Last week in part one of this series, we discussed how Hsieh became an Internet pioneer, starting two wildly successful companies, LinkExchange and Zappos, the latter of which he sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion. It was as CEO of the online shoe brand Zappos where Hsieh developed his vision for life and business: delivering happiness.

A Double Life

Hsieh outlined this mission in the 2010 book, Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion and Purpose, which became a New York Times number-one bestseller. Yet while the young entrepreneur was busy bringing joy to his customers, employees, and friends, Hsieh was privately coping with mental health issues and substance abuse. These struggles reportedly intensified in 2020, as the pandemic-related quarantines put an end to the non-stop parties and socializing Hsieh came to crave.

Hsieh’s downward spiral also coincided with his relocation from Las Vegas to Park City, Utah. In Park City, Hsieh became further isolated from longtime friends, surrounding himself with a new group of friends, many of whom were reportedly much younger than Hsieh and encouraged his escalating use of drugs, including ketamine, ecstasy, and nitrous oxide. 

Friends With Benefits

Further complicating matters was the fact that many of Hsieh’s new friends had moved to Park City after Hsieh promised to double their highest salary if they would relocate with him and assist with his efforts to revitalize the downtown area of the ski-resort town.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the walls of Hsieh’s Park City mansion were covered in thousands of color-coded sticky notes, which Hsieh used to record financial commitments he made to employees, friends, and local businesses. What’s more, Hsieh reportedly purchased dozens of properties in Park City, including homes, condos, and businesses, all of which were owned through a number of limited liability companies (LLCs).

In August, Hsieh announced that he was retiring as CEO of Zappos, which he had run largely autonomously for more than a decade after selling the company to Amazon in 2009. Around that same time, family members and friends worried about Hsieh’s increased drinking and drug use, reportedly staged multiple interventions in an attempt to get him professional help. 

Although reluctant at first, Hsieh eventually decided he would seek treatment for his addictions. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hsieh was going to check himself into a rehab facility in Hawaii following the Thanksgiving holiday, which he planned to spend with his girlfriend in Connecticut. Sadly, Hsieh would never make it to Hawaii, as he perished from injuries he suffered after being pulled unconscious from a house fire in the early morning hours of November 18th.

A Life Cut Short

During his visit to Connecticut, Hsieh stayed in a waterfront home in New London, with his longtime girlfriend and former Zappos executive, Rachael Brown, as well as his brother, Andy Hsieh. According to property records, Hsieh purchased the $1.3 million home for Brown in August 2020, but it was a likely vacation home, as Brown reportedly lived with Hsieh in Park City, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

It remains unclear what started the fire. Based on reports from the Wall Street Journal, at some point in the evening, Hsieh told others in the house that he was going to a storage shed that was attached to the home, and that they should check on him regularly throughout the night. From there, Hsieh apparently locked himself—either intentionally or by accident—in the storage room and wasn’t seen or heard from again.

When firefighters arrived on the scene around 3:30 am, they found smoke billowing from the storage area at the back of the house where Hsieh was located. The others staying in the house told first responders Hsieh was locked inside the shed and was not responding to their pleas for him to come out. Firefighters were forced to break through the door into the storage area, where they found Hsieh lying unconscious.

Paramedics performed CPR on Hsieh at the scene, and then he was flown to a local hospital, before being relocated to the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Center, where he ultimately died nine days later on November 27th—just two weeks before his 47th birthday. Because the investigation into the fire is still ongoing, local authorities are not releasing any information about the suspected cause of the fire, but they maintain Hsieh’s death was accidental and caused by complications from smoke inhalation.

Cleaning Up the Mess

Hsieh is survived by two brothers and his parents. Just a week after his death in early December, a judge in Clark County, Nevada, granted a motion filed by Hsieh’s father, Richard, and his older brother, Andrew, to be named co-special administrators and legal representatives for his estate. In the ruling, the judge ruled that Hsieh’s personal and business affairs “require immediate attention to prevent loss to the estate.”

According to court reports, Hsieh’s family was unclear whether or not he had a will or any other planning documents. His father and brother sought to be named administrators of his estate, so they could access his safety deposit boxes and speak with his lawyers and other associates in order to determine if he had made any plans for how his assets should be managed upon his death.

Although Hsieh had moved to Park City earlier in the year, he was still listed as a resident of Nevada. This means that if no will is found, all $840 million of Hsieh’s assets will be distributed under Nevada’s intestate succession laws. According to those laws, Hsieh’s mother and father stand to inherit his entire estate.

However, before any of his assets can be transferred, they must first be located. Given the immense size and scope of the assets Hsieh likely accumulated over his lifetime, just identifying everything he owned will likely take his loved ones several months or even years. Depending on the type of records Hsieh kept, it’s quite likely that some of his assets will never be located, and instead of passing to his family or funding one of Hsieh’s favorite philanthropic causes, those assets will end up in the state Department of Unclaimed Property.

In addition to locating his assets, Hsieh’s family must also pay off any debts or liabilities Hsieh incurred during his lifetime. And this process will undoubtedly be extremely complicated due to his penchant for doubling his friends’ salaries in exchange for relocating to Park City with him.

Each one of the thousands of sticky notes covering the walls of Hsieh’s mansion in Park City could potentially be considered a valid contract, and if so, each of those individuals could have a claim against his estate. To complicate matters even more, it’s highly likely that there will be questions as to whether Hsieh was in a sound state of mind during his final months and if he had the mental capacity to even make binding contracts.

Hsieh’s failure to use formal legal agreements to govern his business relationships will undoubtedly lead to bitter court battles, pitting his family against some of the so-called “friends” Hsieh surrounded himself with during his final months.

Furthermore, Hsieh’s recent spending spree on real estate and businesses in Park City, much of it done through multiple LLCs, will also need to be sorted through. This will be a particularly lengthy and expensive process given that his loved ones must deal with the court process of probate not only in Hsieh’s home state of Nevada, but in every state he owned property in.

Finally, once all of Hsieh’s debts and creditors have been paid via probate, whatever remains of the estate will be subject to the federal estate tax before it can pass to his parents. The estate tax is not a factor for most people, as the tax code provides for a hefty exclusion that can be used to transfer a certain amount of wealth tax free to your heirs upon your death.

