855-371-0070
As your children are headed back to school, your thoughts are probably lingering on their welfare and what you are doing for them on a daily basis. Questions like how you will be able to provide for them as a parent and what more you can do to protect them and their financial future. If you are a business owner, you put yourself on a precarious line between your business and family when you don’t have a set plan in place. With any business venture, you are taking a risk that could potentially affect your personal assets if you are not careful when differentiating between the two. We have had clients in Louisiana and Florida lose everything because of ONE lawsuit, and it could have all been avoided with just a little bit of planning!
Corporate Compliance: Do I Need to Worry About This?
What you may not know is that you can take certain steps that will prevent your business ventures from overlapping into your personal expenses. People tend to pay out of pocket for business expenses, but you should only use business funds for business expenses. One of the first important steps you will want to take is getting incorporated and establishing your personal assets apart from your business liability. This includes following these guidelines:
– Comply with licensing and zoning laws, especially with local authorities.
– Conduct a business name search and have your own unique name.
– Name a registered agent who will receive official mail and paperwork on behalf of your business.
– Draft articles of incorporation (a certificate of incorporation or corporate charter) with your state to create your corporation and then file them with your state.
– Create corporate bylaws for your business detailing your structure and management as well as details for shareholders and board members.
– Build a record book of all your corporate affairs showing that you are in compliance with the IRS and state laws. This will include reports, all transactions, loans, contracts and meeting notes. This way you will have full disclosure of all your business dealings and keep it in order.
– Conduct your first board meeting with all members to establish and formally adopt your legitimate business.
– A final step is making sure you meet all federal and state requirements. Make sure your state does not have any other additional rules.
By being incorporated, you have set your business and yourself up early to get the best benefits possible. This will lead to eventually expanding your business as well as protecting it from potential claims. This will help you in the long run when it comes to getting the most out of your taxes (corporate shares, no franchise tax and more) and prevent commingling of your own assets and protecting against financial predators. Here at Corporate Capital, we can help protect your business from lawsuits, mortgages, debts, and claims. The important thing to remember is all corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, etc. are ALL responsible for yearly compliance, annual meeting minutes and more!
Protecting Your Legacy: Asset Protection Trust
An asset protection trust is a type of trust designed to protect a person’s assets from claims of future creditors. The purpose of an asset protection trust is to insulate assets from a “creditor attack.” These trusts are structured so that they are irrevocable for a term of years, and so that the trust maker is not a current beneficiary. An asset protection trust is structured so that the undistributed assets of the trust are returned to the trust maker upon the termination of the trust, provided there is no current risk of creditor attack, thus permitting the trust maker to regain complete control over the formerly protected assets.
Let us break this down for you in Layman’s terms: After two years and ANY assets transferred into the trust, it is protected from creditors and lawsuits! You can protect all of your current and future assets with one simple trust, and the timing of the trust is crucial because of the two-year lookback period (call today for a free consultation to learn more).
Leaving Behind a Legacy: Establishing Your Living Trust
Many people don’t have a trust, leaving their money and assets at risk to be inherited by anyone else except their own family. By planning the outcome of your estate and trust, you can protect your main investments: cash, family and your business. A trust involves three parties: you as the creator, the trustee/trustees who agree to manage your assets, and the beneficiaries.
Corporate Capital advises you to prepare the right legal documents to protect and distribute when you are no longer able to take care of your own affairs. The time and effort you have put into building your business need to be put into place where it can benefit you and your family’s future, and the best time to do that is when things are going really well for your business.
One of the options for preserving your legacy is by setting up a living trust. This is an agreement that a third party takes responsibility for and manages your property (a trustee or trustees), and it is called a living trust because it is established while you are alive. It is revocable because as long as you are mentally competent, you can change or dissolve the trust at any time at your own discretion for any reason. These are very similar to wills because they have instructions on how everything is to be inherited and how your financial legacy will live on.
As a business owner, you are already at risk when running a corporation yourself; there is no need to risk you and your family’s assets as well. Give Corporate Capital a call at 855-371-0070 today to set up a consultation – it’s FREE! Located in Las Vegas, NV, we have the privilege of working with over 13,000 clients across the country. No matter where you live in the United States, we can help you protect and maintain your business and protect your family’s financial future. We specialize in trust writing and asset protection as well as making your business a top priority so you can make your family your top priority. Don’t hesitate to call our team for a FREE consultation today!