Norcross Estate Planning Lawyer for Business Owners
When you own a company, your estate plan is also a succession plan, a liability plan, and a continuity plan for every employee, customer, and partner who depends on the business running without you. Bowman Law Firm handles estate planning, trusts, wills, powers of attorney, advance directives, and asset protection for owners across Norcross, Gwinnett County, and the greater Atlanta area, and a Norcross estate planning lawyer for business owners has to plan for the company as carefully as for the family.
A will alone does a poor job for an owner. It does nothing the day you become incapacitated, and it sends your business interest through probate court, where the business can stall while someone waits for authority to sign contracts, pay vendors, or access accounts. A properly funded trust paired with the right powers of attorney lets a person you chose step in immediately, with written instructions about what to do next.
Business planning also has a layer that personal planning does not: who actually controls the company after you are gone, who is allowed to own it, how a successor gets paid for it, and what happens if a co-owner is the one who dies or becomes disabled. Those answers belong in your estate documents and your company’s governing documents together, and they need to agree with each other.
Where Your Business Interest Sits Inside the Estate Plan
The first question in any owner’s plan is what you actually own. Sole proprietors own the business assets directly, so there is no separation between the company and the estate. Members of an LLC and shareholders of a corporation own an ownership interest, and that interest is the asset your trust or will has to address. Partners in a partnership have their own set of rules. The right plan depends heavily on which of these describes you.
For most owners, the cleanest approach is to assign the ownership interest into a revocable living trust, so that the trust, not your probate estate, holds the interest at your death or incapacity. Your successor trustee can then vote the interest, sign for the company, and keep operations moving. A pour-over will serves as the safety net for anything you forgot to retitle.
Georgia law is specific about how revocable trusts work. A trust must be in writing and signed by the settlor, and a settlor can change or revoke it only if the trust expressly reserves that power. Any change has to be in writing and signed. Georgia also treats the property of a revocable trust as reachable by the settlor’s creditors during life, which matters for owners: a revocable trust organizes and transfers your business interest, but it is not by itself a shield against business or personal creditors.
Why Choose Bowman Law Firm for Business Owner Estate Planning
Her background includes trying cases for a national consumer law firm, serving as Law Clerk to a Federal Judge in Georgia, and handling personal injury defense work for a large Florida law firm. That mix of courtroom exposure and chambers experience gives her a practical read on how disputes over ownership and authority actually unfold, which is exactly what a business owner’s plan is built to prevent.
Clients describe the firm as knowledgeable, thoughtful, reassuring, and attentive, and the firm’s guiding idea is that every client is a person first, a client second, and never a file number. Owners work directly with an attorney who knows their family and their goals, in English, Spanish, or Vietnamese, with virtual consultations available for owners whose schedules do not leave room for a daytime office visit. The process is straightforward: a free discovery call, an initial consultation to design your plan for $100, and an in-person signing meeting where your finished documents are presented and explained.
Planning Issues That Come Up for Norcross Business Owners
- Succession and Transfer of Ownership: Whether the company passes to a child, a partner, a key employee, or is sold, your trust should state who gets the interest and on what terms, so that your family is not left negotiating with the people who run the business.
- Incapacity of the Owner: A durable financial power of attorney lets a named agent handle business banking, contracts, and payroll if you cannot. Georgia’s power of attorney statute requires your signature, a competent witness, and a notary who is not that witness, all in each other’s presence, so the document has to be executed correctly to be trusted by banks.
- Co-Owner and Partner Arrangements: If a business partner dies, their share may pass to a spouse or heir who has no interest in the company. Your estate plan should work alongside buy-sell terms in your operating or shareholder agreement so that ownership transitions cleanly.
- Separating Business and Personal Assets: Holding business or investment property in an LLC, with that LLC owned through a trust, helps keep company liabilities and personal assets apart. This only works when the entity is properly maintained.
- Life Insurance Funding: An irrevocable life insurance trust can supply cash to buy out a partner, pay heirs who are not taking part in the business, or cover obligations without forcing a sale of the company.
- Protecting Heirs and the Company From Each Other: A spendthrift provision can shield a beneficiary’s inheritance from outside claims, though in Georgia it does not stop claims for child support, alimony, taxes, tort judgments, or necessaries.
- Digital Business Assets: Domain names, online storefronts, accounting platforms, and cloud storage often hold the real operating records. Georgia’s digital assets law lets you give your fiduciary written authority to reach them, but the platform’s own terms of service still apply.
- Long-Term Care and Medicaid Planning: Business equity can count against eligibility, and Georgia reviews transfers made during a 60-month look-back period, so owners approaching retirement should plan well in advance of any care need.
What to Do If You Own a Business and Have No Plan Yet
Start by writing down what the business actually is on paper. Pull your articles of organization or incorporation, your operating agreement or bylaws, any partnership or buy-sell agreement, and a list of business bank accounts, loans, leases, licenses, and insurance policies. Add the digital side: who holds the logins to your accounting software, payment processors, and domain registrar. This inventory is the foundation of your consultation, and it often reveals problems on its own, such as an operating agreement that never addressed what happens when a member dies.
Next, decide who you would trust to run the business for six months if you were suddenly unable to. That person is a candidate for your financial power of attorney and possibly your successor trustee, and they may not be the same person you would choose to inherit the company. Many owners separate these roles on purpose, naming a capable operator to manage and a family member to benefit.
Then call to schedule a free discovery call with Bowman Law Firm. The initial consultation, which designs your plan, is $100, and it is where the attorney asks about your family, the company, your partners, and what you worry about most. Do not wait to finish the plan until the business is sold or you are older; the common mistakes are leaving the company out of the trust, never funding the trust, and letting beneficiary designations or entity documents contradict the plan.