Yet given Hsieh’s massive fortune, his family will be hit with a tax bill that could potentially run in the hundreds of millions. Based on the federal estate tax exclusion for 2021, the first $11.7 million of Hsieh’s estate will pass tax-free to his family, but whatever remains of his $840 million estate after probate will be taxed at a whopping 40% rate.

A Sad Lesson

The saddest part of this whole situation is that virtually all of the time, money, and stress Hsieh’s family is now forced to endure could have been easily prevented with proper planning. And given his immense wealth, it’s virtually unthinkable that Hsieh didn’t have a team of experienced lawyers and financial advisors pushing him to create at least a minimal level of planning.

Using living trusts, for example, Hsieh could have ensured that all of his assets would pass immediately to the beneficiaries of his choosing upon his death, without the need for probate. At the same time, trusts could also have been set up to mitigate some of Hsieh potential estate tax liability, as well as ensure that some of his wealth went to the numerous charitable and philanthropic causes that were near and dear to Hsieh’s heart.

In addition to creating planning vehicles to ensure the proper distribution of his assets, Hsieh also should have created an updated inventory of all his assets. Such an inventory not only makes creating your estate plan much easier, but most importantly, it allows your loved ones to know what you have, where it is, and how to access it if something happens to you.

With us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, we will not only help you create a comprehensive asset inventory, we’ll make sure it stays regularly updated throughout your lifetime. To help you get this urgent process started, we’ve created a free tool called a Personal Resource Map, where you can start creating your inventory right now, by yourself, without the need for a lawyer.

A Wake-Up Call

Following Hsieh’s death, his family released a statement to the press that read in part, “The Hsieh family hopes to carry on Tony’s legacy by spreading the tenets he lived by—finding joy through meaningful life experience, inspiring and helping others, and most of all, delivering happiness.”

While Hsieh’s sudden death is certainly tragic, hopefully it serves as a wake-up call, reminding us all that we never truly know how much time we have left or when the end will come. To honor Hsieh’s legacy and deliver happiness to those you love most, meet with us to put your plan in place today.

Whether you already have a plan created or nothing at all, we’ll find the specific planning strategies best suited for your life situation and asset profile. With us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, you’ll have access to the same planning tools those in the Fortune 500 use, which are designed to keep your family out of court or conflict no matter what happens. Contact us today to get started.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Personal Family Lawyer® in Juneau, Alaska. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.  That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today at 907-312-5436 to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge; or book a time for Liz to call you at a time you choose.

This is the first in an ongoing series covering the value legal agreements bring to your business beyond the surface. From boosting your bottom line and expanding your business to hiring the most talented team and improving every relationship you enter into; this series offers a comprehensive look at how effective legal agreements can enhance just about every aspect of your operation.  

If you are like many small business owners, you may have had one or more of the following thoughts about using legal agreements in your business:

• I don’t need a legal agreement when I’m working with people I know and trust.
• Legal agreements are only needed for big deals or purchases.
• Legal agreements aren’t worth the time and money.
• Lawyers push you to use agreements because that’s how they make money.
• The do-it-yourself legal agreements you find online work just as well as those created by a lawyer.
• We just need to get to work—we don’t have time to worry about legal agreements.

If you’ve ever had any of these thoughts, it’s time for you to rethink your beliefs. By rethinking the way you view legal agreements and using them effectively, you can make more money, boost your company’s growth, and improve your relationship with everyone you work with—clients, partners, team members, vendors, and service providers. 

Using great agreements and having an integrated agreement process shows you care—and not just about the deal at hand, but about the other party and your business as a whole. Having well-drafted, well-structured, and well-presented agreements demonstrates that you believe in yourself and the people you work with, and these documents can greatly strengthen your business and relationships at every level.

Legal agreements 101
In order to get the most out of your relationship with legal agreements, you must first learn how they work. Here we’ll discuss the basic facts you should know about legal agreements and how they can affect your business. Note, the terms “agreement” and “contract” mean the same thing and are thus used interchangeably.

What constitutes a valid legal agreement?
For a contract to be legally enforceable, four elements must exist: 1) an offer 2) acceptance 3) consideration (i.e., something of value was exchanged like cash, services, or goods) 4) the capacity on the part of both parties to enter into the agreement.

In some cases, a contract must be in writing to be enforceable, but most of the time, putting your agreement in writing is not actually necessary. The fact that agreements didn’t always need to be in writing was kind of shocking to me.

For example, if I make an offer, you accept the offer, something of value changes hands, and both of us have capacity (i.e., a sound mind), then a contract exists, even if it wasn’t written down.

While this all sounds pretty simple, problems can arise when what I offered to do turns out to be different from what you thought I offered to do. And even though we exchanged something of value and both have the best intentions, if you don’t accept that I’ve fulfilled what I promised I would do, but I feel like I’ve done exactly what I promised to do, we’ve got a problem.

In the above situation, a legal agreement actually does exist (all four factors are present), even though it wasn’t written down. Or let’s say the agreement was written down, but it wasn’t written clearly, a contract would still exist, although it would be a messy one that could potentially cost both of us big money to fix.

When must an agreement be in writing?

While an agreement doesn’t always have to be in writing to be considered valid, there are 5 situations in which a contract must be in writing to be enforceable. These situations include:

1. contracts involving real property
2. contracts that cannot be performed in under one year
3. contracts where you assume someone’s debt or they assume your debt
4. agreements related to the distribution of assets at the end of a marriage, such as a prenuptial agreement
5. contracts for the sale of goods valued at $500 or more

What can go wrong with agreements that aren’t put in writing?

Even if you are involved with a situation where an agreement doesn’t need to be in writing to be enforceable, putting every contract you enter into in writing is your best course of action for a number of reasons. 

First, if you don’t write down the terms of your agreement and you have to go to court, the court will determine the terms of your agreement based on assumptions about the behavior of the parties involved, the situation, and a number of other contributing factors. Plus, who wants to go to court just to enforce an agreement?

Second, laying out the specific terms of your agreement is going to close more deals for you, and it’s going to get you more out of your relationships in regards to the positive outcomes you desire. And that’s true not just for you, but for everyone you have a relationship with.

Third, the process of writing down the agreement, if done well, will shed light on areas of the relationship that you and the other party may have thought you were in agreement about, but you actually weren’t. And the sooner you discover where potential disagreements or conflict exist in a relationship, the better.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, trust me on this one: You want to identify any potential conflicts in the relationship as early as possible before investing time, energy, attention, and money that can’t be recovered. What’s more, by uncovering any potential sticking points ahead of time, you’ll find out how easily you can work through conflicts with the other party, which is a key part of any good relationship, especially those that last over time.

