Business Entities | Trust Attorney Las Vegas
Well, hello after glow. Uh, my name is Blake Johnson and I’m excited to be here today, uh, sharing some insights about business entities and I’m also about some personal planning. Uh, so I, uh, we’re going to jump right in. We’re going to talk about, uh, LLCs. We’re going to talk about, uh, uh, you know, corporations. We’re going to talk about a succession planning, all those types of things. We’re gonna talk about liability that you personally might face. Uh, so let’s jump right in. Uh, now, before we do that, I guess I should say what qualifies me to be able to talk about these subjects. I’m an Trust Attorney Las Vegas attorney. I’ve been practicing for five years here in Las Vegas and, uh, our firm specializes in estate planning and business formation and business succession planning. Now, if you don’t know what those areas are, what any of those things mean, don’t worry.
We’re going to go through it today. I’m gonna make or break it down so you know what things you can do on your own, what things you need a professional to help you with. Um, and what things, you know, you just need to plan for in the future so you can kind of get your ducks in a row. Now. Uh, the other thing that qualifies me, I feel like is I’m also a business owner, myself, a owner in the law practice. I’ve also started a couple other side businesses. I even sold one of them. So I’ve kinda been through, um, you know, all areas of business and how that affects you as a business owner. And I’m seeing some of the mistake, you made a lot of mistakes myself. And so it’s made me a, a better drafter for documents and a planner as far as that goes.
So, uh, my connection to Mascara, uh, my wife Carly, who’s on here, she is an artist and she joined back in April of 2017 and like your other makeup husbands out there, if you see this, um, you know that you’ve been a part of it since day one. And so, um, I’ve even done a makeup video or to a where I did my wife’s makeup. So, um, you know, I, I’m well acquainted with Mascara and, um, and how it works. So thanks for the, the, the comments guy that really appreciate it. Now, uh, next thing I want to do is I want to give a a lawyer joke cause I love lawyer jokes. I think they’re, they’re quite a telling and it’s also good, I think if you can laugh at yourself. So what’s the difference between a lawyer and a herd of Buffalo? The lawyer charges more.
And then another one, what’s the difference between an accountant and a lawyer? Accountants know they’re boring, so I apologize ahead of time if I’m boring. Um, because, you know, I know lawyers can be dry sometimes. Now let’s talk about each of you can protect your business that you’re building and keep more of those hard earned dollars, your commissions in your pockets. Now if you think this sounds good, um, you’ll give me a comment, give me a thumbs up, something that no, let me know that people are paying attention out there. So, um, you know, unfortunately, uh, I know it’s, it’s kind of early, especially here on the west coast. Um, but, um, I still have a day job on like the rest of you, so I still have to get stuff done today. And all right, so now if you guys have started this business, you’re in Mascara.
You are by default what the law calls a sole proprietor. Basically what that means is it’s the default form of doing business. If you haven’t formed an entity, you haven’t formed a partnership, you’re just doing it on your own. You are a sole proprietor. A, you don’t need a business license to do it, although you probably should go get a state business license. Um, just to make sure that, um, you know, you’re in line depending on what your state regulations are a but the time you forgot that first commission, you are a sole proprietor. And, uh, there’s a couple of things with sole proprietors. It’s very easy to do. You know, that’s one of the benefits. You can just start making money. You can go sell stuff on the side of the road. Um, you know, you can be a 10 99 employee like you guys are with Mascara or not employee.
10 99 contractor like you are with Mascara. Uh, but the biggest thing is you don’t have any protection as a sole proprietor because you are your business. That means all of your personal assets are also your business. And so if there’s any type of lawsuit or anything like that, then, um, you know, all those personal assets would be subject to that lawsuit. Uh, the other thing is I’m not even Mascara is going to step in and protect you in that situation because that’s why they set you up as an independent contractor. Now that versus an employee, an employee of a company, um, you know, they’re out representing the company, they are an official employee and they, um, be able, they’re able to, um, to act on behalf of the company. And so if the, that person goes and does something wrong and get sued, um, you know, they could sue the business and, um, they would have to step in and take that place.
