Estate planning is not a one-and-done type of deal—your plan should continuously evolve along with your life circumstances and other changing conditions, such as your assets and the law. 

No matter who you are, your life will inevitably change: families change, laws change, assets change, and goals change. In the absence of any major life events, we recommend reviewing your estate plan annually to make sure its terms are up to date.

Additionally, there are several common life events that require you to immediately update your plan—that is, if you want it to actually work and keep your loved ones out of court and out of conflict. With this in mind, if any of the following events occur, contact us, your Personal Family Lawyer® right away to amend your plan.

Also known as “Terms and Conditions” or “Terms of Service,” your Terms of Use function as a legally binding agreement between your business and those who use your website. As such, your Terms of Use protect your company from liability by formally notifying users of the rules of your website and how your website’s content may, and may not, be used by others.

While you should work with us as your Family Business Lawyer™ to help create your Terms of Use, here we’ll discuss the basics of what these agreements should include and why they are so important. Keep in mind that depending on your specific business and whether or not you sell products or services online, your Terms of Use agreement may need to include much more expansive provisions than those covered here.

Of all these decisions, perhaps none is more important or has a more significant impact on your success (or failure) than your choice of business entity structure. The entity you choose for your business will affect everything contracted by your company. Your business entity will determine the amount of taxes you pay, what kind of records you keep, and how vulnerable your assets are to lawsuits.

Among the different business entities, all companies should be one of the following legal structures: a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). Last week in part one, we discussed the first two of four leading factors to consider when selecting your entity, and here, we cover the final two. 

Of all these decisions, perhaps none is more important or has a more significant impact on your success (or failure) than your choice of business entity structure. Indeed, the entity you choose for your business will affect everything from the amount of taxes you pay and what kind of records you are required to keep to how vulnerable your assets are to lawsuits incurred by your company. 

Among the different business entities, all companies should be one of the following legal structures: a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). While you should consult with us, your Family Business Lawyer™ before making your final decision, here are four of the leading factors to consider when selecting the entity that’s best suited for your particular business. 

But since then, four different wills attributed to the late singer have been discovered. And ever since those documents came to light, her four adult sons—Clarence, Edward, Ted White Jr., and Kecalf—have been in court fighting one another over her assets, as well as who among them should be designated as the estate’s representative.

While a trial is set for August 2021 to establish whether any of the four documents, some of which are handwritten and barely legible, can formally stand as her will, Aretha’s story demonstrates just how destructive shoddy estate planning can be for the loved ones we leave behind.

Indeed, in part one of this series, we discussed how the ongoing court battle between Aretha’s four sons has created an ugly rift between the siblings and exposed dark family secrets to the tabloids, both of which the notoriously private singer undoubtedly would have wanted to avoid.