An instrumental instrument

When it comes to running a business, your legal agreements are among your most vital tools. Indeed, agreements are designed to govern and protect some of your company’s most essential elements: your personal liability, intellectual property, financial investments, and tax strategies, to name just a few.

Are you really going to trust a handshake deal or a generic, fill-in-the blank form you found online to control such vital components of your business?

We, as your Family Business Lawyer™, specialize in creating contracts for small businesses like yours. With our support, your contracts will not only be legally sound, but their clear, concise presentation will wow potential clients and make you stand out from the competition. Whether you need new agreements created or want us to review ones you already have—even those drafted by another lawyer—contact us today.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Family Business Lawyer™. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

On November 27th, nine days after being pulled unconscious from a house fire in a beachfront home in New London, Connecticut, Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of the online shoe retailer Zappos, died due to complications of smoke inhalation.

Hsieh, who was single and had no children, was just 46. Although the cause of the fire is still under investigation, law enforcement ruled his death accidental.

At the time of his death, Hsieh was worth an estimated $840 million, but in spite of his immense wealth, it seems he did not have a will. While it’s not uncommon for the rich and famous to die without a will, and many iconic figures—Prince, Aretha Franklin, and most recently, Chadwick Boseman—also died without creating this basic planning document, Hsieh’s case is particularly puzzling given his altruistic nature.

Hsieh was renowned for his kindness, generosity, and always putting others first, yet by dying without a will, he left his loved ones a colossal mess to clean up. Indeed, it will likely take his family many months just to account for all of his assets, and it’s likely they will overlook—and may even never find—some of those assets.

From there, Hsieh’s estate will have to go through the court process of probate, which could last years and rack up hefty lawyer fees. And after all of his debts are settled and creditors paid, Hsieh’s family will face an enormous federal tax bill that could run into the hundreds of millions.

By all accounts, Hsieh’s death at such a young age is horribly tragic. But it’s equally tragic for such a brilliant and compassionate individual to have wasted the opportunity to do real good with the assets he created and to needlessly put his loved ones through such an ordeal.

Although it may seem harsh to lay such a judgment on Hsieh, who was reportedly suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues in the last year of his life, we do so from a place of true compassion. Indeed, we cover this case and others like it in hopes that it will inspire you to remember that death comes for us all, often when we’re least expecting it. And without any planning in place, you are forcing your loved ones to endure a costly legal process and the unnecessary loss of wealth and assets you worked so hard to build.

While the loss to Hsieh’s family, and the charitable causes he would have likely supported, will be immense, his family can afford to pay the lawyers, the court costs, and the taxes. Though you likely have a much smaller estate than Tony Hsieh, the actual cost of loss to your family, if you don’t plan, could be much higher on a relative basis.

But here’s the good news: All of this suffering can be easily avoided with planning. And you don’t have to be a multi-millionaire to create a plan that’s guaranteed to protect and provide for your loved ones no matter what happens to you.

An Internet Pioneer

Hsieh grew up in San Francisco, the son of Taiwanese immigrants and the oldest of three boys. A graduate of Harvard, where he studied computer science, Hsieh started his first company, LinkExchange, in 1996 with his college buddy Alfred Lin, who would become his close business partner.

LinkExchange was one of the first major digital advertising firms, and two years later, at age 24, Hsieh sold it to Microsoft for $265 million. After selling LinkExchange, Hsieh and Lin launched the venture capital firm, Venture Frogs, which is how he met another young entrepreneur named Nick Swinmurn, who pitched Hsieh the idea of starting an online shoe company.

That company would become Zappos, which ultimately defined Hsieh’s career and set in motion his vision for life and business. As CEO, Hsieh made it clear that Zappos was far more than just a shoe retailer: Zappos was about “delivering happiness” and “a WOW experience.” Zappos focused heavily on customer service, and famously offered customers free shipping and complete refund on all shoes for a full year after purchase, with no questions asked.

Hsieh’s leadership proved highly successful, and Zappos saw its sales go from $1.6 million in 2000 to $252 million in 2005. In 2009, Hsieh sold Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 million in stock, while staying on as the company’s CEO. Jeff Bezos was reportedly so impressed with the way Hsieh ran the company, he allowed the young entrepreneur to continue running the brand with very limited oversight.

In 2005, Hsieh moved Zappos headquarters from San Francisco to Las Vegas, where he invested $350 million of his own money to transform a once seedy part of town into a hub for arts, culture, and tech. As part of the project, Hsieh created a community of 30 Airstream trailers, where he himself lived for years with his pet alpaca named Marley.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hsieh said the community was inspired by his experience at the Burning Man festival. He described the 1-acre park as an “urban camping experience with everyone sharing the world’s largest living room, which includes a community kitchen, a firepit, and a stage.”

Hsieh’s interest in fostering community and connection with the Las Vegas project, Airstream park, and other ventures reflect the young business guru’s overarching vision—which was about more than just retail.

“He was never interested in shoes,” former Zappos executive Fred Mossler told Forbes. “Tony’s journey was to improve the human condition.”

Growing Pains
Around the time Hsieh moved into the trailer park in 2014, he started to lose touch with many of his old friends. While many of his peers had gotten married and started families, Hsieh remained single and developed a reputation as a heavy partier.

According to a cover story on Hsieh’s life and business accomplishments in Forbes Magazine, the young entrepreneur was always a heavy drinker and known to use recreational drugs, but in later years, his drug use became more frequent. What’s more, close friends noted that Hsieh also suffered from mental health issues, including insomnia and depression.

Hsieh’s struggles with depression and substance abuse reportedly intensified in early 2020, as the quarantines from the COVID-19, which hit Las Vegas particularly hard, put an end to the parties and nonstop action the young entrepreneur craved. In January, right before the pandemic exploded, Hsieh attended the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and fell in love with the upscale ski resort town.  

Vowing to recreate his Vegas utopian community in Park City, Hsieh decided to relocate to the town, purchasing some $70 million worth of property around the area, while establishing a $30 million angel fund to help local businesses and startups. In the spring, he split his time between Vegas and Park City, but by the summer, Hsieh made Utah his new full-time residence.

