Estate + Business planning in Portland, Oregon. Personalized service and affordable membership programs.
It has become the norm for business owners to have their clients and customers sign liability waivers to protect the business owner from being sued if something bad happens, like an injury. But do these waivers even work?
This is a question I get a lot: “I moved to Portland from California [or another state]. Do I need to have my estate plan reviewed or revised?” The answer is yes, yes, yes, a million times yes. Let’s break down some of the major documents involved in an estate plan and why you’ll want to have them reviewed and possibly revised.
Most Oregon business owners start their businesses by navigating as best they can to file LLC articles with the Secretary of State and then forgetting about it (other than their annual filing) until something happens where they face being sued, or they hear about another business owner getting sued, and they think to themselves, "Oh my goodness, am I really protected?"
Death is coming for each of us, and many of us don't ever get a warning. It just happens sometimes. Even though I don't have cancer, I could get hit by a car tomorrow. So making sure that we're living our lives to the fullest is super important. And so is planning for our deaths so that we don't leave a mess behind for the people we love.
Now you might be thinking, “Candice, what the heck does Game of Thrones have to do with estate or business planning?” Hear me out. It has a lot to do with it. And you might as well get used to hearing about it, because rewatching this show might be my primary inspiration over the next year to write about estate and business planning. When I’ve watched Game of Thrones, I always thought about how estate and business planning relate to the show. But I never sat down to write out my thoughts. This is my chance to actually go through and recapture all of the thoughts I had over the years—except with added perspective and experience—and share with you all of the lessons you can learn from this extraordinary show when it comes to estate and business planning.
I got this question on my Facebook page, and I wasn’t entirely clear about whether the question was meant to be about business planning or estate planning, but it’s a great question either way, so in the last video, I answered this question about business planning, and in this video, I’m going to answer this as it relates to estate planning.
So, the question is: How do I get started? What can I do myself and what do I need a professional for?
Let’s discuss what the point of estate planning is, and how you can help yourself, versus when you should seek help from a lawyer.
