A post in the general discussion area has gotten me thinking.
Question how you one man guy's have your business set up to carry on or finish up in the (God forbid) case that you would no longer be around to take care of it. Must admit that I have not done much other than to leave my wife out of my corporation but leave her on my bank accounts. I have an appointment with my attorney tomorrow and really question why he did not raise this issue when I started this business.

A lot depends on your state laws and how your business is set up. Your attorney is definately the person to talk to about ways to deal with this. I wouldn't be too hard on him or her for not bringing this up beforehand. Most people don't want to think about such things especially if they are young.

After rereading your question, one thing I would be sure to ask about is your wife's liability if she has signature authority for your companies bank accounts.

Speaking from personal experience- basically my wifes previous husband passed away. He had a construction corporation and she had signature authority for the checks and bank accounts. Apparently some state witholding and sales taxes went unpaid when the corporation was dissolved. To make a long story short she marries me a few years later and after 12 years they come after her personally for principal, interest and penalties. So now I'm helping to pay the debts of a person and company I had nothing to do with and didn't even know.

Only in America.

-Hal

[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 11-30-2004).]

Hey guys and gals. Anonymous has a very good and very serious point. I worked for this guy where he and I was the whole crew. He unexpectantly died in the middle of a big project plus had several more lined up and suppliers to pay. His wife had to deal with it all. "Luckily" his brother was also a electrical contactor so he was able help some but she had to deal with a majority of it and the funeral and the lost of her husband...

Canada too.

My solution is to keep equity in the company at a reasonable level (low) and my wife entirely out.

I was in business as a sole owner, then I went into a sub chapter S corp, which was suppose to isolate me from the rest of the family, now around here everyone is becoming LLC companies. I believe it is for the Limited Liability, but being out of business, I am not sure what it entails.

Even as a one man or woman business and isolate the business from the family, your love ones still have to deal with it if you were to in expectantly pass on. Not only you have to protect the family from the business, you should have a plan in place to deal with the business after you are gone. At a minimum, keeping your love ones abreast on where everything is, how to access your businesss affairs, etc.

OK, so to the current activity on this 9 year old thread...

My wife and daughter had access to the EC business records, customer data base, payroll, checkbook, etc. for many years.

I laso was one who changed ownership to an LLC, based on info from my lawyer and accountant. The structure of the LLC would leave my wife &/or daughter as the principal member in my demise. Liquidation procedures were spelled out, along with approved procedure to complete any/all work that was 'in-progress', compliant to stste licensure regs.

As to the OP back 9+ years ago, I doubt he is around to read any of this.

Legal requirements for operation of any business varies from state to state, so I suggest contacting a local, trusted lawyer and accountant.

C-10s in California can finally be LLCs -- yet the $$$$$$ put the issue completely out of range.

IIRC, LLCs have to have $ 100,000,000 minimum insurance coverage -- at all times.

John,

Oh Wow! I didn't see that this post was so old. I am sorry to bring up an old subject. Maybe we should have an OLD POST column where these old posts can go to live on forever?
However maybe some of these old questions might still fit todays life style?

It popped up as a new message at my end. Never looked at the message. It is a very important post anyways. I've seen the results first hand of what can happen.

Even if love ones have access to everything. Do they know what to do with it wen you are gone? They will have to deal with it on top of everything else to include the list if... You

Yes, this is an important subject. When I first saw it, I did not notice the date, but I noticed the OP was 'unregistered' and anonymous. I almost removed it, but decided to check with Bill first. Bill is the guy who brought the date to my attention, along with a guess on how an unregistered person could post.

That said, let's see how much action this subject creates!!

Tesla:

Why the $100Mil insurance minimum?? The LLC regs here had nothing to do with the required minimum insurance that ECs must carry. That is a requirement for the EC Business Permit here, enforced by the Board of Electrical Contractors.

The issue is actually pretty simple.

One man show? Sole proprietorship with employees? Same answer: the business dies when the principal dies. Period. ANY permissions or authorities, ALL obligations, end as well. Period.

Some things can be done to smooth over the transition- things like 'durable power of attorney,' but essentially the process is: all assets and liabilities are frozen as the 'estate,' and Probate Court decides what to do.

Now, there are various legal practices that will change the question. Incorporating and trusts are two such methods- the principal may die, but the corporation and trust continues to exist, subject to it's charter.

Kin and staff may mean well, but their hands are tied. They have not the authority to spend a nickel, and no contract exists between them and the customers. It's time to re-do the paperwork.

One of the first things that happens is that someone petitions the court to be appointed as 'administrator', or have their claim as 'executor' of the estate recognized. Only then does that person have any right to notify creditors, sign checks, etc.

Rant on a tangent: This stuff is pretty basic. IMO, it is a scandal that anyone graduates High School without a basic understanding of such matters. The schools have a lot to answer for!

Is it different in every jurisdiction? I think the concept of limited liability companies is fairly universal, but officers might have different liabilities.

FWIW, in Canada, I have personal exposure for corporate taxes and unpaid employees, with or without a corporation. After I die, my remaining assets are also exposed.

To make it worse, my wife is a US citizen, so if she has a financial interest or even signing authority over money, it has to be reported to the US government. That's my rant on a tangent.

What I was getting at was not only the executor need to find things, if the executor is a love one, they are already under great stress so they need something, anything to assist them through the termoil.

I got the $100,000,000 figure from the CSLB -- it was in their quarterly blurb.

The WHOLE point of a LLC is to limit liability -- without going the corporate route.

Our CSLB has been fanatically against any limit to a contractor's liability as a point of principle.

Such a hurdle must mean that no one in California uses a LLC. I suspect that the insurance scheme is designed for big time players ( out of state ) who want to bid on the big government contracts. Those already have very high insurance stipulations built in.

===========

The real solution is to never die.

Alternately, quit working long before you stressing your body. Out my way, most ECs have been driven out of business before they could die. So they have that going for them.