Your first meeting with an estate planning attorney or a business succession planning attorney is your initial conversation to discuss your primary area of interest and how to best create a comprehensive estate plan. 
Having a consultation with an attorney can help you to identify where family business interests connect to your estate and elder law plan. Thinking about questions before the meeting will help you to show up organized and with the right documents in hand so that your attorney can make strategic recommendations. These questions include:
- To what extent do you own an interest in a family business?
- What is the size of that interest and is it a minority or a controlling interest?
- For how many generations has the company been in your family?
- How many generations of family members are currently working in the family business?
- Is there a fully functioning board of directors currently present with the business?
- Are there any contracts or buy/sell agreements that limit ownership interests in the business entity? Grab a copy of these to bring to your meeting if you have them.
- Is there any property inside the business that the company uses but is not associated with this business entity, such as an LLC or a corporation?
- Are there any non-owner members on the board of the business?
All of these are great starting point questions for you to consider connecting your estate planning and business succession planning interests. Owning a business means that you might have access to an excellent asset to support yourself or to pass on to other family members, but only if you plan for it the right way.
Our Pasadena law office is here to help.