But, uh, with being an independent contractor, what that does is it allows you guys more flexibility with, um, you know, tax planning, keeping all of your commissions. Not Having to have your wages withheld, but Mascara also doesn’t have to say that you’re an employee of the company. And so if you mess up, they can kind of cut that tie and say no, they’re an independent contractor and so you’re kind of on your own at that point. So really important that you understand that difference and know that um, you know, while Mascara is a great company, they set things up this way, um, it is in your best interest I think in the long run for making money to be a 10 99 but you don’t have that life liability protection Trust Attorney Las Vegas. Now with a sole proprietorship, you can be a sole proprietor and still have a business name.
So we call that a DBA, a doing business as name and um, you know, on the tax forms, your 10 99 flows through. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet this year, um, or for, since you’ve been with Mascara, you’re going to see that your business income is going to show up on your schedule C and any business deductions you take are going to be on that schedule. C of your tax form. And what that means is you’re responsible for paying your own taxes. You know, the company does not withhold any, um, any of your taxes. They do not, um, you know, pay your social security or anything like that. Um, and so that is makes sure that you are doing that. Um, if you make any, if you have any positive income net cash flow for the year. So let’s, that’s sole proprietorships in a nutshell.
Now we’re gonna transition and talk about the different side of things, which is a limited liability company or a corporation or any other business entity. Uh, because, um, you know, when you, when you start out, if you want to form a business entity, uh, the only one that can kind of happen by default is a partnership. And a partnership really doesn’t give you any more protection. All it’s saying is we’re two people doing business together. And so both of our personal assets are subject to this lawsuit. So partnerships, not a great, um, way to go for that. Corporations were the first main business entity that came about. Uh, they were, you know, back in the early exploration days of Great Britain and in Portugal and Spain when they were going all over the world, uh, the investors wanted to protect their money so they wouldn’t get sued by the families of the, um, the sailors when you know, something bad happened.
So they formed a corporation. So the first one was the east India trading company. And what it did is it put that shield of protection and said, all right, the only thing that we’re going to be at risk for it is the amount of money that we put into this business. And that was groundbreaking. And for a long time, corporations, we’re the only entity that was able to happen through, the problem with the corporation is it’s taxed twice. So you’re taxed, the company itself is taxed on the income that it gets. And then when you take money out to your individual, you know, we call that a dividend, you’re taxed on that dividend as well. So we have double taxation. So you’re getting the protection, but you’re also paying taxes twice. So it’s not really, you know, you’ve got to weigh the cost of it doesn’t make sense at that point.
So that’s, you know, you’re fortunate 500 companies, your apple, your Google, Amazon, that kind of stuff. That’s what we think about when we think about a corporation. Now in 1977, Wyoming was the first state to come up with a, with an LLC. It’s a limited liability company and, uh, really groundbreaking. They did it to try and get some more business, uh, up there, especially in the oil, um, oil industry. Um, but no one really followed suit because, uh, w w what the other states were waiting for us to figure out how that LLC would be taxed. Would it be taxed like a corporation where it’d be double taxation or would it be past tax, like an individual or a partnership where everything flows through to your individual return. And in 1988, the IRS finally ruled and they said that an LLC can be taxed as a partnership.
So that was huge. And that’s when you started seeing all the other states, you know, in succession past the LLC laws. And it’s kind of that, uh, best of both. So we have the protection of a corporation, but we have the benefit of being taxed individually and it’s a lot. We only have to be taxed once, you know, so what, what does that mean for me? Right? So an LLC does provide you protection. Now I can think of a few instances of where you guys might be in need of some liability protection. Let’s say you’re out doing makeup. Um, and you know, you slip and you poke someone in the eye, you know, with the brush and it damages their eye. Um, you know, worst case scenario, they go blind, you know, that’s a pretty big deal, right? And so they’re going to sue you.
