Planning Through the Lens of Life Events
Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, life seems to have both intensified and sped up, not counting those months in 2020 where each month lasted for a year. Since then, more people have gotten married, started businesses, had children, moved away, started new careers, come out of the closet, taken the plunge on a major creative project, and made other major changes to their lives. All of these changes can be great, but as your friendly community attorney, I’m here to encourage you to get your affairs in order, just in case.
This advice can and should be applied to many contexts. For example: if you have young children, there is little more important than creating an estate plan, including a trust, wills, and powers of attorney, to ensure that your children are taken care of and provided for in the event of you being unable to care for them. The same advice applies if you’ve recently received an inheritance from a parent or other relative, purchased a home, or are over 50.
Another example: if you want to start a business (or have already done so), ensuring that you have the proper type of business entity, that all of your filings are done correctly, and that you understand when, how, and how much to pay in taxes, is equally important.
If you want to embark on a new creative venture, understanding intellectual property and making connections in your chosen field are the key to success. If you are changing your name, ensuring that everything under your name matches is legally important. If you move to a new city, understanding what is the same and what is different from your previous home base, regarding taxes, business registrations, and government functionality, is something you should spend time doing.
My life’s work is supporting my community (defined broadly, as people who tend to find me tend to be a part of my community) in achieving all of these sorts of goals. My top skill is explaining concepts and how to achieve goals, but more importantly why they are important and deserve your attention. Each of us has so many different things pulling away our attention at any given moment: family, friends, work, travel, health concerns, finances, recreation, survival. It can be hard to know what to focus on. What I am highly skilled at doing is helping people to figure out what to focus on, and how to achieve goals once they are set.
An important lesson I keep having to learn, over and over, is that it is okay to ask for help. I fail at taking this advice more often than I'd like to admit, because I’ve rarely had people to lean on throughout my life and I’m quite competent. We all are competent, but that doesn't mean you need to do everything on your own. I love meeting new people and talking about their problems—no, really!
Our practice’s main focuses are estate planning—which includes trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and business transitions—and forming and operating small businesses and nonprofit organizations. But I also welcome conversations about any number of other topics; more than anything, I consider myself a professional problem-solver. Please consider making an appointment with me to discuss what’s going on for you in this crazy world, and there might just be some way I can help!