Hsieh’s new home and the centerpiece of his Park City properties was a $16 million, 17,350-square-foot mansion with a private lake he called “The Ranch.” During his transition from Vegas, Hsieh reportedly promised to double the salary of friends who would agree to relocate to Park City and help him in his quest to revamp the community.

The Park City Crew

According to Forbes, at least several dozen friends took Hsieh up on his offer and moved to Utah with him, where they lived for free in some nine properties he purchased in the high-end Aspen Springs neighborhood. In Park City, Tony helped many local entrepreneurs and propped up local businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic with lavish spending on restaurants, bars, limos, and concierge services. 

While Hsieh initially relocated to Park City to focus on “health, wellness and rehabilitation,” by the late summer, friends and family reportedly became concerned with his increased drinking and drug use. Longtime friends found it hard to reach Hsieh, who grew increasingly isolated, surrounding himself with a new group of younger friends, most of whom were on his payroll.

According to Hsieh’s close friends and colleagues who spoke with Forbes, Tony’s new entourage of friends, he dubbed, “The Park City Crew,” were encouraging him to indulge in more frequent drug use, which his old friends felt was getting out of control. At the same time, he grew more isolated and even paranoid, and at one point, a team of security guards Hsieh hired basically barricaded sections of his main house, “blocking anyone who didn’t have Tony’s permission to enter,” according to Forbes.

In August, it was announced that Hsieh was retiring from Zappos after more than two decades at the helm. Although the timing of his retirement was suspect, Amazon denied pushing Hsieh out, and insisted that stepping down was his own decision, according to Forbes. Whatever the case may be, his friends and loved ones became so worried about his condition, they staged several interventions in order to convince him to seek help.

Apparently, the interventions worked. Hsieh was reportedly planning to check himself into a rehab facility shortly after a planned visit to see friends and family in Connecticut for the Thanksgiving holiday. But as we now know, Hsieh’s plans to turn his life around were tragically interrupted.

Next week in part two of this series, we’ll cover the last days of Tony’s life and how his lack of estate planning created a nightmare burden for his family that is only just getting started.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Personal Family Lawyer® in Juneau, Alaska. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.  That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today at 907-312-5436 to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge; or book a time for Liz to call you at a time you choose.

The end of the year is tax time, and one of the most important steps in your company’s tax preparation is filing the proper tax forms for your workers. One tax form that often creates confusion for business owners is Form 1099.

Unlike traditional employees, who are issued a W-2, 1099s are used to report payments you made to independent contractors (ICs) over the course of the year. Because the rules for filing 1099s can differ depending on how much ICs were paid, how they were paid, and what business entity they use, dealing with 1099s can be tricky.

Filing 1099s for 2020 is going to be even more confusing than usual, as the IRS split 1099s into two separate forms: Form 1099-NEC to report nonemployee compensation and Form 1099-MISC to report miscellaneous service payments.

To help ensure you get your 1099s filed correctly and on time, here’s what you should know about the two new forms.

Filing Form 1099-NEC

If you paid an IC at least $600 during the year, you must report it on Form 1099-NEC. This includes commissions, fees, and other types of compensation for the work that an independent contractor performed for your company. There are four conditions for filing a 1099-NEC.

If you meet all of the following four conditions, you should file a 1099-NEC for that contractor:

• You made a payment to someone who is not employed by your company.
• The payment was made for services and not for merchandise or products.
• You made the payment to an individual, partnership, or other unincorporated entity. Most payments to corporations (except attorneys or law firms) do not need to be reported on Form 1099.
• You made payments to the IC totaling $600 or more during the year. If you paid them less than $600 total, you generally do not need to file a Form 1099-NEC.

Both the IRS and the independent contractor must receive copies of Form 1099-NEC no later than Feb. 1, 2021.

Filing Form 1099-MISC

If you made payments for miscellaneous services that were not nonemployment compensation, you must report them on Form 1099-MISC. The following types of payments are reportable on Form 1099-MISC:

1. Payments of at least $10 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest

2. Payments of at least $600 in:

• Rents
• Prizes and awards
• Other income payments
• Cash paid from a notional principal contract to an individual, partnership, or estate
• Fishing boat proceeds
• Certain medical and health care payments
• Crop insurance proceeds
• Payments to an attorney (other than fees for services)
• Section 409A deferrals
• Nonqualified deferred compensation

The recipient of the Form 1099-MISC must receive it no later than Feb. 1, 2021, and the IRS must receive it by March 1, 2021, if you are submitting it on paper. If you are filing it electronically, the IRS must receive it by March 31, 2021.

Take the Stress Out of Tax Time
Although dealing with all of the tax forms required by the IRS can be a hassle, you can eliminate most of the stress—and risk—involved by implementing sound business systems. We, as your Family Business Lawyer™, can support you in setting up an array of systems, not just for managing your finances and taxes, but for dealing with legal and insurance issues as well.

Additionally, when it comes to working with independent contractors, taxes aren’t your only concern. You’ll also need to pay close attention to ensure all your ICs are properly classified and have solid employment agreements in place. Meet with us today for trusted guidance on hiring, classifying, and paying your ICs.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Family Business Lawyer™. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

With COVID-19 still raging, your 2020 holiday season may not feature the big family get-togethers of years past, but you’ll still likely be visiting with loved ones in some fashion, whether via video chat or in smaller groups. And though the holidays are always a good time to bring up estate planning, given the ongoing pandemic, talking about these issues is particularly urgent this time around.

That said, asking your dad about his end-of-life wishes while he’s watching football isn’t the best way to broach the subject. In order to make the talk as productive as possible, consider the following four tips.

1. Set aside a time and place to talk

Discussing planning while opening Christmas gifts most likely won’t be very productive. Your best bet is to schedule a time, when you can all gather to talk without distractions or interruptions.

Be upfront with your family about the meeting’s purpose, so no one is taken by surprise and people come prepared for the talk. Choose a setting that’s comfortable, quiet, and private. The more relaxed everyone is, the more likely they’ll be comfortable opening up.

2. Create an agenda, and set a start and stop time

Create a list of the most important points you want to cover, and do your best to stick to them. You should encourage open conversation, but having a list of items you want to cover can help ensure you don’t forget anything.

