Success Champions
Asset Protection Strategies As You Grow Your Business By Karen Johnson
“Hey business owner! You, yes, you. What happens to your company when you die?”
H
ey business owner! You, yes, you. What happens to your company when you die?
Do you have an LLC, a C-Corp, an S-Corp, a Partnership? Do you have an Operating Agreement, Articles of Incorporation or did you just fill out a form online to create your company and you have none of those items? Does your business partner obtain the right of first refusal when you die? Are they the ones to purchase your interest upon that event or does your interest transfer to your estate? Will they buy your interest in the company before your family does? If there is something called a buy-sell agreement, is it funded? There is a game plan for what happens to your company
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when you die, the default instruction manual will always be the business organizations code of your state governing what happens next, but wouldn’t it be better if you controlled the continuity of your company or at least controlled how it will wind down when you are gone? You can do that. In the United States, we live in an asset distribution system. Every single asset you own will transfer according to the laws of the state you live in as there is no federal probate law. Your real estate can be transferred via deeds such as a transfer on death deed or a document known as a lady bird deed also known as an enhanced life estate deed. These deeds can transfer real estate, that includes mineral interests and timeshares, upon the death of the owner and avoid the probate process. Any financial account may transfer via the contract governing the account. It may be a pay-on-death account and in need of listed beneficiaries in the documentation. It could also be a Joint Tenancy with
