The mission of our Business Planning Practice is to help you build a business that will bring you an abundant and abiding legacy. How do we fulfill this mission? We ask you questions that you may not know to ask. We discuss your options with you so that you can make informed decisions about the trajectory of your business. Some common questions that we address are:
Choosing the proper business entity for your business is vital to the success of your business idea. State laws determine how a business owner should set up their entity and conduct their business. These laws are very specific and set out the legal responsibility of each business form. Many factors come into play when deciding what type of entity is right for your business: the extent of protection from personal liability that you are seeking, the desired tax treatment of your business profits and take-home income, management structure, whether you anticipate adding future equity partners, capitalization, and more. With almost no exception, the best course of action is to organize as some type of legal business entity, not as a sole proprietor.
We see the formation of your business entity as just the beginning of a long-term relationship in with you as we help with all your business decisions. We want to get to know you, what’s important to you, what your business will do in the world and how you plan to leave it. That’s the type of relationship we have with our clients.
Maintaining your business entity ensures that its foundation and infrastructure are well maintained. As with a house or any building, if the foundation or infrastructure has cracks, the building will eventually have problems or even fall. If your business does not have annual meetings, maintain meeting minutes, have agreements, and is not correctly updated and maintained over time, your legal documents become worthless — worth no more than the paper they were printed on. As your business grows and changes, and as the law changes, your business documents must accommodate all of these changes to ensure that your business stays on track for continued growth and success.
We have created strategic counsel programs to help you make sure your entity is maintained correctly. In these programs, we offer ongoing strategic and tactical support to ensure your business has the foundation and infrastructure necessary for growth. Our programs are designed so we can proactively monitor the activities of your business on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. By doing this, we can stay on top of your business’s legal and financial infrastructure so that you can spend time growing your business and building your legacy with joy and peace.
Contracts, Contracts, Contracts. The success of your business depends on the deals that you make and the contracts or agreements that you enter. You have agreements/contacts with clients and vendors, employees and independent contractors, partners and customers, and investors or lenders. We want to help you manage the expectations of those you work with by helping you create clear agreements and set appropriate boundaries. We can create template agreements that you can use to handle recurring agreements that come up consistently with clients, employees, and vendors.
We want to help you create agreements that are a win for all parties involved. In other words, the agreement is a win for you, a win for the other party, and a win for the situation. When agreements are a win for all parties, your ability to successfully renegotiate those agreements increases, thus maintaining an ongoing flow of business and revenue.
As your Strategic Business Counsel, we provide services designed to ensure that your business has ongoing legal planning, insurance protection, financial systems, and tax strategies that help you minimize risk and maximize the return on your investment of time, energy, attention, and money. We help you design, implement, and maintain effective plans to help you reduce your liability, preserve all viable income tax deductions, facilitate your retirement, maintain family harmony, retain key employees and minimize taxes. We also provide consistent leadership support as you collaborate with all of your advisors to build a team that maintains the growth and trajectory of your business.
Again, we have created strategic counsel programs to help you make sure your entity is maintained correctly. In these programs, we offer ongoing strategic and tactical support to ensure your business has the foundation and infrastructure necessary for growth. Our programs are designed so we can proactively monitor the activities of your business on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. By doing this, we can stay on top of your business’s legal and financial infrastructure so that you can spend time growing your business and building your legacy with joy and peace.
We will have ongoing conversations about the legacy you want to leave your family, friends, and community. In addition to ensuring that your business can serve you and your clients well, whether you are on vacation or taking a health break, we will develop an exit plan. That exit plan may involve selling the business at a certain point, operating it for income for as long as you desire, or passing your business on upon your death. We will explore together what we can do today to ensure you leave a viable and healthy business for your loved ones, employees, business partners, and community.
Click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 910-491-9044 to schedule an appointment.
The mission of our Estate Planning Practice is to help you plan for the end of your life and leave a legacy of joy and peace for your family and friends. How do we fulfill this mission? We help you plan for your life’s and your family’s well-being after death or in case of incapacity. We discuss end-of-life issues that many people find difficult to face or address. We discuss your options so that you can address these issues in the way that is appropriate for your life and your family’s life. Some common issues that we discuss are:
A will is a legal document that expresses how you want your property distributed after your death. In North Carolina, any person of sound mind who is at least 18 years of age may make a will. The attested will is most used. It relies on the presence of two adults, who must bear witness to your signature to the will. It is recommended that these witnesses bear no relation to you and are not considered an interested parties in the will.