If an owner has already died or become incapacitated without a plan, matters go through the county’s probate court, which in Gwinnett County is the Probate Court of Gwinnett County in Lawrenceville. That court handles the probate of wills, estate administration, and guardianships and conservatorships for incapacitated adults, and it accepts electronic filing. Owners in neighboring counties deal with their own county’s probate court. Court involvement is the outcome good planning is designed to avoid.
Wills, Trusts, and Georgia Formalities That Matter to Owners
Georgia’s formal rules are strict, and an owner’s plan is only as good as its execution. A will must be in writing and signed by the testator, or by someone else in the testator’s presence at the testator’s express direction, and it must be attested and subscribed by at least two competent witnesses. Georgia does not honor oral wills or handwritten wills that lack witnesses. A notary is not required for a will, though a self-proving affidavit can make later admission easier. Codicils follow the same formalities as the original will.
For an advance directive for health care, Georgia requires a writing signed by you and attested by two witnesses of sound mind who are at least 18. Neither witness may be your chosen agent, someone who stands to inherit or benefit financially from your death, or a person directly involved in your care. This document matters to owners because a medical emergency is also a business emergency, and your family should not have to guess at your wishes while the company is waiting.
On taxes, Georgia has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Federal estate tax applies only to estates above a very high exclusion amount, so most closely held business owners are planning for control, continuity, liability, and probate avoidance far more than for estate tax. If your holdings are large enough that federal tax is a real possibility, that calls for more advanced structures, and the attorney will tell you plainly whether your situation is in that range.
Norcross Business Owner Estate Planning FAQs
Do I need a trust if my business is small?
Often yes, and a small business is where the lack of a plan can hurt most. Without a trust or power of attorney, no one has authority to sign for your sole proprietorship or your ownership interest if you are incapacitated, and your death sends the interest through probate. A trust lets a chosen person step in right away.
Does putting my LLC in a revocable trust protect it from lawsuits?
Not by itself. In Georgia, the property of a revocable trust is generally reachable by the settlor’s creditors during life. The trust helps with control, incapacity, and avoiding probate. Liability protection comes from properly maintained entities, insurance, and, in some cases, irrevocable planning structures.
What happens to my business if I die without a will in Georgia?
Georgia’s intestacy rules divide your property among your spouse and relatives by a fixed formula, regardless of who is best suited to run the company. Your interest may end up split among heirs who disagree, and the court controls the timeline.
Can my partner and I use the same estate plan?
No. Each owner needs their own plan, and the plans should be coordinated with the company’s buy-sell terms. Sharing documents, or ignoring each other’s plans, is a common cause of ownership disputes after a death.
Should my business agreement and my trust say the same thing?
They have to be consistent. If your operating agreement restricts who may own an interest, your trust must respect that restriction, and if the agreement is silent, your plan may leave a gap. Reviewing both documents together is part of good planning.
What is a pour-over will and do business owners need one?
A pour-over will sends anything you forgot to put in your trust into it at death. For owners, who often acquire new accounts, equipment, or entities over time, it is a useful safety net, though assets caught by it still go through probate first.
Can a business owner use Medicaid planning?
Yes, but timing is critical. Georgia reviews transfers made within a 60-month look-back period, and transfers for less than fair market value can cause a period of ineligibility. Owners who plan years ahead have far more options than those who wait for a care crisis.
How often should a business owner update their estate plan?
Review it every three to five years and whenever something major changes: a new partner, a sale, a refinancing, a marriage or divorce, a new child or grandchild, or a move. Changes to a revocable trust must be made in writing and signed by you.
Can someone else handle my online business accounts if I am incapacitated?
Georgia’s digital assets law lets you grant a fiduciary access to your digital assets through your will, trust, or power of attorney, though a platform’s own online tool settings can override those instructions. A fiduciary also must follow the platform’s terms of service and cannot impersonate you.
Will my power of attorney still work if I travel or my agent lives elsewhere?
A Georgia power of attorney is durable unless it says otherwise, and one signed in another state is valid in Georgia if it complied with that state’s law. It ends at your death, so your trust and will must take over from there.
Do you work with owners who prefer Spanish or Vietnamese?
Yes. The firm’s staff speaks English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and virtual consultations are available.
Serving Norcross Business Owners and Communities Across Metro Atlanta
Bowman Law Firm works with business owners starting in Norcross and across Gwinnett County, including Peachtree Corners, Duluth, Lilburn, Lawrenceville, Suwanee, and Buford. Along the Buford Highway corridor, the firm serves owners in Doraville, Chamblee, and Brookhaven, and in north Fulton it works with owners in Johns Creek, Alpharetta, and Roswell. In the Perimeter area, clients come from Dunwoody and Sandy Springs.
The firm also serves owners in Marietta and Cobb County, Decatur and DeKalb County, Cumming and Forsyth County, and Gainesville and Hall County, as well as Dalton. Whether you run a restaurant, a trucking operation, a professional practice, or a family import business, the plan is built around your company and your family.
Talk With a Norcross Estate Planning Attorney for Business Owners
Your business took years to build, and it deserves a plan that keeps it running and keeps your family in control. If you are searching for a Norcross estate planning attorney for business owners, Bowman Law Firm is ready to listen to your goals and explain every option in plain language before you sign anything.
Call our office to schedule a free discovery call, or reach out by email, and start with a $100 initial consultation with attorney Shireen Hormozdi Bowman to design your plan.