Legal-Ease: Key steps for agriculture-involved LLCs and trusts

Agriculture-involved LLCs and trusts require certain key steps that aren’t necessarily included in other LLCs and trusts. Omitting these keys steps can be fatal to the LLC or trust’s operation. 

While some law firms do take these key steps for agriculture-involved LLCs and trusts, not all do. Don’t assume the steps are being taken unless your lawyer explicitly tells you that they are. 

Legal-Ease: Avoid being unintended partners

A partnership can be created by circumstances that don’t include an actual written agreement. People can become unintended partners, and then they can also be personally liable for damages resulting from their partner’s activity. 

Legal-Ease: LLCs and taxes

Limited Liability Companies, or LLCs, are often established by business owners to protect assets and limit liabilities. Most often when an LLC is organized correctly, net taxes are not typically increased or decreased. But, there are some exceptions to this. 

Taxpayers can decide to have their LLCs taxed like “S corporations” as opposed to “C corporations.” “S Corporations” are slightly less cumbersome in tax administration than “C Corporations.” Taxpayers can also decide to have their LLCs taxed like partnerships if there is more than one owner. If the LLC only has one member, then it can be taxed as a sole proprietorship. Most business attorneys will consult with a client’s tax preparation professional before advising on how an LLC should be taxed. 

Legal-Ease: Insurance’s hidden value

Minimizing risk is typically a goal of the type of law that Lee practices. Sometimes insurance policies can’t provide what legal tools can provide, and other times legal tools can’t provide the value that insurance can bring to people, businesses and farmers. 

While sometimes successful people just seem to be lucky, often it’s a matter of smart planning and research that leads to success. Lee helps his clients analyze their liability insurance and to decide what additional legal tools are necessary and whether the client is appropriately insured or over-insured. 

Legal-Ease: Valuing components of co-owned property

Sometimes we can find ourselves co-owning property with one or more co-owners wanting to be bought out. Even if we are in the process of converting ownership of the co-owned property into assets owned by an LLC, it becomes important to value the property and each person’s portion.

Legal-Ease: What is in a name?

Choosing a business name is a seemingly simple yet vital decision. The name must be “legally distinguishable,” as determined through a variety of rules and overseen in Ohio by the Ohio Secretary of State. Sometimes, additional trade names are necessary for a business.

Legal-Ease: Becoming and remaining business partners

Adding owners to a business venture will almost always require considerations beyond just legal ownership. A variety of “non-legal” issues may include time allocation, value of each individual’s work and other relationships.

It is important to evaluate these considerations and effectively work the “non-legal” aspects into the business documents. This includes updating an entity’s operational requirements, adopting a new resolution, updating bills of sale and more.