Do you want them coming after, you know, your personal residence? Do you want to come in after what’s in your bank account? What’s in your savings account, any investments that you have. Um, because that’s what’s open, um, to lawsuits. If you only have a, you know, doing business as, you know, your person, um, you know, allergic reactions, um, that’s probably something that we’re more likely to see now that should fall more on Mascara because they’re the, the company who produced a product and that it should be on them. But let’s say, you know, they told you that they had an allergic or an allergy to certain things and you didn’t go and check the label and see if it was in the makeup. You know, that’s something that you would be liable for. Um, you know what, if you go to somebody’s house to do their makeup and, uh, you break something in their house while you’re personally liable for that.
And if, um, you know, let’s say it’s something major, um, you know, they could come after you personally versus in the LLC, they are limited to what’s in the LLC. So that’s the big thing I want you to walk away with is with, if you have an LLC, the, if somebody sues the LLC, the maximum they can get is the what’s in the LLC. So what do you put in your LLC? Really? You have your commissions flow through the LLC. They go into a business bank account and then you pay off your bills and then you take the net. You can do it each month. You can do one each quarter and take that cash out of the business and then goes to your personal things. It doesn’t matter what you do. And so, um, really ideally there would be nothing in that Trust Attorney Las Vegas. Right? Um, one of the things that one of my side businesses as I did, um, bubble rentals.
So there’s these big inflatable bubble balls and you run around and hit people. Now that just screams liability, right? There’s gonna be injuries and so on. And so what we did is we formed an LLC. And so the only thing in the LLC was those bubbles. Um, that was the inventory. And then, you know, if anybody did happen to sue us, thankfully they didn’t. That’s the maximum they could get. They could go with, try and sell those bubbles and get some profit and that would be it. Um, you know, other things too, to think about where you could have liability. You know, somebody comes into your house and they get hurt and they sue you. Um, you, you have an, you get to the point where you have an employee, um, you know, an assistant or something and they screw up, you know, you could be liable for them as well.
So that’s, those are all really important reasons of why setting up an LLC or at least some sort of business entity is really important. Now, that’s just the liability side of the equation. So there’s also a lot, a lot of tax advantages to setting up a formal business. Now there is added cost, right? So when you set up an LLC, uh, even if you do it yourself, you have to pay a state filing fee. Now, if you live in Utah, you’re lucky. The state filing fee is I think 75 or 80 bucks a and annually after that, it’s just $15 a year to renew here in Nevada because we don’t have state income tax, our filings are a lot more expensive. So it’s four 25 the first year to get it set up and in three 50 each year thereafter to keep it going. Um, you’re also going to have costs of actually filing the separate return if you do it that way.
I’m paying a good CPA, um, you know, rates that I’ve seen probably somewhere in the 700 to 1200 range for a business return depending on how complicated it is. But let’s weigh that with the liability protection. I think that’s really important. You know, you can’t put a really dollar amount on there. Um, but the tax advantages as well, where you going to save money is um, you know, self employment tax. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this when you filed your tax return yet, but you, because no one took out your social security and um, you know, your federal taxes and, and all that stuff you have to pay it. But also because the business owner, the business owner always has to match with that self or that those withholdings are, and so you’re going to get double hit on there. So your, your tax rate on that is actually, you know, in the for, um, for your FICA stuff is I think seven and a half percent.
So you’re talking about 15% tax, you’re paying a on your [inaudible], you do it personally. If you do it through an LLC and it’s set up to be taxed there, correct way you can mitigate some of that. You can’t get rid of all of it cause there’s still has to be a salary of an employee and so on. But you can take away a lot of that self employment tax. Um, the likelihood of an audit in an LLC is significantly less than if you have everything on your schedule C on your personal return. Now what do I mean by that? So this last year in the 2018 or 2017 tax reform act, um, you know, you may have noticed that the standard deduction went up way up. You got that extra child credit. So you know, hopefully you know your taxes, we’re less this year or you’ve got a bigger refund.
