Basic Operations: Estate Planning for Business Owners: The Right Attorney Can Protect Your Business and Family's Future

Book Synopsis: This book is important to me because I know that so many people need this information. The purpose of the book is to help those people get off the ground and get moving. People are starting businesses left and right. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, people have started seriously rethinking their work habits, their desires, and their independence.

One of the things that I've seen too many times is that you usually have to choose between working with a business attorney or an estate planning attorney — the two just don't always line up. This sometimes results in needing two attorneys for your one life!

For example, we get lots of people who come to us looking for help with business planning. Then, when we ask them about estate planning, they're clueless. The same patterns often happen in reverse when we see estate planning clients who own businesses who haven't considered forming a business succession plan.

What most people don't realize is how much of their wealth is tied up in their business and what that could mean for them and their families if something happens to them.

The number of business owners who don't have this type of planning done is significantly higher than the number of business owners who have started a plan of any kind — yet more and more businesses are opening and closing their doors every day. On average, about 600,000 just close every year. Only 20% of businesses that are listed for sale actually sell.

If people had a better idea of where to start, what to do, and what questions to ask, we'd see many more opportunities for success across the board. My goal for the book is to give business owners like you a starting point so that you can choose how to move forward with strategic and tactical information.

If you ask me, small businesses are the economic backbone of this country. The American dream is born and realized through small businesses. In the most recent generation, small businesses created 2/3 of the jobs in the United States. So as we say around my firm, “How can we help?” My hope is that this book is one way for us to help — so that you can get started, no matter where you are along the way.