Being self-employed comes with its own unique challenges and responsibilities. As the owner and often the sole employee, you have the freedom to make your own decisions, but you also bear the weight of ensuring your financial future and protecting your business endeavors.
Here are three important estate planning concerns self-employed individuals should address.
Protecting Your Financial Future
You are your own boss, and you have your own business. That means it is your responsibility to obtain the important things we associate with employment, such as retirement accounts and insurance. To properly plan for your financial future and the future of your business and loved ones, it is important to have a comprehensive plan and an experienced advisor team. The right advisor team can educate you about the available retirement plan options and the best investment strategies based on your unique situation. You can also discuss the different types of insurance you may need to protect the important aspects of your life, such as disability, life, and business insurance. An experienced advisor team can help you determine how much insurance you need to ensure that you and your loved ones are protected no matter what, as well as how best to protect what you have worked so hard for.
Protecting Your Business Endeavors
As a self-employed individual, your business activities are likely to support most if not all of your financial needs. It is important that these activities are protected to ensure that you can support yourself and your loved ones no matter the circumstances. By working with an experienced planning team, we can address some important considerations that may be keeping you up at night:
Are you the only person making money for the business, or are there employees?
What will happen to the business if you become incapacitated? Can the business continue without you, or does all work halt?
What will happen if or when you decide to retire? Will you need a different source of income, or will you have some aspect of your business that you can sell?
What will happen to the business and your loved ones when you die? What will be left to support your loved ones?
Limiting Liability
Everything in life comes with a certain amount of risk—being self-employed is no different. From a business standpoint, a self-employed person may be personally susceptible to the business’s creditors or other lawsuits involving the business’s activities. As an individual, you may also be concerned about personal creditor claims, potential divorces, and other lawsuits. Although we cannot eliminate all risks, we can take steps to help minimize them. With respect to the business, it is important for you to work with an experienced attorney and tax preparer to ensure that the business is formed or organized in a way that limits liability for some of the potential risks.
Personally, you can take the first steps toward protecting yourself and your business by adequately insuring both. If you are concerned about protecting what you leave behind to your loved ones, there are special types of trusts that can be used to help ensure that your loved ones can benefit from their inheritance while minimizing the likelihood that it will be taken and used for a different purpose.
We understand that you have a lot on your plate. Let us take part of the burden off of your shoulders by crafting a plan that is unique to your personal circumstances. Give us a call so we can schedule your first meeting and get you on the path to a protected future for you, your business endeavors, and your loved ones. Call Santaella Legal Group, serving all of California, at (925) 831-4840, or reach out to us here.