Also, set a start and stop time for the conversation. This will help keep the discussion on track and prevent people from veering too far off topic. If anything important comes up that’s not on the list, you can always continue the discussion later. Remember, the goal is to simply get the conversation started, not work out all of the details or dollar amounts.

3. Explain why planning is important

Assure everyone that the conversation isn’t about prying into anyone’s finances, health, or relationships—it’s about providing for the family’s future security and wellbeing no matter what happens. It’s about ensuring everyone’s wishes are clearly understood and honored, not about finding out how much money someone stands to inherit.

Talking about these issues is also a good way to avoid future conflict and expense. When family members don’t clearly understand the reasoning behind one another’s planning choices, it’s likely to breed conflict, resentment, and even costly legal battles.

4. Discuss your planning experience

If you’ve already created your plan, start the talk by explaining the planning documents you have in place and why you chose them. If you’ve worked with us, as your Personal Family Lawyer®, describe how the process unfolded and how we supported you to create a plan designed for your unique wishes and needs.

Mention any questions or concerns you initially had about planning and how we worked with you to address them. If you have loved ones who’ve yet to do any planning and have doubts about its usefulness, discuss their concerns in a sympathetic and supportive manner, sharing how you dealt with similar issues whenever possible.

If you have not yet worked with us on your estate plan, consider watching this brief training that discusses what you need to do, what you can do yourself, and what you need a lawyer to help you with. You may even want to watch it with your family, and outline the actions steps together. And if one of your action steps is to enlist the support of a lawyer to get your planning done, call us for a Life & Legacy Planning Session.

For the love of your family

With us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, we can guide and support you in having these intimate discussions with your loved ones. When done right, planning can put your life and relationships into a much clearer focus and offer peace of mind knowing that the people you love most will be protected and provided for no matter what. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Personal Family Lawyer® in Juneau, Alaska. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.  That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today at 907-312-5436 to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge; or book a time for Liz to call you at a time you choose.

From websites and social media to e-newsletters and mobile apps, it’s virtually impossible to survive in today’s marketplace without having a digital footprint of one form or another. And when it comes to conducting business in the online world, protecting your clients’ personal data is paramount.

On that front, more than half of all small businesses suffered a breach of client data within the last year, according to a 2019 study by the insurance firm Hiscox. And given that the cost to resolve a single breach averages roughly $200,000, digital privacy is a major liability for businesses of all sizes.

In addition to the risk of getting hit with a lawsuit from a client whose data was stolen from your business, you must also take steps to comply with an ever-evolving set of federal and state laws governing data privacy. For example, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) imposes stiff fines for failing to adequately protect client credit card information, while the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) imposes similar penalties for those who fail to protect healthcare data.

At the state level, there are hundreds of different data privacy laws, though right now, California and New York have the most robust regulations. The bottom line is that failing to adequately protect your customer or client’s personal data can result in serious consequences.

To help you stay in compliance with the laws and avoid lawsuits, here are three essential strategies for managing the privacy and security of your client’s data. Although you should meet with an experienced business lawyer like us to implement a comprehensive digital protection plan, these three actions should get you off to a good start.

1. Install multiple layers of security
To protect your company’s server and computers, you should install a comprehensive array of security systems, such as anti-virus software, firewalls, intrusion-prevention systems, and anti-subversion software. The key is to add as many layers of security as possible, since hackers are likely to move on to an easier target, if your network and devices are well defended.

And don’t forget to regularly install updates to your security software, so you’ll be protected against the latest threats. Regularly check your software vendors’ websites and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team’s (UC-CERT) site to stay up-to-date on the latest viruses, vulnerabilities, and patches.

2. Select the most secure web hosting service
Web hosts house your website and data on their own off-site servers. There are numerous web hosting companies out there, and they come with varying levels of server-side protection, including security cameras, anti-virus and anti-spyware systems, and hard-wired firewalls.

Choose a web host that offers a high level of security, especially against cross-side server attacks, which involve hackers who open a fake account with the web host to access other websites on the same server. For enhanced protection, use a virtual private server (VPS), which partitions your website from other sites that share the same server.

For maximum protection, open a private server account in which your website and data are maintained on your own separate server. This option is fairly costly, but still a lot cheaper than getting fined or sued for a data breach.

3. Invest in cyber insurance
As with other forms of liability your business faces, having the proper insurance in place is a foundational aspect of your company’s data protection plan. To this end, you’ll want to purchase a cyber insurance policy.

Cyber insurance offers protection against damages resulting from data breaches, hacking, network failures, and other events. If your business’ network is breached, the cost to recover and restore this information can be extensive. And as mentioned earlier, you can also be held liable for damages to third parties, such as customers and vendors, whose data was lost or stolen from your system.

Depending on the coverage purchased, cyber insurance can pay for a wide array of services needed to repair your network and retrieve your data, including investigative analysis, business interruption, and data recovery. It can also cover the cost of notifying clients of the breach, paying regulatory fines, as well paying for lawyer fees, judgments, and settlement costs resulting from a lawsuit.

Not all businesses need cyber insurance, and the ones that do can require varying levels of coverage. Before you buy a cyber policy, consult with a trusted business lawyer like us to assess the risk your particular business faces and determine the kind of policy best suited for your situation.

4. Hire cyber security experts
If you are in an industry that’s at high risk for cybercrime, such as finance, banking, healthcare, or logistics, consider hiring outside cyber security professionals to monitor your company’s server and computer activity. These experts are specifically trained in the latest trends in hacking and other electronic infiltration methods.

However, such security firms are often quite pricey, and not all businesses will need to partner with one. We can help you better assess the risk and reward of hiring one and advise you on whether your company requires such an investment or not.

Digital defense
Regardless of the size of your digital footprint, you should stay apprised of the latest cyber threats and digital privacy laws to ensure your client’s data is secure. We, as your Family Business Lawyer™, can advise you on the safeguards you should have in place and keep you updated on the ever-changing legal landscape surrounding data privacy. And if you’re ever hacked, we can defend you in court against any lawsuits or other liabilities that might result. Contact us today to learn more.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Family Business Lawyer™. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

Since you’ll be discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other frightening life events, hiring an estate planning lawyer may feel intimidating or morbid. But it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead, it can be the most empowering decision you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The key to transforming the experience of hiring a lawyer from one that you dread into one that empowers you is to educate yourself first. This is the person who is going to be there for your family when you can’t be, so you want to really understand who the lawyer is as a human, not just an attorney. Of course, you’ll also want to find out the kind of services the lawyer offers and how they run their business.