What that means is they took away a lot of areas in which the IRS could come and audit you. So where are they gonna audit the schedule C, that’s the only thing left for them to really audit. And so you’re more likely to get audited on that side. The other part of it is, is the standard at which the IRS looks at for if they, if you do get audited, um, for how they determine if it’s, if it’s actual deduction or not. So if it’s on your personal side and uh, you’re doing, um, and they’re getting audited and you have an expense in there, what they’re going to, the standard is that they’re going to hold you too is, is this actually a business expense? And so you have to justify its showing, you know, it was at this conference specifically for makeup. I didn’t do anything else personally while I was there and it just be kind of becomes a pain.
Whereas if we do it through an LLC, the standard is now is would a business and normal function functioning business spend money on that and that’s blood much easier to justify. Okay. Yeah. I spent money on meals while I was traveling because I had to. And so, you know, they’re, they’re going to write that off. Now that’s, that’s a bad example cause meals are deductible, but let’s say, um, you know, renting a car while you’re on a trip. Okay, well you could have some business part of it. You could have some personal side of it, but a normal business would spend money in for an employee to rent a car if they’re having them travel to go visit, uh, you know, uh, potential customers, so much easier threshold to meet. Uh, when we talk about, um, you know, those write offs that you have. And like I said, the likelihood of getting audited is way, way less.
The other thing is if you have, um, you know, hopefully you have a good tax person and you’re writing off as much as you can. If you, it’s on your personal side and you’ve taken a loss. So let’s say you have a lot of deductions. You write off a lot of miles that you’re driving and so on, and it gets it so that on from a tax perspective, you show a loss for the year. If you do that three years in a row, the IRS has guaranteed that you will get audited. It’s an automatic thing. Three years in a row of loss, you have to get audited on your personal side. It’s because it’s considered a hobby. And so they’re going to say, all right, how much of this is actually being fraud? Or how much of this is actually, you know, a true business expense.
There’s not that automatic three years. If you have three lot three years of losses in a row, uh, on an LLC side, if you’re, if you’ve actually file a business return. And so, you know, like I said, a likelihood of audit is way, way down. If you have the LLC, um, other advantages of an LLC, uh, you can pay your kids through it and you can do that on your personal side as well, but it’s better to do it through the LLC. So that reduces your tax liability. You can pay each child up to $6,000 a year before you have to pay any federal tax or uh, any, uh, medicaid or FICA withholdings. So pretty good deal. Uh, I did the, this last year for the first time. It was pretty awesome to say myself that tax, um, and then sell ability, uh, this isn’t really a tax benefit, but the other benefit of an LLC is you can sell your Mascara business a lot easier because you don’t have to go through the whole transition of, um, you know, if it’s tied to your individual name, you know, let’s say you put it in an LLC, you know, you build the business that’s doing really well, but then you get sick and you don’t have the ability to continue to run that business.
Trying to get out of there and sell that downline that you have and all the business that you built. If you do it through an LLC, it’s a much easier transition and likelihood of being able to get that sold, um, at top dollar than if you didn’t have the LLC and have all that function in place with an LLC. If you’re keeping good records and you have all the income statements you can show, um, you know, you have all this history, um, that makes it more, uh, more likely that people want to buy your business. Now, that’s a lot of information I’m kind of going over you probably want to know is how does this apply to you individually. So we talked about, you know, how individually your liability could be affected and some of those scenarios, um, but Mascara, they do allow a business, you’re your Mascara business to be owned by an LLC. So, um, let’s see here. If I can figure out how to screen share.
