Business Formation
For business owners, estate planning is not just about your home and personal accounts—it’s about the survival of your company. Whether you are forming a new LLC or have an existing corporation, we handle the complex Assignment of Business Interests into your Revocable Trust. This ensures that if you become incapacitated or pass away, your business avoids the freeze of probate, and your successor trustee can immediately step in to sign checks, pay employees, and keep operations running without a court order.
Protecting Your Legacy: The Critical Link Between Your Business and Your Trust
Many entrepreneurs spend decades building a successful business but fail to plan for its transition. A common tragedy in Florida probate courts involves profitable businesses that crumble because the owner died with the company shares in their personal name. By the time the court appoints someone to manage the accounts, clients have left, and employees have quit. The solution is simple but powerful: integrating your business into your Revocable Living Trust.
The "Probate Freeze" on Business
If you are the sole owner of an LLC and you pass away, your bank accounts are frozen immediately. No one—not your spouse, not your VP—can legally sign checks or access operating capital until a probate judge issues "Letters of Administration." This process can take weeks or months. For a small business, a month without payroll is a death sentence.
How the Trust Solves the Problem
When you assign your membership interest to your Revocable Trust:
Immediate Continuity: Your Successor Trustee has immediate legal authority to step into your shoes as the owner. No court orders are needed. They can walk into the bank the next day and keep the business running.
Privacy: Probate is public; Trusts are private. Keeping your business out of probate keeps your financial valuation and list of creditors off the public docket.
Assignment of Interest
You cannot just "list" the business in your Trust schedule. You must legally transfer the ownership.
Succession vs. Ownership
It is important to distinguish between who owns the profit and who runs the company. A good estate plan can separate these roles. You might want your spouse to get the income, but your savvy Operations Manager to make the decisions. We can draft your Operating Agreement to facilitate this specific hierarchy.
Your business is likely your most valuable asset. Don't leave it vulnerable to the slow gears of the court system. coordinating your Business Formation with your Trust is the ultimate insurance policy for your life's work.