You can complete your annual renewal at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website, and there’s no fee so long as you complete the renewal before December 31st for the year in which your renewal is due. As I have pointed out in previous articles, you do not need to pay a firm to complete your renewal (for “$79.95”). You can do it yourself for free at the Secretary of State’s website.
Failure to complete your renewal will result in a ‘statutory dissolution’ of your entity which means that your entity will be ‘administratively terminated.’ This means you will have to pay a fee to reinstate it and complete the required renewal.
It’s fairly easy to complete your renewal at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website once your set up an account, and you will also have the opportunity to update information about your entity at that time. There is also the option to mail in your renewal. If you want to change the registered address or registered agent for your entity, however, you will have to file amended Articles and pay a fee.
Now is also a good time to conduct your annual meeting of the shareholders and Board for your corporation or the members and board for your LLC. These meetings can be conducted in person or by written action as permitted by your entity’s bylaws. At the annual meeting, board members and officers are elected and other matters or decisions pertaining to the entity may be addressed. Minutes should be completed, signed by the Secretary, and added to the company record book for the business entity.
Examples of issues that should be addressed at the annual meeting include any change in ownership, change in tax status or elections (s-corp to c-corp, for example), change in the entity’s financial institution, significant financing that was obtained during the year, and any significant purchases or sales by the entity. It’s also a good time to check on any licenses or certificates held by the business entity to make sure they are active and up-to-date.
These steps are pretty basic housekeeping for your business entity, but they are important to set yourself on the path to a successful 2024 and beyond.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
]]>The current law regarding sick and safe leave will remain in effect until December 31, 2023 and will then be updated to the new version on January 1, 2024. This new version will be a state-wide mandated policy that can apply to anyone who works at least 80 hours in a year for an employer and who is not an independent contractor. Temporary and part-time employees are eligible for this as well. There are exceptions to building and construction employees who have a valid waiver in a collective bargaining agreement.
Employees will earn 1 hour of sick and safe leave for every 30 hours worked. This is capped at 48 hours a year unless the employer agrees to a different amount.
Sick and safe leave can be used for a few different things. Obviously, this law allows an employee to use the accrued time for physical, or mental illness, and the treatment of the same. In addition to the employee, this time can be used for family members who fall ill as well.
The safe part of it comes into play a bit differently. Safe leave can be used for an employee or family member that has fallen victim to abuse (domestic and sexual), stalking of the employee or a family member, and closure of the employee’s workplace due to weather or public emergency. This will also apply to a closure of a family member’s school or care facility for the same reasons.
If the employee’s healthcare provider deems it necessary, the employee can use this time due to the threat of the employee or a family member infecting others with an illness.
Yes, Minnesota employers with one or more employees are required to provide earned sick and safe leave starting January 1, 2024.
If you are interested in learning more about the new Minnesota employment laws, you are invited to a Workshop on Thursday, November 16, 2023 at Cragun’s Resort. Breen & Person’s attorney, Laura J. Hansen, and employment law attorney, V. John Ella, with Fafinski, Mark & Johnson will host and present this Workshop. For more information, please call our Walker office at [nap_phone id="LOCAL-REGULAR-NUMBER-2"].
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
Non-compete agreements or ‘covenants not to compete’ were originally created to protect the trade secrets and confidential information of a company. ‘Covenants not to compete’ are often included in an employment contract and used to prevent workers from accepting a position at a rival company during or after they leave their current job. The restrictions included in a ‘non-compete’ are typically limited to an industry, geographic area, and period of time. The industry restriction may limit employees from getting a job in the same type of industry or with a competitor. The geographic restriction prohibits an employee from getting a job within a certain radius of the employer’s location. Finally, the time restrictions are aimed at limiting employees from accepting such a position for a certain period of time, typically two years.
These agreements have a large effect on employees and employers alike. Employees are being limited in the types of jobs they can get, and the areas they can work in. Employers are limited in the employees they want to hire because of these agreements. Employees are losing out on better and higher paying jobs as a result, and employers are losing out on talented potential employees due to these agreements. In the end, non-competes have been increasingly looked upon as unfair to employees and detrimental to the labor market.
