Protection Through Business Planning

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Helping You Build A Stronger Business

  Business Planning

Business owners often overlook the legal side of business planning when they first start their business.  Meeting with business attorneys is the last thing they think of during the excitement.  If the business is successful, day-to-day management obligations prevent business owners from returning to the over looked business planning.  However, without proper business planning, your business is built on shifting sands.

We help make sure you have the proper legal foundation, so your business can continue to grow until you are ready to hand it over or pass it down.  Of course, we’ll also make sure your business is part of your overall estate plan.

We can help identify the best strategy to fit the needs of your family and your business. This may be incorporation, forming a partnership, or creating a limited liability company (LLC). Then, we’ll help you understand the many benefits and complexities of your plan, beyond simply filing the proper papers with the State.

These can include:

  • Buy/Sell Agreements, which will handle death, disability, divorce and retirement of owners.
  • Operating Agreements, which will distribute responsibilities among current and future owners.
  • Corporate Bylaws and Resolutions.

Business Planning – Formation and Fundamentals

We will look at your entire legal framework to make sure the business is built on a solid foundation from which to grow.  Don’t consider business formation planning as a burden.  It is an opportunity for you to take advantage of the legal, financial, and tax protections afforded with various formation options.

Our services include:

  • Forming LLC’s, Corporations, Nonprofit entities.
  • Creating Bylaws, Operating Agreements, Buy-Sell Agreements.
  • Annual Shareholder and Directors Meetings, Special Meetings and Business Maintenance.
  • Leases and Office Purchases.Business Planning | Business Succession
  • Employee Agreements.
  • Subcontractor Agreements.
  • Non-compete Agreements.
  • Contract Reviews.

Business Succession

Business succession is perhaps the most overlooked business planning topic.  We all think there is time to plan in the future, until there is not.  Is your business ready to be handed off when you are ready? What if a business partner were to suddenly become disabled or die? What if you are suddenly unable to perform the day-to-day tasks of keeping the business running? We’ll structure your business to be passed along to whom you want, the way you want? We will help you answer all of these questions and more while developing a comprehensive business succession plan for your business.

Some of the planning topics include:

  • Tax Planning (For your estate and for the individuals who take over the business).
  • Property Tax Changes.
  • Fairness (What do the other children get if only one gets the business?).
  • Gift Taxes.
  • Co-Ownership Issues (You with your children, nieces and nephews with uncles, etc.).
  • Retirement Planning (How will you get value from the business if needed for your retirement or long-term care?).
  • Divorce, Disability and Death Protections (Will you be a co-owner with your daughter-in-law, or ex-son-in-law?).
  • Emergency Planning (What if you have a stroke, heart attack, etc., before the business succession is completed?).
  • Unwinding the Plan (What if your child dies before you, with half the business transferred?).