Estate Planning
Depending on the results of a free analysis and evaluation of your personal needs and the size and complexity of your estate, by one of our experienced attorneys, a revocable living trust may be a good fit as the foundation of your estate plan.
Putting your assets in trust is the most effective way to avoid the expensive and time-consuming probate process. You can protect your estate from the ordeal of probate and empower a trustee of your choice to manage your assets after your passing without court supervision. Different aspects and types of trusts include:
- Living trusts
- Special needs trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)
- Qualified personal residence trust (QPRT)
- Stretched IRA beneficiary trust
- Qualified domestic trust (QRT)
- Charitable remainder trust
- Pet trusts
In over 30 years of practice, our Estate Planning Partner, Shelley Roos has established thousands of living trusts designed to protect loved ones from probate and taxes.
Business Formation
There are a number of basic business structures having individual characteristics that may provide your businesss with significant economic, risk reduction, and competitive advantages. Among these, sole proprietorships, partnerships (general and limited), limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, and corporations (including those that have elected subchapter S tax treatment), each have advantages and disadvantages for you. Along with preparing and filing formation and organizational documentation our attorneys can assist you in deciding the best structural model for your business. Some variables to consider, whether you are structuring your business for the first time or have decided to reform a mature business include:
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The level of control you wish to have.
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The business' vulnerability to lawsuits.
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The level of "structure" you are willing to deal with.
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Tax implications of the different ownership structures.
- Expected profit (or loss) of the business
- Whether or not you need to re-invest earnings into the business
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Your need for access to cash out of the business for yourself.
Business Transactions and Entertainment Contracts
Many small business owners presume that once their company has a registered legal form and a tax id number, they can forget about their company's internal and external business relationships. Our experience informs us that documenting those relationships with agreements serves to confirm the mutuality of understanding and shapes the performance and expectations in those relationships. Whether the nature of the relationship is manufacturer/distributor, importer/exporter, employer/key-employee, landlord/tenant, vendor/purchaser, investor/lender/business entity, shareholder/officer/director we've seen too many situations that result in litigation where the parties disagree as to what was promised and have no documentation of their understanding. Let us discuss these business relationships with you and develop the appropriate agreements for your company.
As a former Vice President and contract attorney for the American Broadcasting Company, our business partner, Leonard Roos, has 40 years of experience drafting and negotiating entertainment contracts from screen play option agreements to financing agreements to post production and motion picture distribution agreements; from pilot scripts to series license agreement; from ATL agreements for writers, artists, directors and producers to production facilities agreements. If you are in the entertainment business we can assist you with all of your contract needs and intellectual property questions.
Roos & Roos, LLP's Woodland Hills Office is located near the west end of the San Fernando Valley in the Warner Center Business Park.
The main enterance to the building [5850 Canoga Avenue ] and the free parking area can be accessed from the side street (Califa Street) immediately to the north of the building.