Effective July 1, 2023, a ‘covenant not to compete’ is ‘void and unenforceable’ in the employment setting. Minn. Stat. Sec. 181.988, subd. 2(a). New employment agreements and independent contractor agreements must be structured to eliminate noncompete provisions. Whether an employee is a highly paid executive or an hourly worker does not matter; the statute codifies a complete ban. Noncompete agreements put in place before July 1 of this year are still enforceable, but employers should keep in mind that such agreements may be looked upon with disfavor and narrowly enforced by the courts.
There are a few exceptions to the law which should be addressed. The new law does not prohibit employers from prohibiting their current employees from engaging in work with competitors while employed. Employees may still use NDA’s “non-disclosure agreements”, non-solicitation agreements, or other similar agreements to protect customer information, highly confidential information, and trade secrets of the company.
Finally, non-competes are allowed when they have been previously arranged when the agreement deals with a business sale or dissolution and are deemed reasonable “in geographic and temporal scope.” (Singer) The main reason for this exception is to protect buyers of a business. “A purchaser of a business should be entitled as part of an arm’s-length bargaining process to restrict the former owners from competing and undermining expectations, particular when adequate consideration is being paid for the enterprise.” (Singer)
The banning of almost all non-competes will have an impact on many companies in Minnesota and the rest of the United States. The purpose of the law is to end what may have been overreach by employers on the use of noncompete agreements making it difficult for employees at all levels to obtain a new job and earn a living. The good news is that employees will likely have a larger pool of companies for which they can work, and employers will have a larger pool of talent from which to hire. Employers will be left with the challenge on finding other ways to protect their company’s proprietary information and competitive edge. I hope this article has been helpful for employers and employees alike.
Digital contracts have been held to a different standard than written contracts and are considered legally binding in most scenarios. If you have reasonably been informed that a contract exists and you have agreed to it either by clicking “I agree” or continuing onto the digital platform, courts normally find them enforceable. This frustrates me, the big businesses have all the power and consumers are not being protected. How much are we, as consumers, giving up by clicking “I agree”?
Most digital contracts are contracts of adhesion. Contracts of adhesion are those that are fully formed before you read them; nothing is negotiable. It is either agree or do not use the service at all. This gives a lot of power to the business providing the service to create T&C that benefit them and not you, the consumer. This power imbalance is factored in the consumer’s favor during litigation; however, litigation rarely occurs for contracts of adhesion because you often give up your right to sue when you click agree to the contract. So, you have no power to negotiate the contract and no power sue if you have been wronged.
If a contract takes away the power to sue, most of the time it will force arbitration or mediation to deal with conflict. Arbitration and mediation are alternatives to public lawsuits and often eliminate your ability to file a class action. Arbitration involves a neutral, third-party to make a decision instead of a judge. It is less formal and often quicker. Although possibly preferred by both parties, arbitration can be expensive and can often create a financial barrier to even starting the process of litigation.
According to a 2017 study by Deloitte, over 90% of people do not read the T&C before clicking “I agree” (Cakebread, 2017). I am part of that 90% and my contracts professor also admitted he was part of that 90%. It seems like a broken system that will not be fixed.
Although reading the T&C feels like a daunting task, it may be worth it for you. A “well-drafted T&Cs can provide a whole host of benefits for both businesses and users; they set out expectations and rights, and protect other users from general misuse or abuse, but they can also determine liability limitations and stipulate which law applies in the event of a legal dispute” (Harrar, 2018). The T&C can give you a picture about the company you are about to start using and better prepare you for future conflict. My advice (not legal advice since I am just a law student), skim the document. If you were to read Instagrams T&C, front to back, it would take the average reader 86 minutes (Harrar, 2018). No one has the time or interest to do that. That is why skimming is a great plan B. A good T&C should make the important parts obvious to the reader. I am aware that most companies are selling my data and I have accepted that as a way of the world, but being an informed consumer is the best type of consumer.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
]]>Since I wrote the last article, there have been changes in our tax laws that impact charitable giving, and these changes are outlined below. What has not changed, however, are the needs in our communities. Organizations that support our communities are still in need of our ongoing support. It’s important that all of us keep that in mind.