Nope, it’s not going to let me do it. So, um, if you go to the Mascara website and, um, you go to the very, very bottom, there’s a page called policies and procedures, you can click on and I’m just going to read, um, uh, this section. So I’m pretty sure that I’m the only person other than the attorney who drafted this stuff for Mascara, who’s actually read all of this stuff. Um, but, uh, nonetheless it’s there for you. And I do suggest that you go through and read that cause this is all the stuff that you guys have agreed to, to follow all the policies and procedures that Mascara has in place. Um, but Mascara does allow you to have your, your, your business owned by an LLC. Uh, it could be owned by a corporation to, um, but just not a partnership. So, uh, pretty cool.
You know, you can go transfer in it. You’re going to have your 10 99 issued in the name of the, um, the LLC and, um, you know, done deal. Now let’s talk about, um, when, when do you need to form an LLC? What’s that threshold? Because like I said, there are costs involved. Um, and so, uh, you know, when you’re making positive cash flow, that’s really the main thing. So if you’re, if you have more write offs than you do, um, you know, net cash coming in, you know, I’d say at least a net cash of 5,000, um, each year, preferably probably in the 15 to 20,000. Um, before it makes sense financially from the tax perspective where you’re getting your money back in the tax savings. That’s one of the thresholds. Um, if you have a significant expenses that you want right off and you want to reduce your chance of an audit, you know, that would be a good time to set up the LLC and do it through there.
Uh, for sure if you have any employees, you need an LLC. So you know, you’ve got a big business, you have an assistant that you’ve hired to help you out. Let’s, let’s get you an LLC set up. Um, and really if you’re serious about growing this business and you’re going to be here long term, you might as well set it up now, get the history going. Um, and so it just makes it that much easier and get used to doing it. Wallets small, um, because there are some record keeping things that you have to do in getting used to that. Um, so, uh, I see a question here about how to find registered agents. Um, you know, each state is going to have a number of people. There’s a lot of corporations that are set up just to do that. That is their sole business is to be a registered agent.
Um, most attorneys that you talked to would be your registered agent. Most CPA’s also will be your registered agent. So, um, you know, you can, you can definitely, um, you find that pretty easy. Typically I would say whoever you go to help set up that LLC, I would ask if they do it because you have that relationship with them. So we were a registered agents for a Nevada, uh, companies and also Utah Companies, um, because we have offices in both locations. So that’s the main thing. You do have to have a registered agent in the state that can take service of process. If you’re in that state, you can be your own registered agent. You don’t have to have a third party unless that your state law specifically requires it, but most states don’t. But that’s one of those things where you want to check and make sure I’m all right.
What’s the other things? Okay, so now if you do form an LLC, um, what are your must do’s? The first thing is you must make sure that your name is unique. So if you go Google a business entity search Nevada or business entity search Utah or whatever state you live in, um, there’s going to be a website that comes up and you go in there and you type in the name that you think you want it, you want for, um, the company and it’ll search and tell you whether that company name is available. Because it does need to be unique to that specific state. Uh, you can file it yourself. Um, uh, luckily here in Nevada where you can file directly online, you know, you click a few buttons, fill out some information. It’s a very quick process. The problem is if you do it incorrectly, it’s going to cost you the full amount again to get it changed.
Um, you, Taz, you have to submit the form of, um, uh, you can submit it via email or fax, but it is a form you have to physically fill out. So each state is different as far as the standards go there. But I would definitely recommend that you have a professional do it. Like I said, CPAS, we’ll do it a lot of the times. Um, and then attorneys who are business transactional attorneys, they can do that for you. Um, there is a fee, but that fee is deductible on your taxes. So you do get some benefit there. The next thing you need to do with your LLC as you need to treat it like a business. So you only run business expenses through that, uh, account. You know, whether it’s a checking account, if you have a credit card for the business, um, you know, treat it like a Trust Attorney Las Vegas.