A trust is an instrument whereby you, who would be known as the settlor, transfer property to a second person, called the trustee, who holds and manages the property for the benefit of one or more third parties, called the beneficiaries. A “testamentary” trust is a trust that you write into your will, and it takes effect upon your death. A “living” trust, also known as an “inter vivos” trust, is a trust you create while you’re alive. The beneficiaries you name in your living trust receive the trust property when you die.
A revocable living trust is a type of living trust that many people create as a part of their estate plan. You can modify or revoke this type of trust anytime because you, the settlor, retain control over the trust until your death. This means that while you’re alive, you manage the trust and its property. Once you die, your “successor trustee” will take over and manage the trust. The successor trustee will distribute the property in the trust to your beneficiaries. If you create a shared living trust, as is often done by married couples, then your successor trustee will manage the trust after both spouses have died. In contrast, an irrevocable trust is a type of living trust that cannot be revoked or modified after it is signed. Irrevocable trusts can be useful tools for specific goals, like reducing taxes, but they require giving up ownership and control of the trust and the trust property.
A charitable trust is an irrevocable trust established for charitable purposes. It generates goodwill and consequently receives some tax benefits. You can create a charitable trust by giving ownership of assets such as cash, securities, and other valuables to a charity or a charitable foundation to manage and distribute. There are two charitable trusts: charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts. Based on your specific needs, you’ll need to decide which of the two is the best option for your purpose.
A special needs trust is a trust that allows you to leave assets or a stream of income to a physically or mentally disabled or chronically ill person without reducing their eligibility for public assistance disability benefits. It preserves their eligibility for needs-based government benefits provided by Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or Medicaid that have an asset limit because the beneficiary does not own the assets in the trust.
A power of attorney is a legal document that grants the person that you select as your agent to act and/or make decisions about your financial matters, property, or medical care. The authority outlined in the document can be broad or restrictive, limiting the agent to very specific duties. In any case, your agent is limited to the terms of the document and cannot do anything not specified in the document. Your agent is legally obligated to make decisions consistent with your wishes but has full authority to make autonomous decisions until that authority is challenged and/or revoked in a court of law.
A living will, which is also known as an advance healthcare directive, is a legal document that specifies the type of medical care that you want in the event you are unable to communicate your wishes. If you are unconscious and suffering from an illness or a life-threatening injury, doctors, and hospitals consult the living will to determine whether you want life-sustaining treatment, such as assisted breathing or tube feeding. Without a living will, decisions about your medical care become the responsibility of the spouse, family members, or other third parties. These individuals may be unaware of the patient’s desires, or they may not wish to follow the patient’s unwritten, verbal directives.
Click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 910-491-9044 to schedule an appointment.
The mission of our Tax Planning & Resolution Practice is to help you reduce your tax liability so that you can leave an abiding legacy for your family, friends, and community and stay compliant with federal, local, and state tax laws so that you can live a life of peace free from tax problems. How do we fulfill this mission? We provide tax planning to help you minimize your tax liability and resolution to help you reach an agreement with tax agencies about any assessed tax liabilities.
We support you by meeting regularly with your accountant so that you understand the recommended tax strategies and quickly make decisions about complex financial and tax issues. We also help you strategize in advance of tax season to help you avoid getting blindsided by a huge tax burden at the end of the tax year for which you did not plan. We go beyond tax compliance and proactively recommend tax-saving strategies to maximize your after-tax income.
We help you resolve income tax and payroll tax issues that result in tax liens, tax levies, garnishments, seizure of assets, or penalties with federal, state, and local tax agencies. We resolve these problems using installment agreements, offers in compromise, and/or tax penalty abatements.
An installment agreement is an agreement with the tax agency to make monthly payments on your outstanding tax liability that keeps the tax agency from levying if the payments are paid as agreed. An offer in compromise is the federal government’s fresh start program that allows you to pay an amount you can afford to satisfy your entire tax liability plus penalties and interest.
A tax penalty abatement is the reduction or elimination of penalties and interest if you can demonstrate reasonable cause and prudent action.
Click here to schedule an appointment online. You may also call our office at 910-491-9044 to schedule an appointment.
