GA, on the nose. Talk with lawyer. Type of corporation matters. How assets are titled matters. State incorporation laws matter. In Texas, a limited liability company is incorporated and can be an S Corp. was there more than one shareholder? Is he competent with dementia to make changes? Is there a board of directors? Is there a succession in the articles of incorporation? And factoring is the process where a company sells its accounts receivable to someone else that can legally collect. Not a do it yourself project...
Flashpoint, I would see a business or transactional law attorney and raise this issue to find out how to retitle the business assets, if this is your husband's desire as well. And it may only be the receivables that could flow to you. I don't know. However, with a business, there are many asset issues that are different from an individual's assets.
What kind of business does your husband own? Be aware that if there are assets he purchased with a loan, it's more than likely a secured loan and the financing institution will have taken a Security Agreement as well as filed a UCC-1, giving it a secured interest in the assets of the business. Depending on whether it's standard wording, it would probably include furniture, equipment, vehicles, and more, as well as receivables. That's a priority interest.
There's another type of business loan that arises from accounts - I can't remember the exact terminology and only worked on one case several years ago in which this was an issue. Might have been an "accounts stated"....I just don't remember. But the creditor had an interest on which suit could be filed if funds owed weren't paid.
There are also liability issues, if you were to become part owner. Your husband may have had this in mind when he established his business, and not included you to protect you from potential liability.
This is partly why a transactional, business or corporate law attorney would be better than an elder law attorney for this situation, to initially sort out what could be owed and have priority status, and what might be available to you after those priority interests are satisfied. Addressing your own potential role or inheritance in the business would be part of this analysis.
And your husband's corporate accountant could help identify the assets as well.
One of the regular posters here is GuestShopAmin; she's an accountant. She could address some of these issues with more insight than I. Still, you need to see an attorney to work out the inheritance issues.
Our family has it set up like Lisa's above but our's is a sole proprietorship. As 1 person passes, it's on to the next and then children. The business is 135 years old.
My husband is also self-employed (inc) and I work for him. We both have separate wills naturally..when he dies the business goes to me (yippee) to carry on. If I die before him then it would go to our children.
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Good point about factoring - I had completely forgotten about that. (Sometimes I really DO miss working!)
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What kind of business does your husband own? Be aware that if there are assets he purchased with a loan, it's more than likely a secured loan and the financing institution will have taken a Security Agreement as well as filed a UCC-1, giving it a secured interest in the assets of the business. Depending on whether it's standard wording, it would probably include furniture, equipment, vehicles, and more, as well as receivables. That's a priority interest.
There's another type of business loan that arises from accounts - I can't remember the exact terminology and only worked on one case several years ago in which this was an issue. Might have been an "accounts stated"....I just don't remember. But the creditor had an interest on which suit could be filed if funds owed weren't paid.
There are also liability issues, if you were to become part owner. Your husband may have had this in mind when he established his business, and not included you to protect you from potential liability.
This is partly why a transactional, business or corporate law attorney would be better than an elder law attorney for this situation, to initially sort out what could be owed and have priority status, and what might be available to you after those priority interests are satisfied. Addressing your own potential role or inheritance in the business would be part of this analysis.
And your husband's corporate accountant could help identify the assets as well.
One of the regular posters here is GuestShopAmin; she's an accountant. She could address some of these issues with more insight than I. Still, you need to see an attorney to work out the inheritance issues.