So you don’t pay your mortgage through that account. You don’t pay your kids babysitting out of that account. Um, you know, you don’t pay for your groceries, but any other expenses that are related to the business. So you know, if you’re, if you’re driving around town to do makeovers, yeah, you can put the guests on that account. Um, you know, if it’s, um, you know, the car’s getting serviced, you know, that’s a justifiable expense. You’re servicing it cause you’re using it for business purposes. Um, and then, uh, cause if you don’t, there’s a thing called piercing the corporate veil. So what that means is if you don’t treat it like a business and you get sued, then they can say, well, you weren’t treating this like a business so that you can, um, you know, we can come after your personal assets because you’re, you’re paying personal things out of there.
So that’s the big reasons why you need to treat it like a business. If you need money, transfer it to your personal account. You know, if you have it at the same bank, it happens instantly and then you can go and use that money however you need to. But, you know, don’t pay for it out of the business account. Treat it like a business. Um, and the other part of that is if you do that, then it tracks all of your expenses. And so it’s a lot easier to do your taxes at the end of the year cause you can say, all right, it’s all in this account. Makes your CPA’s job a lot easier to help save you some money. And then also you can kind of track what you’ve been doing. You know, here’s what I spent on the business. Here’s a much how much came in, here’s my net cash flow.
We call it an income statement so you can see what’s my income for the year or for this month. And you can kind of see where you go on and see your projections moving forward. And then the last thing I would highly, highly recommend is that you hire a good CPA to help you with your taxes. And so they can know when it makes sense to transition you to the tax status that we talked about earlier, where you pay yourself a wage, but you save on the self employment. It’s called an s corp status. Um, and the CPAS, I’m really good at being able to help understand that. Um, is childcare not deductible? It can be. That’s one of those things where I talked to the CPA to see, uh, where, where it makes sense to, um, if you can write that off. But, um, you know, it all depends on you what your documentation is there.
So once again, talk to a CPA, that’s more of a tax question than I, than I know how to answer. Um, next thing you need to do is make sure you pay your state license fee every year. Um, you know, you don’t want to let it lapse because then I’ll send your company’s not valid anymore. And then it usually, there’s a lot of late fees involved, um, with, um, you know, with, with having to get that reinstated. So you definitely don’t want to have that done. And then the last one is to have a business succession plan. So what does that mean? Well, this is where we get to make the transition to the morbid part of my presentation. And we’re gonna talk about what happens if to your business when you die. Um, I know nobody likes to think about their own demise. Um, you know, it’s not something you think about an hour a day unless you’re me.
Cause this is what I do for work. Uh, but um, you know, what, what is the situation? So if you own your business, uh, in your own personal name, um, and you, uh, and you passed away, what’s going to happen? Well, um, Mascara has provided for that. So once again, on those terms and conditions, they say that an artist may devise his or her business to her, his or her heirs. Because Mayor Mascara cannot divide commissions among multiple beneficiaries or transfer ease. The beneficiaries must form a business entity and Mascara will transfer the business in a issue commissions to the name of the business. So there you go. That’s another reason to do an LLC is because Mascara is gonna make you do that. When you pass away, see that your kids or your spouse, um, can have the business. So we might as well do it ahead of time.
Um, in the case of the business transfer is via a test monetary instruments such as a will or a trust. The beneficiary, uh, of the business must provide Mascara with certified letters, testamentary and instructions, the trustee or the estate and you know, just gets complicated legally is there. So, um, you know, stuff has to be done. Um, and then the air has to execute a, a Mascara, Mascara artist agreement within 30 days or the business is going to be canceled. So why would we want to leave that up to chance? Um, the other side of it is we have to go through probate courts. So that’s what they was talking about with letters testament Terry, we have to go get court approval to get the business transferred to the right people. If you haven’t done any planning, probate court is not fun. You lose at least 5% of your state value to attorney’s fees and court costs.
