Putting all of your effort into your business for many years is a common problem for entrepreneurs. They have a great deal of passion and excitement about growing their business, but there may be times when you need to think about selling. In today’s current economic climate, this could be a very important opportunity for you to evaluate your options to sell your business.

It may be in your best interests to sell your company if you are facing significant issues with current management or feel as though your business has outgrown you. It is the goal for many entrepreneurs to replace themselves in their business by building teams, systems and processes that can help to carry on the business without them.

During your working years, this might have been used to allow you to go on vacation, but as you get closer to retirement, you must think about the benefit of business succession planning. Business succession planning can help you see the talent bench you have that will progress your business in ways that you might not have imagined. This can factor into your decision about when to retire because based on your current financial goals and what you might take away from an exit of the business, you may have more assets than expected or need to stay a few longer years than you expected.

Consulting with the right team of financial professionals is instrumental in outlining your success when selling your company or making any other big transition in your life. Contact our team of dedicated professionals to help answer your questions today. We’re here to help you decide what this transition looks like and how to make the best of it.

Stock market declines over a few days or months may
lead investors to anticipate a down year. But the US stock
market had positive returns in 17 of the past 20 calendar
years, despite some notable dips in many of those years.

• Intra-year declines for the index ranged from 3% to 49%.
• Many years with large intra-year declines saw positive
annual returns. In 17 of the last 20 years, US stocks
ended up with gains for the year.
• Even in 2020, when there were sharp market declines
associated with the coronavirus pandemic, US stocks
ended the year with gains of 21%.

Volatility is a normal part of investing. Tumbles may be
scary, but they shouldn’t be surprising. A long-term focus
can help investors keep perspective.

Sources: Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Do you hold crypto assets or are you looking into owning some? You need a plan for how you’ll hold it during your life and what happens to it after you pass away.

Crypto is only becoming more possible but this raises plenty of questions for people who hold crypto assets about what happens to those assets when they pass away. If you do not have a specific plan for cryptocurrency assets in your will, these could all disappear permanently when you pass away. Crypto transactions live on a blockchain and are verified independently by a network of computers, which means they are assets handled and stored differently than those inside traditional banks.

Crypto is considered a probate asset because it will need to go through probate before it can be legally transferred to your beneficiaries when you pass away. A beneficiary is an organization or a person who you want to inherit a particular asset when you pass away. In order to make sure that the right person has access to all of these details, you need to list out all of the crypto assets in your estate plan, name where they are stored, and which beneficiary should receive them.

Furthermore, you’ll also need to appoint an executor as part of your will, and this is the person responsible for administering your last will and testament. A digital property executor may also need to be appointed and it may be a separate person who is familiar with cryptocurrency. For more support in drafting a comprehensive strategy for your cryptocurrency in your estate plan, set aside a time to meet with a lawyer.

If you own a business, you need business succession planning and careful consideration about how to craft your estate planning to support your individual and company needs. Many business owners might only have the most basic of estate planning tools of a last will and testament.

If your estate plan only has a will in it, your estate, including all of the assets inside your business will have to go through the court supervised process known as probate when you pass away. It can take a few months for someone to appoint a person on behalf of you and your company to take action. This can significantly disrupt cash flow and operations. Furthermore, many people who have worked hard to establish a business want to maintain control over that and benefit from privacy. Remember that probate is a very public process, meaning that the affairs of your business could be open to your competitors or your neighbors.

Having the insight of an experienced estate planning lawyer is strongly recommended for every business owner who is looking forward to the future. Creating a business succession plan is one of the cornerstones of your estate plan because it allows for the transfer of the business based on decisions that you make now.

It can also include important documents, such as a buy-sell agreement, which allows certain other people to be able to step in and purchase your portion of the business if needed. Having these options is instrumental for keeping your company operating after you have stepped away, and it ensures that the right people have been tapped to step into leadership roles as necessary. Do not hesitate to contact an experienced business succession planning lawyer to discuss this option more.

A recent study by Empathy.com has shown that the average family incurs over $12,000 in unexpected expenses after a family member passes away. Every year, 3 million individuals pass away in the United States, some of whom have estate plans and others who leave all the questions to be answered by their family members. Funeral costs can be extensive and expensive.

Many people do not realize the comprehensive aspects of planning ahead for a funeral, and failing to plan is still a plan because it leaves your loved ones in the difficult situation of making these decisions after you pass away. This doesn’t incorporate your individual wishes and intentions and could even put them in a financial bind. Some of the average costs for services spent by family members around the country include:

• $3,910 in attorney fees
• Over $7,000 for funeral or memorial expenses
• $2,456 for accountant support
• $4,461 for real estate professional help
• $1,637 for social workers or therapists

Approximately one in seven families had a little bit easier road with these expenses because their loved one had paid in advance for those costs. Set aside the time to meet with an experienced estate planning attorney to make sure you have thought of a way to help plan for these potential expenses and make things easier on your loved ones.

Most people want to, at a minimum, make sure there are no burdens or messes left behind when they pass away. This means thinking about what advanced planning you’ve done and how it can help your family members during an otherwise difficult time.