draft, however. Here are four factors that may affect your business's succession planning.
With COVID-19 spreading rapidly, communities and individuals alike are racing to protect themselves and their loved ones. Many of these precautions are simple and short term, such as working with neighbors to deliver groceries while someone is in quarantine. There are also long-term estate planning steps that you can take, however, to keep your loved ones informed and your wishes respected in the face of the virus.
The pandemic has changed so much about how everyone is doing things, from wearing masks in public to homeschooling as the norm. That applies to the legal field as well. Here in Jefferson County, judges are holding hearings using webinar software, all jury trials have been vacated, and legal paperwork that can't be filed online has to be delivered to a dropbox. I read recently that https://kdvr.com/news/coronavirus/tennessee-judge-turns-parking-lot-into-courtroom/.
Perhaps you have lost one or two super-star employees to the competition and do not want to see any others go out the door.
One way to keep good employees happy and disinclined to leave your company is to provide the kind of benefits package that keeps them on board.
This is the first in a series of blog posts written in response to the Covid-19 crisis. I've been hesitant to write anything that could be construed as exploiting this terrible pandemic. Yet, like so many others, I've been looking for a way to use what I know to help. Turns out that the virus has prompted a lot of interest right now in estate planning. The anxiety and confusion that permeates everyone's life right now is causing many people to question whether they are properly prepared for the future.
One of the first obstacles our office faced while making plans to quarantine was the document signing process. After all, an in-person signature with witnesses and notaries are an essential element of most of our legally binding documents. While we can discuss, draft, and share your estate planning documents remotely, our delivery process typically requires at least 5 people in the room to finalize signatures.
Requesting Inventories, Accountings, and other Information
As you became involved with your own estate planning or that of a loved one, one of the first questions that arose likely involved the exchange of information. When you're the beneficiary of an estate, can you get an inventory of all of the estate's assets? What about a copy of the Will and other legal documents? When you're the Personal Representative of a trust, what do you have to tell the interested parties, and how often do you have to update this information?
Misunderstandings about the rights and duties of interested parties can lead to conflict and even, in extreme cases, legal battles and lawsuits. When both the beneficiary and Personal Representative/Trustee understand their rights and duties, much of this unpleasantness can be avoided.
What will happen to your business when you retire? What will happen to it if you die or become incapacitated?
These are questions that will likely come to mind as you prepare or update your estate plan. Therefore, here are three business succession options to consider:
As we enter 2020, it's certainly no secret at this point that adult Millennials and Generation Z have needed to rely on their parents for financial stability. According to this article from Consumer Reports, as many as 7 out of 10 parents give more money to their adult children than they do to their own savings or retirement plans. Although this article is largely concerned with the effect this pattern of gifting has on retirement and the younger generation's independence, we'd like to look at the way these gifts affect estate planning.
If you are about to launch a new venture, your business plan is going to be a highly important tool to help you reach your goals.
You may want several versions of the plan because you will want to target different audiences for different reasons. That said, here are five points to include in every version.
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Brady, McFarland & Lord, LLC
5400 Ward Road, Building 5-170
Arvada,
CO
80002
Toll Free:
888-806-7304
Phone:
303-835-1811
Fax:
303-424-2599
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