One of our passions at Kress Law is for helping our clients start and grow their businesses. And if they decide to sell their businesses, we love to help with that, too! Advising corporations and their stakeholders is a core focus of our firm. We believe that every business person needs a great team, and we would love to be a part of yours.
Our team includes three accredited Corporate Registries users, and Kristen has Level 3 accreditation. This means that we do not farm out any corporate registry services. Everything that can be done in-house is done in-house, enabling us to serve out clients with efficiency and no extra service charges.
We can advise clients from the very outset of their plan to start a business, and advise as to an appropriate business structure to implement, whether that be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, a limited partnership, a joint venture, or any other suitable arrangement. Then, we can help you set up the appropriate structure by incorporating a business or preparing partnership or joint venture agreements. It is critical, if you have partners, to ensure that the agreement is clear and fair to everyone involved. We can help by advising you and preparing an appropriate shareholder’s or partnership agreement.
We can work with you to incorporate and properly organize your business corporation.
We know that you can incorporate your business at a registry office or online, and that you will probably save money at the outset. However, there are many good reasons not to do so, including:
- It’s usually done only half-way, and that half is often incorrect;
- If you are serious about growing your business, you will eventually require proper corporate records. We may or may not be able to assist you with that at a later date, and if we are, it is certain to cost you much more than it would have to do it right in the first place. If it can’t be fixed, you may have a big problem;
- New identification requirements associated with the prevention of money laundering mean that legal and other service providers may not be able to provide legal services to improperly organized corporations. Most businesses that survive very long will eventually need help with a real estate deal or financing transaction. Don’t put your business in a position where its growth is limited by the desire to save a couple hundred dollars.
As your business grows, you are likely to encounter the need for legal services. If you are our existing corporate client, quite often you can catch Kristen by phone or email to get some quick advice. You may need assistance with a lease or real estate transaction, debt or capital financing, employment issues, in preparing or interpreting contracts, in creating policies, collections, or any number of other legal issues. Kristen is knowledgeable in many different areas of law which may arise for small- to medium-sized businesses.
Often, it is determined that clients should reorganize their businesses to achieve goals such as optimizing efficiency of their structure, minimization of present and future tax liability, protection of assets from creditors, succession planning or preparation of a business for a prospective sale. We can help you determine whether your structure would benefit from a reorganization. While we leave it to your accountants (and sometimes tax lawyers) to complete the tax planning, we can prepare all of the documentation to execute your corporate reorganizations, both simple and complex. And being a big tax nerd, Kristen will actually enjoy this.
We can often complete this work at a lower cost than a tax firm, and we are happy to work with your accountants or tax lawyers to devise and execute the best possible plan. We have existing relationships with many accountants and tax lawyers with whom we work frequently to enable us to serve you better, and we pride ourselves in turning around this type of work quickly.
Coming from a business family, Kristen understands that succession planning can be one of the most challenging issues that face successful businesses and has experience advising clients through the process of planning for their eventual transition out of the business. These issues can be thorny and multi-faceted, and difficult to contemplate. They usually involve interpersonal or family relationships as well as dollars and cents. With kindness, common-sense and understanding, we will help you identify, choose and implement a succession plan for your business.