Top Ten Business and Estate Planning Legal Strategies
Presenter: Rob Fotheringham

Portland business and estate planning attorney, Rob C. Fotheringham, will share with you (in non-legalese) his “Top Ten” strategies for assuring that your business plan and your personal estate plan are coordinated to take full advantage of important legal and tax benefits available under current state and federal law. In a very casual but straight-talking environment, get a clear idea of what types of business structures best facilitate specific business objectives, such as limitation of personal liability, tax-favored distribution of revenues, and succession of business ownership. Find out how to incent employees to stay with you by structuring “phantom stock” benefit plans that have the look and feel of shared equity in the business, but don’t require the business owner to give up any ownership, management or control of the business.

Many successful business owners and managers spend little, if any, time making sure they have an effective estate plan in place to protect their spouses, children, or other beneficiaries from the consequences of premature death or incapacitation. This presentation will suggest strategies for structuring a personal estate plan that will facilitate preserving the value and ongoing operation of a business after the owner’s demise. By the time you leave this session, you will be armed with the knowledge necessary to implement new plans or modify the plans you have in place for protecting and preserving all that is best about your business and for facilitating an effective transition of the business in the event you “cash in all your chips.”