Estate Planning and Tax Lawyer Blog

Florida’s unemployment rate in May was 17 percent higher than the national unemployment rate; currently, it stands at 11.7 percent. That’s a lot of Florida residents either looking for a new job or creating their own, not an unusual event in a time of high unemployment.

Being your own boss brings with it a lot of responsibility – including the responsibility to create an estate plan so your heirs are not left with a lot of your business’s unfinished business.

If your business is a sole proprietorship, the assets of the business (and its obligations) are your personal assets and obligations, so you need to plan for how those are dispensed once you are gone.

Obviously, the basics should be in place: a Will, a Living Will, Power of Attorney that appoints someone you trust to look after your affairs and Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare to appoint someone you trust to look after you if you become incapacitated.

You should also discuss with a Florida estate planning attorney the establishment of a trust to handle your business affairs after you die, even if you’ll only use it for closing the business down and dispensing the assets.

Establishing trusts that will protect what you’re working so hard to build right now for your surviving spouse, children and other beneficiaries is also something you should discuss with an estate planning lawyer.

If you’re starting a new business, you’re doing a lot of planning. Just be sure you do some estate planning as well to protect it all.