And it ties up the assets for a minimum of six months, usually much longer than that. Um, so if you have an LLC that doesn’t mean you still, uh, you, you can avoid probate because the LLC is still owned in your name. And if you die, that ownership has to be transferred through the court unless you do planning and you have it owned by a trust. So what does a trust, a trust is similar to a business entity in the fact that it can own property and it does not die. The trust, um, basically says who gets what when you pass away, who’s in charge of it? Any restrictions you have on it. Um, you know, be as creative as you want. You can say, Hey, my kids get nothing until they turn 65 cause I want them to work their whole life. Or, um, you know, I want my kids to go to this school and they have to get their masters degree before they get any money.
Um, but that, the whole point of that is by transferring your assets into this trust. Um, when you die, there’s nothing in your individual name. So there’s nothing to go through probate court. And so the idea is we would set up this LLC and then it would be owned by your trust. The trust doesn’t have an annual fee. You have to pay to the state. It doesn’t have any ongoing costs unless you want to amend the, the terms of it. Uh, and this is definitely something you need a professional to help you set up. But by putting the, the, the LLC, by putting your house, but putting your bank accounts in the name of the trust, when you pass away, the transition is simple. Once we have death certificates, who you ever, you’ve left in charge has access to everything and can then administer your estate the way that they want them to.
So basically they notify Mascara, they signed whoever the new manager of the businesses signs they’re written artist agreement. And then that’s it. It’s done. The business continues on, the payments still come to the LLC. Um, and then the cash is distributed out to, you know, your spouse or your kids or whatever the case may be. So really, really easy and simple. If you’ve done your planning ahead of time, contrast that to going through probate court. We have to petition the court to get you, uh, to get the surviving spouse or you know, maybe it’s the kids named as the executor of the estate. And then we have to go and show, hey, here’s the valuations of everything. Um, here’s who the heirs are. Here’s what’s supposed to happen. Um, and it’s just a long drawn out process is super expensive and it’s just not a fun experience to go through.
So, um, you know, take the time to plan ahead. Now what can you do now? So doing a trust, the threshold there is if you own real property, if you own a house, um, and if you have small kids that you really want to plan for, you don’t want them to get the money as soon as they turn 18. Those are the two main thresholds of when you should do a trust. If you haven’t done any planning, don’t worry. You know, there’s still stuff you can do. So one of the things I want you to do, if you do not have a will, if you do not have a trust, go home tonight or do it right now and you can do, it’s called a holographic will. Holographic will basically means that it’s in your handwriting. So you ride at 100% in your handwriting, you can’t type it out and then sign it has to be handwritten.
You sign at the top, you date or date at the top, sign at the bottom. That’s considered a valid will. And so you put in there and say, hey, if I died, I want everything to go to my spouse. Uh, if they’re not around, I want it to go to my kids and I want, um, so-and-so to be the guardian of my kids. I think that’s probably the most important thing if you have minor children, is to say who you want to take your kids if you died. And if you do that, that’s considered a valid will. And that is a temporary fix until you can go see a professional to get a real will and a trust done. So, once again, holographic will hundred percent in your handwriting data at the top sign at the bottom. You don’t need witnesses, you don’t need a notary.
Um, you have a yourself about, well, so that’s something if you haven’t done anything, go do it right now. Uh, as soon as we’re done so that you can, you have something in place. If you, if you’re married, have your spouse do it too and make sure the terms match. Okay. Um, other, other, um, documents you should look into is a healthcare power of attorney. Each state has their own form. If you Google, you know, Nevada health care, power of attorney and Utah, they call it a healthcare directive. So Utah Health Care Directive, you will find the pdf form, you print it off, fill it out. Who Do you want to make healthcare decisions for you, you know, do you want to be an organ donor or do you want to have a feeding tube? Do you want to have a, do not resuscitate? Has All those options there.
