Current Legal Issues
As a courtesy to our current and prospective clients, we periodically to provide information about legal issues which may be of concern to the community which we serve:
Corporations and Limited Liability Companies: If you own a corporation or a limited liability company, as the end of the calendar year approaches, you need to consider if any changes need to be made to financial and/or legal arrangments which you have made for your company. If your company operates on a calendar year basis, in order to qualify for deductions for the current year, you may need to make certain expenditures by year's end. If your corporation needs to requalify as a Subchapter S corporation (so that profits and losses flow through to your individual tax returns) or as C-Corporation (so that the corporation is treated as a separate taxable entity), you may need to make these decisions within 75 days following commencement of your new tax year in order to qualify for that year. If your limited liability company was set up as a single-member LLC, it may be treated as a partnership for tax purposes; which may or may not suit your particular needs. Please call us to discuss your particular needs further and/or contract your company's accountant.
Remember that you need to file an organizational annual return with the Georgia Secretary of State between January 1 and April 1 of each year. If you fail to do so, your company may be involuntarily dissolved. You can accomplish this yourself at http://www.sos.ga.gov/corporations. Or, we would be happy to do this for you.
Wills, Trusts and Related Documents: If you have never executed Wills, Trusts, Advance Healthcare Directors or similar documents, you need to consider doing so, in order to protect your family and loved ones, and to make sure your wishes are properly carried out, in the event of your death or incapacity. If you don't make these decisions for yourself, then you leave it to Georgia law to determine how your affairs and medical care may be handled; which may not suit your particular needs. If you have already executed Wills, Trusts, Advance Healthcare directives and similar documents, you should review those documents periodically to make sure they still suit your particular situation.
Effective July 1, 2007, "Advance Healthcare Directives" replaced Georgia Living Wills and Durable Powers of Attorney for Healthcare. The new forms are much more thorough than documents you may have previously signed. Living Wills and Durable Powers of Attorney for Healthcare properly executed prior to July 1, 2007 are still valid. Such documents even executed after July 1, 2007 might still be valid. But, you would be well-advised to any any such documents reviewed by your attorneys to make sure they were properly executed. You should also review whatever documents you have executed to make sure no changes need to be made to the list of persons you may have appointed to make decisions for you in such documents, or to the specific directions you have given. We'd be happy to help. But, even if you don't utilize our services in those regards, please have your documents reviewed by another compentent legal adviser.
Whenever we perform estate planning work for our clients, we ask that they first complete an Estate Planning Questionaire. To download an Estate Planning Questionare (in Word format) please click the link below. Please complete this form as fully as possible and then call our office to set up an appointment for a formal consultation in our office. Please bring the completed form with you at the time of your appointment.
Non(traditionally) Married Partners: Domestic partners who are traditionally married have divorce laws that help protect them and their assets in the event of break-up. Non-traditionally married partners, whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual, generally do not. Especially you own property together, we recommend that such clients consider execution of partnership agreements which will help protect them in the event of a break-up or dispute over assets. These instruments can establish valuations of property upon inception of joint ownership, determine how properties would be valued at the time of partnership dissolution, provide for rights of first refusal, purchase options, procedures for sale or other disposition of joint assets, disposition of sale proceeds, contingencies for financial disability of either party, etc. Too often non-traditionally married partners are left by Georgia law to fend for themselves in such matters. With execution of a contract tailored to your specific needs and specificaitons, we can hopefully help make this process more productive and less painful for all concerned.
Thank you.
-J. Patrick McCrary, October, 2008