Plain-spoken answers to the questions families ask us. These articles are educational material, not legal advice, and shouldn’t be relied on as legal counsel.
Starting a new business is always exciting; however, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and fail to properly execute an action plan. There might be issues that you do not think are too important in the beginning, but can potentially mean the difference between future success and failure.
It is becoming quite common that clients request to be cremated upon their deaths, and for their cremains or ashes to be scattered in a specific place. Such places can be as simple as at a family lake house or as extravagant as on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
We hear it often: “Oh, I’ve been meaning to put together an estate plan”. And while this statement is mostly said by married couples, single individuals are just as guilty.
When a married couple takes title to a home in California, they usually take title as joint tenants. Another method is to take title as community property with right of survivorship. Many assume taking title as joint tenants or community property with right of survivorship mean the same thing, but there are important differences.
Just as we encourage our estate planning clients to review their estate planning documents at least every two years, we encourage the same for our business clients with their corporate documents. One such document we definitely recommend reviewing is a buy-sell agreement.
We recently dedicated a blog post explaining the different types of business structures available. This post is meant to explain how a corporation can be further characterized by understanding what exactly S-Corporations and C-Corporations are.
Being a new parent might mean deciding what bedtime lullaby to play or who has diaper duty next. But while you are enjoying this new chapter in your life, you must now also be proactive with naming guardians for your children.
In her FORBES column, tax expert Kelly Phillips Erb described recently the nightmares and glitches that can occur when the IRS, an airline, or even the DMV disagrees with how your name is spelled, capitalized, hyphenated, or just appears differently from what they have on record.
You have just found out you were named trustee of your friend’s trust, and immediately accepted the position without any hesitation. But what does being a trustee actually mean? While it is great that your friend has entrusted you with such a responsibility, it is important for you to understand what that responsibility entails.
You’ve finally decided to venture out on your own and start your company. Congratulations! The next big decision to make is choosing what type of corporate entity you should be. There are many different corporate entities available; you just have to make sure whichever one you choose is right for your business.
Most financial accounts allow beneficiaries to be designated, so that upon your death, the funds in the account can be directly distributed to those persons. Such accounts include your bank accounts, retirement accounts, and brokerage accounts.
While having an estate plan is extremely important to protect your and your family’s interests, simply executing any plan can cause even larger problems if not prepared properly. Here are a few common mistakes that we have seen unnecessarily complicate an estate plan: 1. Improperly identified personal property.