You initial it, you sign it and you have to either sign it in front of two witnesses or you sign it in front of a notary and then you have that document done. So that’s option there. That’s item number two that you need to do immediately is get the will done, the holographic will and do your healthcare power of attorney. The other documents that you need, um, will be provided to you by a qualified estate planning attorney. You know, that’s uh, an asset power attorney, you know, helping you transfer your assets into the trust, all those things. But those are your two things that should be done right away.
MMM.
It’s going through, see if there’s any questions.
Yeah.
Okay. Um, so now you probably want to know, uh, if I practice what I preach and I always think that’s important that if you’re going to work with somebody or if you’re taking advice from somebody, do they actually do what they’re telling you to do? Um, so like I said before, we had an, we have an LLC, we’ve had multiple LLCs actually. Um, and that’s what we run, uh, Carly’s Mascara business through. So we’ve been doing that from, from day one, been very advantageous, um, to, to have, uh, we also have a trust. We also have our power of attorneys. We have wills, so any of the guardian of our minor kids. Um, and we do file the LLC is a separate tax return. So, um, highly believe in this stuff. Um, it’s definitely, um, you know, something I believe in. I do pay a CPA to do my return even though I probably know, um, a good amount that I could get it done on my set, on my own.
Um, but I feel like having somebody who’s in that profession who’s keeping up with the day to day is much better than trying to do it myself. You know, it’s just like, uh, even in law, I have a lot of clients who are attorneys, um, you know, they don’t practice in my area. There are personal injury attorneys or criminal defense attorneys. They could technically do their own documents, but they don’t because they know that they don’t know their specialty. It’s like trying to get, um, you know, a heart surgeon to do foot surgery. They know the basics. They could probably get it done, but it’s probably not the best idea. They might screw something up. So, uh, when you are looking in and ready to do these types of things, make sure you get a qualified attorney who specializes in these areas. So, you know, they’re not the personal injury attorney or they’re not a general practitioner at somebody, you know, on the estate planning side with the trust.
And we’ll do they actually know what they’re doing, do they go to continuing education in these areas? I probably spend, um, you know, at least my minimum is 15 hours a year, but I’m probably closer to 30 hours a year and continue education specifically in the wills and trust area. And then I spend another 10 to 15 in the business planning area. So, um, you know, find somebody who specializes in these things, who can really help you out. You’re going to pay some money, but you get what you pay for. Um, and I really do think it’s important. So I thank you guys for, um, for coming. Um, can you have more than one business under one LLC? Yes, but it depends on the state that you’re in. So Nevada has a what’s called a series LLC and that allows you to have multiple businesses under one LLC.
She only have to have one filing. Um, but there’s only 14 states, I believe that have the series LLC. Um, so you definitely want to check to make sure this is one of them. You Todd does also do the series LLC. Um, but that’s where you talk to a qualified attorney and tax professional to see if it makes sense to do that. Sometimes from liability perspective, it’s better to separate the two entities are the two businesses that you have. Um, you know, but if it’s just, you know, passive income type stuff, sure. Put them, put them together, no problem. Um, so, um,
I think that’s it. I don’t see any other questions that, um, I think that a, I think we got all the other ones. So, uh, if you do have any questions, um, my phone number is (702) 616-6001. That’s my office number. And then my email is Blake, B l a k e at Kurt, k u r t a Johnson law.com. Uh, you know, feel free to shoot me an email, give me a phone call if you have specific questions you want to know, um, you know, how it applies to your specific situation. I’m happy to do that for, uh, the Mascara artists out there. Email is probably the better way to get ahold of me and I’ll make sure, you know, Ben puts that, I’m up there. Here we go. I’ll, I’ll put it in the comments.
Okay.
And, um, there, so you can get ahold of me and, oh, there you go. Carly’s on top of it. So, um, thanks for coming guys. Hopefully we got some Trust Attorney Las Vegas answered for you. Hopefully you found value in this and, um, yeah, thanks for letting me come. I hope you guys have a great day.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. [inaudible] no, no.