How to Keep Your LLC in Good Standing

Cari RinckerBusiness Law

Starting a limited liability company (LLC) takes a lot of work. Before you serve your first customer or fulfill your first order, it is important to complete the initial business formation process. Although starting a business is a significant achievement, small business owners cannot coast on past accomplishments. You must look to the future and the next steps. This includes …

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A Partnership Without a Partnership Agreement: The Default Rules

Cari RinckerBusiness Law

Forming a partnership in Illinois is exceedingly simple; that is the main draw of this kind of business organization.  There are typically no formalities required; rather, a partnership is presumed whenever two or more parties come together in business with an implied or express agreement to share the profits that the business generates.  Unlike other business formations, such as LLCs …

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Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Real Impact on Estate Planning

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

According to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 2 percent of all infants born in the United States (83,946 in 2019) were conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART).[1] ART is defined by the CDC as all fertility treatments in which both eggs and embryos are handled. It can involve many procedures, the most well-known …

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Name, Image, and Likeness: How to Protect Your Right to You

Cari RinckerBusiness Law

Creating a personal brand can be a way to establish an authentic image and stand out from the crowd. For most people, personal branding is a communications strategy rather than a career path. A carefully cultivated personal brand lets people know at a glance who we are, what we stand for, and the value we provide. But for anyone with …

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Have You Thought Through Your Retirement Plans?

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

Beginning your retirement is a great milestone that is worth celebrating. You have put in many years of hard work, and you are now able to focus your energy on the next phase of your life. However, before you begin this next chapter, you need to make sure that you have fully thought through this exciting change in your life. …

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Perfecting Your Partnership Agreement

Cari RinckerBusiness Law

The simplicity of partnerships is alluring.  They are easy to form, and often easy to operate.  It can be tempting to hit the ground running with a partnership without first setting a partnership agreement out in writing.  In this blog, I explore why a written partnership agreement is nevertheless important, and I review a few relevant terms to include in …

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Right of Occupancy Trust: A Trust to Protect Your Home and Your Loved Ones

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

Estate planning is about protecting you and your loved ones. Sometimes this can be a difficult endeavor when there is a loved one who may require additional support at your death. While you may want to give as much as possible to this individual, you may not want to do so at the expense of others you care about. A …

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Understanding Land Trusts: Conservation Land Trusts

Cari RinckerFood & Ag Law

While the word “trust” is often used to refer to certain legal instruments in the estate planning world, “land trust” is sometimes instead used to describe a nonprofit organization that holds an interest in land for conservation purposes or for the benefit of a certain community of people.  In this blog, I review the concept of conservation land trusts. What …

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Seven Reasons for Considering a Family Office

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

A family office provides management services to a family whose businesses and wealth have become too complex and significant to manage by themselves. A family office often combines investment, legal, and tax services along with lifestyle and administrative services, such as making travel arrangements or coordinating the use of the family’s private aircraft. In addition to supporting and simplifying a …

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Process for Obtaining a Guardianship in Illinois Over a Minor

Cari RinckerGuardianship law

In the State of Illinois, there are three types of guardianships of a minor. You can be the guardian of a minor’s person, a minor’s estate, or a minor’s person and estate. Regardless of which type of Guardianship of a Minor is needed, the process is typically the same. A Guardianship of a Minor’s Person is needed when a minor’s …

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The Pros and Cons of Probate

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

In estate planning circles, the word “probate” often carries a negative connotation. Indeed, for many people—especially those with valuable accounts and property—financial planners recommend trying to keep accounts and property out of probate whenever possible. That being said, the probate system was ultimately established to protect the deceased’s accounts and property as well as their family, and in some cases, …

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Ask Cari: What To Do if Your Trustee Is Unresponsive?

Cari RinckerEstate Planning

A trustee has a duty under the law to communicate with beneficiaries and keep them reasonably informed as to the progress of the trust administration. Depending on your state’s law, such duty to inform may require the trustee to give beneficiaries a copy of the trust document, provide information regarding the anticipated timeframe of the trust administration, and prepare an …

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