In the past, a donation to a qualified charitable organization could be claimed as an income tax deduction on an itemized tax return. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) raised the standard deduction resulting in substantially fewer individuals filing an itemized return. For 2022, the standard deduction is $12,950 for individuals, $25,900 for married couples, and $19,400 for heads of household. So, this means that a donation to a qualified charitable organization is no longer specifically claimed as a deduction on many of our tax returns.
The CARES Act enacted in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic included incentives for individuals to make charitable donations to qualified organizations. Individuals who did not itemize and used the standard deduction could still claim charitable donations to qualified organizations up to $300 for individuals and up to $600 for married couples. These provisions have expired and were not renewed by Congress, and so they are no longer available.
There are a few more tax laws to keep in mind. An individual who files an itemized return may deduct cash contributions to qualified organizations up to 60% of adjusted gross income (AGI). The CARES Act allowed up to 100% of AGI, but that provision has also expired. Donating such a large portion of our annual income is not realistic for most of us, but it’s still worth mentioning. There may be times in our lives when a substantial donation makes sense.
One last point on the tax law issue. The generous among us certainly includes the businesses in our communities. They play an integral role in supporting our charitable organizations, public institutions, and help raise funds for the large-scale community projects, such as the Walker Public Library. Businesses that are s-corps, LLCs, partnerships, and sole proprietors, referred to as ‘pass-through’ entities, are treated like individuals and may only deduct charitable contributions if the underlying owners file an itemized return. Other corporations (c-corps) may deduct charitable donations up to a certain percentage of their taxable income. Businesses have other ways to support charitable organizations through sponsorships and advertising, the costs for which may be a deductible business expense.
While it may seem that the recent tax laws discourage charitable giving, the opposite may be true. According to an article by Scott Hodge, posted at the taxfoundation.org, entitled “Would Americans Make Charitable Donations without Tax Incentives?’, “… charitable giving has more than doubled in real terms since 1981, from $137 billion to $327 billion today.” Mr. Hodge suggests that lower marginal tax rates enacted in the past decades, and specifically as part of the 2017 TCJA, have supported the increase in charitable giving by Americans.
Back to my original point, we are a generous group of people. The reason why we give is not solely for the tax deduction, and one way to view the higher standard deduction is that our charitable deductions are already taken into account in part. So, with the tax implications in mind, how can we give? This question will be addressed in Charitable Giving Part II, so please look for that article next week.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it. Please consult your legal, tax, and financial advisors to discuss your particular situation.
]]>Unfortunately, the answer is NO it does not create an enforceable estate plan when you have communicated your wishes to your estate plan attorney but have not signed any estate plan documents. To make a change enforceable, the execution requirements for creating a Will, Trust or an amendment to those documents must be met. Normally, that involves a signature, notarization and possibly witnesses.
Here are a couple of examples of good intentions that just did not work out. Client A met with her estate attorney to discuss updating her trust. She was considering removing her brother in-law as trustee and instead adding her sister as the trustee since her brother in-law had some declining health. She also wanted the distribution formula changed, since her son was now having alcohol issues. She decided to think a little more about the trustee change and before she was able to return to the attorney’s office to sign updated paperwork, she passed away unexpectedly. Her family only had the legal documents that appointed brother in-law as the trustee and trust language that provided for her son to receive a cash distribution outright from her trust.
Client B had a grandchild that had a disability and was receiving governmental benefits. When Client B set up his estate plan years ago, no one was sure what the grandchild’s future would look like nor if they would even be eligible for governmental benefits. Now that the grandchild was over the age of 18 and there was a determination of disability, they qualified for governmental benefits. Client B met with his estate attorney and he had asked the attorney to revise the distribution to the grandchild and direct it to a supplemental needs trust so that the governmental benefits would not be lost by an outright distribution to the grandchild. Client B’s cancer caused him to pass away sooner than expected and no changes were signed to his estate plan. The distribution to the grandchild caused a disruption in the governmental benefits. Certainly not what was intended.
