“You should avoid probate.” This is one the most common refrains you hear when you talk to a wills and trusts lawyer or financial advisor. In fact, they have done such a good job emphasizing the evils associated with the probate process that even sophisticated people mistakenly believe that, once they set up a trust or estate plan, they don’t have to do anything else once someone passes When done […]
Read More
Owners of family-owned and closely held businesses are for good and obvious reasons concerned about taxes. But sometimes the focus on legitimate and legal tax avoidance causes people to forget about asset protection. This is where a Limited Liability Company or LLC can come into play. Without an LLC, a person’s property would be often owned in an individual capacity or in their living trust. And that can lead to […]
Read MoreIt used to be that the business world was divided in a binary manner: for-profit companies on the one side, nonprofits on the other. A company’s purpose was either to make the most money or to do the most good, and entrepreneurs who wanted to seek profits but also act in a socially responsible way had a hard time defending their business practice against shareholder interests. As an answer to […]
Read MoreFamily owned businesses form the backbone of our economy. They create 57 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and 75 percent of all new jobs, and in California they employ 7 million people. That said, their longterm viability is anything but guaranteed. Only one in three family businesses continues successfully into the second generation and only one out of eight survives into the third. The reason these transitions usually […]
Read MoreYou’re the entrepreneurial type. You and your friend would like to open a gym in your neighborhood strip mall. Or you want to sell mini quiches to a couple of cafés around town. Or you’ve designed an app that, with some help from investors, is destined to be the next big thing on the high-tech market. Questions arise: do you need to form a company to pursue your dream? If […]
Read More