To gather this information and get a better feel for who the individual is at the human level, we suggest you ask the prospective lawyer five key questions. Last week in part one, we listed the first two of these questions, and here, we cover the final three.

3. How will you proactively communicate with me on an ongoing basis?

The sad truth is most lawyers do a terrible job of staying in regular communication with their clients. Unfortunately, most lawyers don’t have their business systems set up for ongoing, proactive communication, and they don’t have the time to really get to know you or your family.

If you work with a lawyer who doesn’t have systems in place to keep your plan updated, ensure your assets are owned in the right way (throughout your life), and communicate with you regularly, your estate plan will be worth little more than one you could create for yourself online—and it’s likely to fail when your family needs it most.

Think of it this way: Yes, your estate plan is a set of documents. But more importantly, it’s who and what your family will turn to when something happens to you. You want to work with a lawyer who has systems in place to keep your documents up to date and to ensure your assets are owned in the right way throughout your lifetime. Ideally, the lawyer should get to know you and your family over time, so when something happens, your lawyer can be there for the people you love, and there will already be an underlying relationship and trust.

Your lawyer should proactively communicate with you and keep you and your family educated on an ongoing basis. We think sending out a weekly (at least) email is best. I prefer to hear from the professionals with whom I work on a monthly basis by regular mail and on a weekly basis by email, but depending on the relationship, it could be even more frequent than that.

If you are considering hiring a lawyer who doesn’t take the time to proactively communicate with his or her clients, this should be a red flag. That’s a sign that the lawyer may be stuck in an old, outdated mindset that won’t address your ongoing needs in the way you deserve.

4. Can I call about any legal problem I have, or just about matters within your specialty?

Given the complexity of today’s legal world, lawyers must have specialized training in one or more specific practice areas, such as divorce, bankruptcy, wills and trusts, personal injury, business, criminal matters, or employment law. You definitely do NOT want to work with a lawyer who professes to be an expert in whatever random legal issue walks through the door.

That said, you do want your personal lawyer to have broad enough expertise that you can consult with him or her about all sorts of different legal and financial issues that may come up in your life—and trust he or she will be able to offer you sound guidance. Moreover, while your lawyer may not be able to advise you on all legal matters, he or she should at least be able to refer to you to another trusted professional who can help you.

Trust me, you wouldn’t want the lawyer who designed your estate plan to also handle your personal injury claim, settle a dispute with your landlord, and advise you on your divorce. But you do want him or her to be there to hear your story, refer you to a highly qualified lawyer who specializes in that area, and overall, serve as your go-to legal consultant.

In this capacity, you can call your personal lawyer before you sign any legal documents, any time you have a legal or financial issue arise, or whenever anything that might adversely affect your family or business comes up, and know that you’ll get excellent guidance.

With this in mind, look for a lawyer who has an ongoing service program or membership program, in which you can pay a low monthly fee and be able to call with all of your legal and financial questions, without being charged hourly for the consultation. And be sure that when you call, you get to schedule time to talk with your own lawyer, who you know and trust. We love the idea of legal insurance plans, but we don’t love that you don’t get your own personal lawyer with them. You need to know your lawyer, and know that your lawyer has your back.

5. What happens if you die or retire?

This is a critically important—and often overlooked—question to ask not only your lawyer, but any service professional before beginning a relationship. Sure, it may be uncomfortable to ask, but a truly excellent, client-centered professional will have a plan in place to ensure their clients are taken care of no matter what happens to the individual lawyer managing your plan.

Look for a lawyer who has their own detailed plan in place that will ensure that someone warm and caring will take over your planning without any interruption of service. If your lawyer prepared a will, trust, and other estate planning documents for you, or if you are in the middle of a divorce or lawsuit, you want to make certain your lawyer has such a contingency plan in place, so you won’t be forced to start over from scratch should your lawyer die, retire, or become otherwise unavailable.

Finally, if your lawyer offers a membership program, you’ll want to make sure he or she has a relationship with another lawyer or a network of lawyers who can continue to service you under that program.

A Lasting Relationship

Although hiring the right estate planning lawyer may not seem like a super important decision, it’s actually one of the most critical choices you can make for both yourself and your family. After all, this is the individual you are trusting to serve on your behalf to protect and provide for your loved ones in the event of life’s most traumatic experiences.

Should you choose the wrong person for the job, your family could potentially face all manner of unnecessary conflicts, expenses, and legal entanglements during a time when they are at their most vulnerable. In the end, estate planning is about far more than having a lawyer create a set of documents for you, and then never seeing you again, or only seeing you when something goes wrong.

With us as your Personal Family Lawyer®, we develop a relationship with you and with your family that lasts not only for your lifetime, but for the lifetime of your children and their children, if that’s your wish. Our unique, family-centered legal services are specifically tailored to provide our clients with the kind of love, attention, and trust we’d want for our own loved ones. To learn more about our one-of-a-kind systems and services, schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session™ today.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Personal Family Lawyer® in Juneau, Alaska. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.  That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today at 907-312-5436 to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge; or book a time for Liz to call you at a time you choose.

Although you might think of your team as family and believe that they would never sue you, lawsuits filed by employees are actually one of the most common causes of litigation for business owners. In fact, nearly one in every five small businesses will eventually get sued by an employee.

Of all types of lawsuits an employee can file against you, wrongful termination is among the most frequent. Essentially, wrongful termination is when an individual is fired for an unlawful reason. This includes terminations that violate anti-discrimination and other employee-protection laws at both the state and federal level, as well as terminations that violate employment agreements.

Wrongful termination lawsuits can be a huge liability, and they’ve been on the increase in recent years, especially with so many businesses laying off workers due to COVID-19. Such suits can be extremely costly, since regardless of whether you win the case or not, you are still on the hook for attorney’s fees. Indeed, the average amount paid for settlements and court awards for wrongful termination claims is $37,200, according to Martindale-Nolo Research.

Given these risks, you should take every possible precaution to protect your business against wrongful termination claims. Your first line of defense is always going to be purchasing the right business insurance, so start by investing in an employment-practices policy. Beyond having good insurance, you should consider implementing a number of proactive strategies to further safeguard your business.