The moral of the story, take that first step to meet with your estate planning attorney as soon as you know a plan needs to be made or a plan needs to be changed. We do not have that crystal ball to prevent all unintended consequences however, we can certainly be proactive to help minimize them as much as possible.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
]]>A scam can involve a simple phone call to trick someone into divulging private information. The private information may be sold and used later to gain access to a bank account or obtain a credit card. A scam may involve an official looking letter that demands a small amount of money for a certified document such as a deed or business record. A scam can be much more sophisticated and involve the development of a close, trusted and/or romantic relationship. It’s important to keep in mind that people close to us may be the perpetrators. In addition to the criminal scams, we should also be on the lookout for financial abuse and exploitation of the vulnerable and elderly.
In this article, I will address two situations that are particularly troublesome and especially for vulnerable adults and the elderly.
First, our clients or one of their loved ones are falling victim to ‘romantic scams’. These are particularly egregious because they involve both emotional and financial exploitation. According to the FBI, a romance scam occurs ‘when a criminal adopts a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust’ and then creates the ‘illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and/or steal from the victim.’ Once establishing the relationship, the criminal asks for financial help because there’s an emergency or some immediate need. The help may be in the form of sending gift cards, cash cards or tens of thousands of dollars. There’s often a promise to meet in person at a later date.
Second, a family member, friend, caregiver, or other person may exploit a relationship they have with an elderly person to take money or property. One example is a son or daughter who takes over a parent’s finances, gains access to accounts, and then spends the parent’s money own their own expenses and purchases. Another example is a non-family member who develops the trust of an elderly person and carries out similar actions. The exploitation may involve taking funds out of bank accounts, diverting social security payments or other government benefits, taking personal property, or transferring title to real property.
The elderly are particularly vulnerable to these financial scams and exploitation. Elderly people are more likely to live alone – for example, 50% of women over 75 live alone according to the US Census Bureau. They have more wealth in the form of retirement savings and equity in their homes. According to a 2021 Wall Street Journal article, Americans age 70 and over have 27% of all U.S. wealth. See Eisen, Ben and Tergeson, Anne, “Older Americans Stockpiled a Record $35 Trillion. The Time Has Come to Give It Away.” Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2021.
And the elderly are more likely to answer their phones and presume the phone call / caller is legitimate. Not too long ago, we looked forward to phone calls – they were from friends, loved ones, or concerning something important and legitimate. Criminal scammers know these things, and so they target the elderly.
So, what can we do to protect ourselves and our elderly loved ones from these scams and abuse? First, awareness and communication are very important. Relationships and human connections have shifted from ‘in person’ to ‘online’, and so it’s important that we talk to our elderly loved ones about the risks of communicating online. We must educate ourselves and talk to our elderly loved ones about these scams, how they are carried out, and how they change and develop over time. Find out what our elderly loved ones are posting online and where, who they are talking to, and what they are talking about. Explain that criminals operate online, and so they need to have their defenses up, just as they would walking down a dark street at night.
Second, if we suspect that we or our elderly loved ones are being targeted, stop communications immediately – simply hang up. If there’s a concern that the IRS, a bank, or other institution has a legitimate need, then call the institution directly. A family should create a ‘safe word or phrase’ so that if a caller is pretending to be a family member in crisis, then the caller can be required to divulge the ‘safe word or phrase’ before any action is taken.
Third, put an estate plan in place, including a Power of Attorney (POA) document. An estate plan can be structured to allow family members to step in when needed. A family can establish safeguards against financial scams and abuse and also a framework for ‘assisted decision making’. The POA is critical to accomplish these things. By executing a POA, a person – the ‘principal’ can name a trusted individual to act on that person’s agent for real estate, banking, investment, insurance, and other such matters. The person appointed is held to legal standards and has fiduciary duties to the principal; the person named as ‘POA’ must act on the principal’s behalf, for his/her benefit, and in his/her best interest. The ‘POA’ may more easily monitor bank accounts, financial accounts, and take steps to secure such accounts if a financial scam or abuse is suspected.
