Estate Planning
As a business owner part of your business plan should be planning for when your not around. A succession plan for your business should be on your bucket list. Make a plan and write it down. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a member of a LLC, or shareholder of a closely held corporation; I recommend before creating an estate plan for yourself before you create a succession plan for your business. If you’re business is a single member LLC, or a…
Since January 2021, electronic wills or e-wills are valid in Colorado. The Colorado Uniform Electronic Wills Act allows for remote signing and witnessing of wills. Ordinarily, a person signs their will in front of a notary and two witnesses. This routinely happens at the attorney’s office, or sometimes at the signer’s home. During the pandemic however, this became increasingly challenging because of social distancing, limits on gatherings, as well as office closings. It just so happened, prior to COVID-19 a…
If you work in a school, have a student, or an adult student; I urge you to seriously consider getting your estate plan together. Since I’ve worked in the public school system as a teacher; I know they are some of the germiest places on earth. To keep healthy while I was teaching, I used at least a half a dozen different ways to “high five” students without ever touching them. Kids get germs from school. They’re going back to…
Don’t overlook this important piece of your estate planning. The letter of last instructions gives your personal representative, as well as your family, details they’ll need to settle financial matters, and resolve your final wishes. Although, it’s not legally binding, it’s an invaluable resource to your loved ones. It provides final wishes not covered in your will, as well as contact information, they’ll need to close accounts and settle your matters. What To Write Often, a letter of last instructions…
Prior to social distancing my firm’s procedure for drafting and finalizing a client’s estate plan went something like this. I met with clients a first time to gather information; then created a first draft of their documents; next I met with them again to review their documents; and lastly I met with them a third time to finalize their estate plans. If the stay-in-place order has forced you to address “what if” scenarios which were previously unthinkable. So, after you’ve…