The following 4 strategies are among the best ways to protect your company from wrongful termination claims. These measures can not only reduce the chances of a wrongful termination lawsuit being filed, but also increase your chances of winning such a suit should your business ever get hit with one.

1. Familiarize yourself with the law
If you don’t know what constitutes wrongful termination, you can’t take steps to prevent it. Discrimination is one of the most frequent bases for wrongful termination lawsuits. Both federal and state law protects workers from discrimination of all kinds, including on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, and pregnancy.

Under these laws, you can be sued for wrongful termination if an employee claims their firing was related to one of these protected classes. For example, if you terminate an employee, and she claims it was because she became pregnant, she could sue you.

In addition to anti-discrimination laws, there are a significant number of federal, state, and local laws protecting employees from terminations based on a variety of other different causes. Some of these include disparate treatment, breach of contract, constructive (provoked) discharge, retaliation, and inconsistent application of company policies.

While you should do your best to familiarize yourself with employment and labor laws, consult with us to make certain that your actions, policies, and work environment are in compliance with the latest legislation affecting your particular industry and business.
 
2. Create effective workplace policies and procedures
Knowledge of the law does very little if you don’t put it into practice. Creating clearly defined policies detailing your procedures for hiring, discipline, termination, and dispute resolution is essential. Moreover, documenting these policies and procedures in your employee handbook and your employment agreements is another best practice—and one we’ll cover in more detail later.

Keep in mind that for all but the most flagrant violations of company policies, an immediate termination can often be quite risky from a potential liability standpoint. To reduce this risk, consider implementing probationary periods for new-hires, corrective-action plans for underperforming employees, and workplace mediation programs for dispute resolution. 

Finally, having formal policies and procedures in place for documenting and resolving complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and other unlawful behaviors can offer your business further protection from potential lawsuits.

3. Use sound employment agreements with every employee
No matter whether you have one employee or one hundred, you should require every individual who works for you—without exception—to sign an employment agreement. In fact, having a sound agreement in place is even more essential if you employ friends or family.

Your employment agreements should clearly detail the terms and conditions for the working relationship, so everyone on your team understands exactly what’s expected of them. Effective employment agreements can protect you from wrongful termination by clearly establishing the employee’s responsibilities, your rights as employer, and the circumstances under which the employment relationship may be terminated. 

We can help you create comprehensive employment agreements for your employees to help ensure you have the robust contractual protections for not just wrongful termination suits, but every other potential claim related to the employer-employee relationship.

4. Document everything
If a fired employee does sue you, by far the most powerful weapon in your arsenal is complete, thorough, and contemporaneous documentation. The last thing you want is to be asking a judge or jury to simply “take your word for it,” when trying to prove an employee’s actions provided grounds for termination.

Thoroughly documenting all employee incidents, along with the corrective measures you took as a result, can not only provide strong evidence to defend against a lawsuit, but it can often be enough to get a claim thrown out well before it even reaches the trial phase. Ideally, this process should be a collaborative effort with the employee, and all incidents should be documented in writing as soon as possible following the action in question. 

Collaborative documentation includes having employees read and sign that they understand why disciplinary actions are being taken, and that they agree to abide by any corrective-action plan you may require them to complete. We can not only help you develop effective documentation procedures, but also advise you on the proper corrective actions to ensure you’re offering your team an appropriate opportunity to rectify their behavior, so termination is always a last resort.

Cover all your bases
While these strategies can go a long way toward protecting your business from wrongful termination lawsuits, understanding all of the nuances and complexities surrounding the employer/employee relationship from a legal perspective is extremely challenging. To this end, you should consult regularly with us, as your Family Business Lawyer™, to ensure your policies, procedures, agreements, and HR practices are in compliance with the latest standards and laws.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Family Business Lawyer™. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.

Since you’ll be discussing topics like death, incapacity, and other frightening life events, hiring an estate planning lawyer may feel intimidating or morbid. But it definitely doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead, it can be the most empowering decision you ever make for yourself and your loved ones. The key to transforming the experience of hiring a lawyer from one that you dread into one that empowers you is to educate yourself first. This is the person who is going to be there for your family when you can’t be, so you want to really understand who the lawyer is as a human, not just an attorney. Of course, you’ll also want to find out the kind of services your potential lawyer offers and how they run their business.

To this end, here are five questions to ask to ensure you don’t end up paying for legal services that you don’t need, expect, or want. Once you know exactly what you should be looking for when choosing a planning professional, you’ll be much better positioned to hire an attorney who will provide the kind of love, attention, care, and trust your family deserves.

1. How do you bill for your services?

There’s no reason you should be afraid to ask a lawyer how he or she bills for the work they do on your behalf. In fact, questions about billing and payment should be among the very first subjects you bring up when you first contact them. No one wants surprises, especially when it comes to the bill.  

If you call a lawyer’s office and they are reluctant or refuse to give you clear answers to questions about how they charge for their services, determine your fees, or what they expect certain services will cost, this is a big red flag. When someone is hesitant to discuss their billing or business practices, you could be in for some major surprises about what things cost down the road.

Find an estate planning lawyer who bills for all of their services on a flat-fee, no surprises, basis—and never on an hourly basis—unless it’s required by the court for limited purposes. And ideally, you want a lawyer who will guide you through a process of discovery in which they learn about your family dynamics, your assets, and they educate you about what would happen for your family and to your assets if and when something happens to you, and then support you in choosing the right plan for you that meets your budget and your desired outcomes.

Our process for your planning begins with a Family Wealth Planning Session™, in which we educate you about the law and you educate us about your family dynamics and assets, and then you choose the right plan, at the right cost, for the people you love.

2. How will you respond to my needs on an ongoing basis?

One of the biggest complaints people have about working with lawyers is that they are notoriously unresponsive. Indeed, I’ve heard of cases in which clients went weeks without getting a call back from their lawyer. This is all too common, but totally unacceptable, especially when you’re paying them big bucks.

That said, in most cases, these lawyers aren’t blowing you off—they simply don’t have enough support or the systems in place to be able to be responsive. Far too many lawyers believe they can take care of everything themselves. From paperwork and client meetings to scheduling and returning phone calls to connecting their clients with other advisors, there are just too many responsibilities for one person to manage all on their own.

The truth is, if a lawyer is a complete solo practitioner without support or works for a firm that doesn’t provide adequate support, sooner or later, they are almost certain to become overwhelmed and unresponsive. Given this, it’s vital that you ask your lawyer about how they will respond to your needs if you decide to become their client.