Fourth, report financial scams and suspected elder financial abuse to the authorities. If you have been a victim of a scam and suffered a financial loss, then file a report with your local police department. If you have been targeted by a scammer but have not suffered a loss, you may report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 877-382-4357 or ftccomplaintassistant.gov. You may also report it to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Additional steps would be to run a credit report with credit reporting agencies, close out bank accounts, block scammers phone numbers, and change email address and phone number, if necessary.
If you suspect financial or other abuse of a vulnerable adult or elderly person, you should report it to the Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center at 1-844-880-1574. Criminal charges can be brought under the Minnesota Vulnerable Adults Act and other statutes. An order for protection can also be pursued, and in certain cases, a court-appointed guardian and/or conservatorship might be the best course of action.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
]]>The following are various concerns that parents should take into account before taking the major step of giving away their homestead. Many of these items are considerations for non-homestead property (i.e. hunting land or a cabin property), but it is less drastic than giving your homestead away. As a general rule, I do not normally recommend that clients transfer their homestead to children for the reasons below, as with any decision there are pros and cons to consider.
Loss of Control–If you re-title your homestead property to your child, you are giving up control of your home. Your child and (if married) their spouse would be the legal owners of the property and have full control of the choices related to that property. We recommend a rental agreement if you are planning to still remain in the property.
Non-Tax Consequences Creditor/Debtor – If your children and (if married) their spouse had creditor issues, you could lose your home. For example, if you child was in a car accident and they were sued, since your home is owned by that child, it could get pulled into that lawsuit and be lost.
Divorce/Death – Divorce or death is always a concern. I saw a case where parents deeded their house to son and son died unexpectedly. The daughter in law was then the legal owner of the property and kicked the parents out of the house. Or if a divorce were to occur, your homestead could be pulled into that division of assets. Mortgage – If you have a mortgage on the house and it has a due-on-sale clause (most do), the lender has the right to make the owner pay the loan in full if title is transferred without its permission. Most lenders are not likely to complain as long as the mortgage is current but it is a risk.
Medical Assistance – If a parent gives their home to their children, and are not selling it for fair market value, medical assistance (MA) will consider this to be an improper transfer and won’t pay for the parent’s long-term care (nursing home) during a period of ineligibility. The length of this period varies depending on the amount of the gift. MA has a five-year (60-month) lookback period for gifts that starts when the gift is made. Any application for MA made before the expiration of the 60-month period will trigger the ineligibility rules. During the period of ineligibility, the parent must pay for his own care. This means that an application for Medicaid should be avoided for at least 60 full months after the date of the gift.
Tax Consequences Homestead Status for Real Estate Taxes – If you transfer ownership to child and you continue to live in the property you will need to talk to the county to determine if you can continue to receive homestead tax exemption. You may not be able to claim any property tax refunds. Discuss with your accountant to determine the current rules.
Gift Tax – There are gift tax consequences if a person gives property worth more than the annual exclusion amount to any one person in any one year ($16,000 in 2022). No gift tax will be due at that time, but a gift tax return must be filed. Gift tax will be due at the person’s death if the estate is large enough. Discuss this with your accountant.
Income Tax Basis – If the house is gifted to children during lifetime, the children will have a carryover of tax basis, which means that they would have to pay capital gains tax on the increase in value from the time the parent bought it until it was sold. If the children inherit the property at the parent’s death, however, they would have a stepped-up basis, which means they only have to pay capital gains tax on the increase in value from the date of death to the date of sale. Depending on how much the property has increased in value while the parent has owned it (the amount of the gain), the gift may result in a large amount of capital gains tax due.
Income Tax Exclusion – In some circumstances, a homeowner may exclude $250,000 of gain upon the sale of their homestead. If you do not own the home, you are not eligible for the income tax exclusion if sold while you are living. Your child will have to pay capital gains tax on the gain. Discuss with your accountant to determine the current exclusion amounts.
How Can You Avoid These Problems? Transfer on Death Deed (TODD) – This type of deed transfers title to real estate after both parents have died. We prepare this deed now, record it, but it doesn’t take effect until both parents have died. This deed is revocable at any time up until the grantor’s death. It names one or more beneficiaries who will take title upon the grantor’s death, but conveys no current interest in the property. The recipients are not considered owners during the grantor’s lifetime, so their consent is not needed to manage the property. A TODD makes sense for people who have a small estate and want to give it to one or a few people, and who want to retain control of their assets but still avoid probate. A tranfer on death deed can help you avoid probate but it does not remove the asset from your estate for medical assistance purposes.
