Your estate plan is like writing the script to your life’s story. Just as every great movie has main characters, conflict, and resolution, your estate plan reflects these elements too. You are the main character, your loved ones are the supporting cast, and the challenges your family might face are the conflicts. Creating an estate plan helps you address potential family conflicts and ensures a clear resolution, securing your legacy and taking care of those who matter most. Ultimately, your estate plan lets you take control of your story and write a lasting legacy for your loved ones.

Your estate plan is like writing the script to your life’s story. Just as every great movie has main characters, conflict, and resolution, your estate plan reflects these elements too. You are the main character, your loved ones are the supporting cast, and the challenges your family might face are the conflicts. Creating an estate plan helps you address potential family conflicts and ensures a clear resolution, securing your legacy and taking care of those who matter most. Ultimately, your estate plan lets you take control of your story and write a lasting legacy for your loved ones.

As a First Responder, whether you're a police officer, firefighter, EMT, or paramedic, your career is marked by dedication, service, and an inherent level of risk. You put your life on the line daily to protect your community. In light of these risks, it's crucial to have a solid estate plan in place to protect both your legacy and your loved ones in the event of the unexpected.

While it's easy to focus on the day-to-day demands of your profession, taking the time to establish an estate plan can bring you and your family peace of mind. Estate planning ensures that your wishes are honored, your assets are distributed appropriately, and your loved ones are cared for in the way you envision.

Young adults are not known for being the most fiscally responsible people. Yet financial planning is more important than ever for a generation that is struggling with high inflation and debt and has a tendency to prioritize spending over saving. 

If your advice is falling on deaf ears, try putting yourself in your child’s position and seeing the current economic environment through their eyes. Professional guidance can also help break through money management barriers and prepare a young adult for a lifetime of financial success. 

Estate planning attorneys focus on reminding clients of two basic and interrelated points: estate planning is not just for the wealthy, and everyone over the age of 18 should have an estate plan, no matter their financial situation. A will is essential whether your net worth is $1 million or $100. Individuals with a higher income level and a high net worth are more likely to have an existing estate plan, and they may require additional tools in their plan to address their concerns adequately. But everyone should still have an estate plan regardless of their net worth. Unfortunately, people who do not have a will often mistakenly believe they lack sufficient assets to warrant one.

As summer fades into fall and school resumes, millions of seniors are entering the home stretch of their high school careers and marking their official entry into legal adulthood at age 18. 

According to cognitive scientists, some individuals’ brains do not finish developing until they are in their late 20s or early 30s, and many parents would be quick to agree. But in the eyes of the law, when a child reaches 18, they can vote, get married, sign a mortgage, join the military, move out of their parents’ home, and do many other things that only adults are allowed to do. This also includes creating an estate plan. 

Increasing costs and rising interest rates have impacted many businesses. If your business is in crisis, there are steps you can take that could improve your business’s financial condition and help it successfully move forward. Entrepreneurs are competent, but they cannot do everything on their own. There comes a time when a business owner needs to ask for help from a team that can provide counsel and services to help them overcome their financial distress. 

Written contracts are the backbone of business relationships. They outline the rights, obligations, and expectations between parties and provide a legal framework that ensures parties keep their promises. Absent written contracts, business relationships are less clear, trust is tenuous, and deals may be unenforceable.

A distribution from a limited liability company (LLC) is a payment of cash or property made by an LLC to the LLC’s owners, also known as members. Although state law sets forth certain default rules, LLC members can specify in the LLC’s operating agreement when and how profits are allocated, distributed, and taxed.

Equipment leasing is an alternative to purchasing new equipment. Amid volatile interest rates and inflated equipment costs, more businesses are turning to leases as they look for ways to preserve cash while acquiring the equipment they need to operate. Equipment leases typically enable businesses to avoid the need to make a large down payment, which is usually required for an equipment purchase, but they may include a purchase option at the end of the lease period. 

Whether you are an entrepreneur starting a new business or are running a well-established business, your success often depends on safeguarding innovative ideas and information that give you an edge over competing businesses. If you have spent years perfecting a secret recipe for the doughnuts that you sell in your bakery or developing a customer list for your insurance agency, it is crucial to take steps to prevent a former employee, business partner, or third party from taking that proprietary information and using it to compete against you. A well-drafted nondisclosure agreement is an important tool that can protect valuable confidential business information.

Only a small number of jurisdictions have laws requiring employers to provide information about employee compensation in job postings, but pay transparency is becoming a best practice in corporate America. There is a growing movement among organizations of all sizes to now include pay ranges in their job postings, regardless of whether they are subject to pay transparency legislation.

Many Americans dream of leaving their nine-to-five job to start their own business—and in recent years, more people than ever have been doing it. A record number of new business applications were filed in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of historic small business growth and adding to the economic engine that drives the US economy. Starting a business provides a world full of fresh possibilities, both exciting and daunting.  Consulting with a business lawyer can help set your business up for success if you are starting a new business.

When you are first starting a business, operating it as a sole proprietorship may make a lot of sense. Sole proprietorships are simple and inexpensive to set up and maintain: they are operated by a single taxpayer and are the most common form of business organization.

From a tax and legal perspective, businesses that are owned and operated by one person and have not been formed as a separate legal entity such as a limited liability company (LLC) are automatically considered to be sole proprietorships.

Keeping things simple has its advantages in business. But as your business grows, matures, and becomes more complex, it may be beneficial to structure it as a separate legal entity, such as an LLC.

If you or your loved ones have not yet created a will, you are not alone. In fact, according to a recent survey, not having created a will puts you among the majority of Americans. 

Like many Americans, you may wait for a major life event to occur before putting your final wishes into a formal estate plan, but this is not advisable. Estate planning should be done early, often, and with attorney assistance to ensure it serves its purpose and stands up to scrutiny.