Ask them how quickly calls are typically returned in their office, ask them if there will be someone on-hand to answer quick questions, and ask them how they will support you to keep your plan up to date on an ongoing basis and be there for your loved one’s when you can’t be.

A great way to test this is to call your prospective lawyer’s office and ask for him or her. If you get put through right away—or even worse, your call gets sent to a full voicemail—think twice about hiring this lawyer. This means they don’t have effective systems in place for managing and responding to calls or answering quick questions.

Instead, what you want is for the person who answers the phone—or another team member—to offer to help you. And if that individual cannot help you, then he or she should schedule a call for you to talk with your lawyer at a future date and time.

Your lawyer simply can’t be effective or efficient if he or she is taking every call that comes through. Ideally, all calls to your lawyer should be pre-scheduled with a clear agenda, so you both can be ready to focus on your specific needs. Next week in part two, we’ll talk more about the ways in which your attorney should communicate with you and list the remaining three questions to ask before hiring your estate planning lawyer.

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Personal Family Lawyer® in Juneau, Alaska. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love.  That’s why we offer a Life & Legacy Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today at 907-312-5436 to schedule a Life & Legacy Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge; or book a time for Liz to call you at a time you choose.

Setting up the proper legal structure for your business may seem like a boring detail that you won’t need to spend much time on. But the truth is, selecting the right entity for your company is one of the most crucial decisions you can make as a business owner.

That said, there are all sorts of myths and misconceptions surrounding business entities that can cause confusion and lead to costly mistakes for those who fail to do their homework when establishing a legal entity. To this end, here are 4 of the most common myths about business entities and how you can avoid falling for them.

Myth #1: Professional practices or small businesses don’t need to worry about their business entity structure.

Although you can certainly run a business without setting it up as a business entity, doing so puts you—and everything you own—at risk. Without the proper entity set up, there’s no separation between your business and personal assets, so your personal assets would be up for grabs in the event of business debt or a lawsuit. 

For example, if your company is structured as a sole proprietorship or general partnership and you go out of business, your business creditors would come after your personal assets to pay off your business debts. The same is true if your business is ever sued.

By structuring your business as a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation, however, you can shield your personal assets from liabilities incurred by your business. When properly set up and maintained, such structures establish your company as a separate legal entity distinct from you as an individual, preventing you from being held personally liable for the company’s debts or legal disputes.

Meet with us for help selecting, setting up, and maintaining the entity structure that’s best suited for your particular business.

Myth #2: There’s no need to set up an entity for your business until it’s proven successful.

It may seem like a good idea to delay setting up your business entity until you are actually turning a profit, but in reality, you should have your entity in place from the very start. This is true not only because liability risk can arise well before you are making a profit, but also because incorporating your business is likely to lead to more income and profit.

For example, having the proper entity in place in the early stages allows you to receive credit in your business’ name (and if structured correctly, it won’t show up on your personal credit report when you use it, preserving your credit score), as well as allow you to raise money from investors, if you choose. Not to mention, the act of incorporating itself shows that you take your company seriously, which can inspire increased confidence and support from others, including potential customers, vendors, and financial backers.      

Myth #3: A corporate entity offers absolute liability protection.

When properly created and maintained, entities such as an LLC or S Corporation, can shield your personal assets from creditors, lawsuits, and other disputes incurred by your business. However, the personal liability protection afforded by these entities is not absolute.

Indeed, there are a number of circumstances in which a creditor can come after your personal assets to settle a claim against your business. When this happens, it’s known as “piercing the corporate veil.”

While the corporate veil can be pierced if you commit fraud or negligence, in most cases, it happens due to innocent mistakes. These errors can include inadvertently mixing your personal and business finances, personally signing off on a business loan, or failing to abide by administrative formalities. Be sure to work with us on an ongoing basis to ensure you are maintaining your corporate shield by handling your business affairs properly, keeping its assets separate from your personal assets, and checking in with us before you sign any and all agreements on behalf of your business.

Finally, while a corporate entity can protect your personal assets from liability, these legal structures do not offer any protection for your business assets. To safeguard your business assets, you’ll need to invest in the proper business insurance, which is always your business’ first line of defense.

Myth #4: Incorporating in Delaware or Nevada is always better.

You may have been told—perhaps even by another lawyer—that establishing your corporate entity in Delaware or Nevada is your best bet for tax purposes. But for most businesses, incorporating in these states is completely unnecessary—and it may even cost your company in the long run. 

Although many companies do incorporate in these states, it’s for very specific reasons, such as to raise investment capital or take advantage of favorable securities laws to go public. However, unless you are actually doing business in these two states, your company isn’t going to receive  any significant tax benefits or additional asset protection by incorporating there.

While Nevada and Delaware do not have state personal- or corporate-income taxes, that doesn’t mean your business will avoid state-level taxes entirely. The fact is, if you are a resident of, or doing business in, a state that has state income taxes, you must still pay those taxes, even if you are incorporated elsewhere.

Plus, if you incorporate outside of the state where you live or conduct business, you must file as a foreign registrant in your home state. Such double filings can result in extra filing fees and administrative expenses that make out-of-state incorporation financially unfeasible.

That said, there are instances where it might make sense to set up your business entity in states like Delaware or Nevada, but trying to use incorporation as a tax loophole isn’t one of them. Contact us, as your Family Business Lawyer™, for advice on the best location for establishing your entity and for support in navigating the requirements for maintaining the entity in each state you do business in.

Approach business entities with eyes wide open
Setting up the appropriate entity for your business isn’t something you should take lightly or try to do all on your own—there’s far too much at stake. With us as your Family Business Lawyer™, we can offer you trusted advice on the legal entity that’s most advantageous for your business and help ensure it’s set up properly

We can also ensure you stay in full compliance with the various state laws and administrative formalities required to maintain your entity, protect your assets, and increase the chances of success for your business and your relationships over the long term. Contact us today to get started.  

This article is a service of Liz Smith, Family Business Lawyer™. We offer a complete spectrum of legal services for businesses and can help you make the wisest choices on how to deal with your business throughout life and in the event of your death. We also offer a LIFT Start-Up Session™ or a LIFT Audit for an ongoing business, which includes a review of all the legal, financial, and tax systems you need for your business. Call us today to schedule.