Transferring property to children during lifetime involves a variety of concerns. Be sure your review with attorney, financial advisor and accountant to identify the best option for you.
Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
]]>I like to focus on the positive, telling many of my clients, ‘It’s good work to do’. So, what if you don’t complete an estate plan? Well, here are some untended consequences and negative outcomes that can result.
If you do not put a Power-of-Attorney (POA) document in place, then your spouse and loved ones may have difficulty helping you when you need them the most. If you develop a serious illness or dementia, you need someone who can do more than ‘pay the bills’. Banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, social security, the VA, etc. often will not talk to a spouse or family member without the POA in place. Such institutions will not make changes, disperse funds, or even respond to requests for information. Without a POA, there’s no one with authority to act on your behalf, and so even small issues can create big headaches for your spouse and family members.
For example, a person calls asking what she can do for her daughter who has been in a serious car accident. Her daughter is unconscious, expected to recover, but will not be able to communicate for several months. Without the POA, the mother cannot access her daughter’s bank account to pay bills; she cannot communicate with the health insurance company on her daughter’s behalf; she cannot even turn off her daughter’s cable service. It’s a difficult situation, and the mother would likely have to pursue a guardianship and conservatorship to take care of her daughter’s affairs.
Many of you may think it’s best to put your kids on the title to all of your assets, so that they may take care of things while you’re alive and so the assets transfer automatically to your kids or one of your kids when you pass away. Well, ownership matters. If you add one of your kids as an owner to an asset, the asset becomes their asset, and they ‘bring their life to the asset’. This means the asset can be subject to their divorce, bankruptcy, judgements, liens, creditors, and own death. This means when you pass away, the asset goes to the joint owner, and that person has no legal obligation to distribute to siblings or other family members.
For example, if you make your son a joint owner on a bank account, the funds belong to your son only when you pass away and no one else. If you title your home in daughter’s name and then she passes away, you may end up living in a house that is now owned by your son-in-law. Probably not what you intended!
If you die without a will, the laws of intestacy determine who are your heirs and who will inherit your assets. Spouse and children come first, of course, but if you don’t have a spouse or kids, then your parents inherit first, then siblings and half-siblings, and so on. Part of your estate may go to a parent or other relative receiving assistance, thereby disqualifying that person. You may have a half sibling out of state with whom you have no relationship, and without a will, that person would be entitled to a portion of your estate. You may be unmarried but have a significant other, and if you don’t provide for that special person in your will, then he or she would not receive anything. This could be problematic, for instance, if you share a home with that special person.
Completing an estate plan includes integrating each asset into your plan by way of retitling and transfer on death designations. The failure to address the title to each asset, and particularly real estate, can trigger a probate. I call this ‘stranding an asset’. For a will plan, we make sure assets transfer directly by way of a transfer on death deed (TODD), pay on death (POD), transfer on death (TOD), or other beneficiary designation. For a trust plan, we make sure each asset is either titled in the trust or flows to the trust or to an individual upon death.
What’s the consequence of not completing this step? Typically, a probate. For example, a single life insurance account without a proper and updated beneficiary designation can trigger a probate. A fractional interest in a real estate parcel, no matter what the value, can trigger a probate. A single bank account with more than $75,000 will trigger a probate. With the cost of a simple probate at $3000 or more, most want to avoid one.
As I mentioned, I prefer to focus on all of the benefits and positive outcomes an up-to-date estate plan can provide rather than focus on the negative ones. Nonetheless, it’s my hope that this article is informative and encourages you to put an estate plan in place. Bottom line, a good estate plan can help prevent unintended consequences, headaches, and additional costs. It’s good work for all of us to do.
At Breen & Person, Ltd. estate planning is an important area of our law practice, and we are committed to helping individuals and families with these issues. Although we cannot give you legal advice through the column, we can provide some general information that may be helpful for you to know. Our purpose is to educate and we hope that you can take something new away from this column each time you read it.
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