Author Archive: admin

Legal-Ease: Buying and selling houses

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If you’ve bought or sold a home, you know that there’s a giant amount of paperwork involved in the transaction. In the years before the 2008-2010 mortgage crisis, many lenders were duped with fake identifies of buyers or fabricated financial statements. As a result, the amount of paperwork involved with buying and selling a home skyrocketed after the mortgage crisis.

Since the mortgage crisis, most home loan closings involve several identity checks, multiple confirmations of financial status and many other checks and balances to ensure that the deal is legitimate.

Legal-Ease: Establishing charities and non-profit corporations

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Because some people try to create charities for their own personal gain, the process to create a charity in Ohio for which donations are tax deductible is lengthy and intricate.

Charities are most often organized with the Ohio Secretary of State as non-profit corporations. Ohio has a number of requirements for non-profit corporations, including that the organization must have three directors and that the organization must have an annual meeting for all members of the corporation.

How do I terminate my business entity?

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Business entities are usually established to limit liability, keep the business efficient and organize the structure of the entity. It’s fairly easy to establish a business entity in the state of Ohio, and there are essentially three requirements to effectively terminate a business entity’s existence: tell the state, complete unfinished business and tell the IRS.

Legal-Ease: Who should I name as my agent or executor?

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General powers of attorney typically are regarding finances, and a principal gives powers to an agent. In each power of attorney, one or more specific people are named as the agents. It can be incredibly difficult for people to decide upon who should be their agent, especially when adult children are involved. Hard feelings can certainly come up, and often principals try to identify their agents while keeping this potential friction in mind.

Legal-Ease: Should I own that or should my business?

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It’s necessary that pieces of property must have the ownership clearly outlined. This is true in LLCs (is the property owned by the LLC or the individual?) as well as in partnerships. It’s important to define which assets that a business entity owns and which assets are owned by another entity or personally.

Legal-Ease: Capital gains tax and trading properties

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Often when people make a purchase, over time it appreciates in value. When that item is sold, the government taxes on the increase in the value of the property. The tax that is assessed is called capital gains tax. Sometimes capital gains taxes discourage people from selling property as they don’t want to pay the capital gains tax. As a result of this, the government has a process that will sometimes allow for for capital gains taxes to be delayed.

Legal-Ease: What am I in for when I cosign a loan?

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When Lee’s grandmother recently passed away, one of the greatest gifts she gave her family (in Lee’s mind) were the loan documents from when his grandparents married and bought their farm. On these documents, the cosigner of the loan was Lee’s great grandmother; it’s common for parents to cosign their children’s loans, especially student loans. Borrowers, cosigners and guarantors are all equally responsible for the debt of the loan.

Legal-Ease: How is marijuana use legal and illegal at the same time?

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While the Federal Controlled Substances Act prohibits the production, possession and distribution throughout all of the United States of marijuana, some states have reduced or even eliminated state penalties relating to marijuana. When states decrease penalties in this manner, it’s referred to as “decriminalization.” Decriminalization typically means that society officially discourages this act, but that the penalties surrounding it are so small that the discouragement is minimal. “Legalization” removes all penalties surrounding an act, and decriminalization and legalization are different.

Legal-Ease: Two people to call before you call your lawyer

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Often when people are facing challenges, they call their lawyer first. Advice and time from attorneys is often expensive, and Lee believes there are two other types of professionals to keep in mind before immediately contacting a lawyer when a situation gets difficult.

Legal-Ease: Two principles in business succession and estate planning

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Business succession and estate planning are often difficult challenges as each situation is so unique to each family and business. To help clients, Lee has created two primary principles he’d like them to consider while they undertake business and estate planning.

First, Lee believes that mom and dad are always right. Second, he believes that family businesses can remain viable for generations while still treating non-business family members fairly.