Palm Springs Law Blog

Starting and running a business takes serious commitment and excitement for your product or service — and when you run a family business, your loved ones may share your sentiments and want to partake in the business.

When you’re ready to make a plan to pass down your family business, an estate planning attorney can assist with creating a strong business succession plan. Take a look at these key tips to keep in mind for passing down your business to the next generation in California.
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The family-oriented community of Palm Springs is brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit, so it makes sense that many residents are interested in starting businesses. You may even be considering starting a family business. If so, the best way to go about it is often by creating a family limited partnership (FLP).

With a family business, it can be tempting to think that you and your family members can make your own informal agreement, but doing so can lead to financial, emotional, and familial disaster. A written agreement drafted by an experienced estate planning attorney can offer you and your family the security you need to protect your futures.
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If you are concerned about a family member or loved one being unable to make responsible and healthy decisions for themselves, you may be wondering if there’s a legal way to allow another individual to guide their actions.

Likewise, if you’re concerned that you may at some point be subject to illness or injury, you may want to preemptively appoint an individual to make decisions for you, should the worst occur.

This is where a power of attorney (POA) comes in. There are many reasons why an individual might need to obtain control of another person’s assets and decisions, and there are also legal ways to achieve this.

Even if you are already making decisions for your family member or loved one, or a loved one is making decisions for you, there are many benefits to making the situation legally sound with a power of attorney authorization.
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Family and community are among life’s greatest joys, and everyone wants to ensure that the people they care about are protected after their death. While it can be intimidating and even painful to think of your loved ones’ lives without you, drafting a will that includes them is the best way to guarantee their future well-being.

Life can be unpredictable.

A living trust is a popular estate planning option for individuals with considerable assets looking to provide for multiple generations, as well as for those seeking to avoid paying estate taxes. No matter why you choose to create a living trust, the trust will only work if it has assets.

A living trust is an entity that can acquire, hold, and dispose of assets in its name to fulfill the purposes of the trust.
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Marrying another individual who has children from a previous marriage presents various unique considerations. The same can be said when you have children from a previous relationship yourself.

One such consideration involves your assets and what happens to them after you die. Without an estate plan, intestate succession dictates the distribution of your assets.

If you do not yet have an estate plan, it is vital to understand how the laws of intestate succession will apply to your blended family and how you can create a comprehensive estate plan to secure your family’s future.

Hopefully, you will live to a ripe old age and watch your children grow from tiny tykes to wonderful, thriving adults. Sadly, life doesn’t always go the way you want it to; there is a chance, no matter how small, that you won’t survive to see your children grow up.

As much as you might not want to think about this possibility, it is one that you should plan for if you want to protect your children. The simplest way to plan for this outcome is to arrange for guardians in case of your demise.

Choosing the Right Guardians

As soon as you have your first child, you choose guardians in case anything happens to you.
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Many things change after a divorce. You will probably change residences, see your children part-time, and lose possession of at least some of your marital assets. And while you can fight to control these changes, they happen largely out of your control. Instead, a judge often has the last word on your final divorce decree.

But there is one thing you can control.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows a debtor to discharge consumer debts. At the end of the bankruptcy, your legal obligation to pay these debts disappears. Your credit record will reflect your bankruptcy, but you will never pay those discharged debts.

To ensure Chapter 7 only gets used by debtors who truly need relief, Congress passed the “means test” in 2005. Bankruptcy courts use this test to determine a debtor’s eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
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Individuals who have built successful businesses want to ensure that those businesses continue to thrive after they’re gone. For this reason, it is critical to draft a business succession plan.

A business succession plan is a vital legal document outlining the process of transferring ownership and management of a company.
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An estate plan is a set of legal documents that describe an individual’s wishes for what will happen following their death. These documents typically discuss the distribution of their assets, wealth, and personal belongings after they pass away.

Creating an estate plan is an important step for everyone, regardless of economic status. But it is equally important to review and revise the plan periodically.

Updating your estate plan ensures that it reflects any changes in your life circumstances or wishes.