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What You Give Up with a Local Estate Planning Attorney

[Central Coast residents: You can safely ignore this article because we are here to help you with comprehensive planning.] Most of our local clients prefer to have the first meeting in person at our office in Morro Bay. After that initial meeting, many of these local...

Hiring Family Members to Work for Your Business

The decision to hire family members for your business is a delicate balancing act that involves both personal and professional considerations. Working with loved ones can create a sense of trust and unity within the workplace and has been shown to increase business...

Exit Strategies for Business Owners

Starting a business requires a great deal of planning and execution. Exiting from your small business should entail a similar level of forethought and preparation. Nevertheless, some surveys indicate that nearly half of business owners have no exit strategy.[1] After...

The Fatted Calf Trust

I’ve written several times lately on disinheritance and more benign alternatives to disinheritance. There is definitely a trend afoot toward greater disinheritance. I’ve noticed this trend in comments from colleagues on our estate planning attorney online...

Is your Trust a Parachute or merely a Safety Net?

There is a wonderful recent story about a Minnesota family that has baptized 27 babies over three generations with a baptismal gown made from the World War II parachute that saved grandpa’s life! I’m always coming up with analogies for trusts and often use...

Ayn Duringer Headed for Law School, Aims for Top Tax Program

My daughter, Ayn, will be heading for law school this Fall! She was offered a very nice package covering most expenses of attending the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Most estate planning attorneys like me, especially those of us...

California Gun Trust Planning

Presentation by Attorney Dave Duringer clears up confusion over California Gun Trust Planning. What is a Gun Trust? Is a Gun Trust Effective? Is a Gun Trust Necessary? Is a Gun Trust Recommended? YES! Every California gun owner should have one! A regular trust might...

What Happens to Your Business When You Die

You spend a significant part of your life building your business, and it becomes a major part of your legacy. But when you die, everything you have built could fall apart if you have not taken the time to create a business succession plan. Without a plan in place,...

Common Pitfalls in Family-Owned Businesses

Your family and your business are two of your top priorities. You would not do anything to compromise either of them. But working with family members in a family-owned business presents unique challenges that can cause lasting damage to both if not properly managed....

Business Trusts 101: What Entrepreneurs Should Know about Using a Business Trust

Trusts are usually associated with estate planning, but trusts can also apply to business operations. As a small business owner, you can hold the business in a trust instead of using a business entity such as a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation. Business...

How to Talk to Your Family About Business Succession

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” From the very beginning, you had a plan for your business to succeed. You set goals and developed methods to achieve those goals. Your business has stood the test of time because you...

Prodigal Son Breaks News To Dad That He Spent His Entire Inheritance On Gender Studies Degree

I stole the title of this post from a great Babylon Bee article that just came out. For those who don’t know, Babylon Bee is satire. Strangely, their satirical articles often do come true. And this particular title hews closely enough to family settings often...

FPC 20180206: Family Protection

  The term “family protection” is used in many different contexts. For example, in insurance planning it often refers to the concept of “income replacement” for a family bereft of its primary breadwinner. What should “family...

One in three Americans who get an inheritance blow it – MarketWatch

  “Great wealth transfer” has joined “silver tsunami” in the lexicon of aging America. It refers to the wave of wealth, estimated to be in the trillions, which will flow from the oldest generation in the coming decades. Yet evidence suggests that many Americans...

How Boomers Are Redefining ‘Legacy’

Some families construct a legacy of memories and real estate, say by buying a vacation property that is held in a trust or other structure so it is equally owned by all heirs. “That keeps it intact for at least another generation and ensures that it is not...

“Estate Planning” Needs an Extreme Makeover

  Great article. Personally, I call my practice “family protection” law and the author appears to be on the same page as me. In its most fundamental state, estate planning should support the family (or the individual) first, and thereafter concern...

Pushing Wealth Transfer Plans Into The 21st Century

  Among affluent families, the disconnect between what their current wealth transfer planning does, and what they want their planning to do, is staggering. While 75 percent of wealthy parents say it’s important to leave an inheritance to the next generation, only...

Key Considerations for Preparing a Family Legacy Plan

  Over the next 20 years, $30 trillion dollars could be transferred from the current generation to the next, making now a critical time for advisors to discuss multigenerational planning with high net worth clients. Along with planning for the financial...

The Other Reasons For Estate Planning

  Good discussion of incentive trust planning: Many subjects that serve as substantial planning motivators aren’t found on client questionnaires and are frequently absent from planning discussions. Source: The Other Reasons For Estate Planning (Well actually, we...

Independence Is Not Just for Young Advisors

  So how does someone determine if he is “too old” to make independence work? It really comes down to a few key characteristics shared by those advisors who took the leap: They really wanted it. They believed in their ability to migrate clients and grow. They had...

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds Dynastic Deaths Give Offspring Legacies and Millions to Inherit Overnight

  Luck all around, despite the bad planning. Carrie had formal next of kin, daughter Billie Lourd, who inherits the house, the money and presumably the French bulldog even if the outspoken and occasionally erratic actress forgot to leave a valid will behind....

Six Things Family-Owned Firms Should Know About Succession Planning

  Among the chief goals of succession planning is providing continuity of management and minimizing the tax costs of transferring property interests to new generations.Source: Six Things Family-Owned Firms Should Know About Succession Planning

Twelve “Star Wars” Lessons For Becoming A Financial Planning Jedi

  A truly nerdy advisor with too much time on his hands put this together. Why nothing on Star Trek TOS? In preparation for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” here are 15 lessons from the film series to help you be a financial planning Jedi. Source:...

#AssetProtection: How “Gamification”’ Can Improve Family Education and Engagement

  Family businesses spend an extraordinary amount of time and capital (financial, human and intellectual) on skill building and education within the family system. Rising members of the family system must master many different skills. Some of these skills can be...

#AssetProtection: When Family Conflict Threatens the Business

When conflict arises between family and business goals, the natural inclination to minimize it can lead to a pattern of dysfunctional communication and greater conflict. The common practice of triangulation rarely leads to resolution of underlying issues and can be...

#FamilyProtection: George H.W. Bush destroys own legacy, exercises power of (dis)appointment

In failing to deny he is voting for Hillary, the senior Bush has utterly destroyed any remaining political legacy for his entire family. Maybe another legacy is more important — a financial one, perhaps? Many former GOP officials from both Bush administrations...