Legal-Ease: What should I be ready for in selling or buying a business?

The process of buying and selling a business usually breaks down into five steps and considerations. 

First, the seller and buyer of the business need to reach an agreement. Second, both the seller and the buyer secure third-party professionals to assist them. Third, a purchase agreement is prepared. Fourth, the seller and the buyer of the business need to ensure that the details of the agreement are accurate. Finally, there’s a closing. 

Legal-Ease: New tools to help initiate home ownership

Years ago, buying a home was pretty straightforward. A buyer would pay a 20% down payment and pay off the remaining 80% over time. But as the demand for homeownership grew, more people without the 20% down payment wanted to purchase homes. Private mortgage insurance began to be used in the homebuying process. 

In the years right before the housing crisis, people made assumptions that home prices would continually and aggressively increase every year. Lenders saw this as an opportunity to help more people who hadn’t saved the 20% down payment. 

Legal-Ease: Sorting through trust types to create the irrevocable grantor trust

To help try to simplify legal ideas, they’re often generalized into broad categories to help make them easier to navigate. However, trusts shouldn’t be generalized when it comes to nursing home and long-term care planning. 

Trusts are typically categorized as revocable and irrevocable. Revocable trusts can usually be amended, and completely irrevocable trusts cannot be either amended or revoked. As with many parts of the law, the title of the trust is much less important than the substance of the trust rules.