Bethel Law Corporation specifically supports corporations, entrepreneurs and professionals associated with the entertainment and music product industries. After all, we are musicians too! We welcome all inquiries through our contact page here.
Practice AreasTo read a general overview about a particular practice area, please click the appropriate title.
Throughout our areas of practice, the concepts of advanced estate planning and asset protection permeate out thinking, the strategies recommended and, of course, the draftsmanship provided. Advanced Estate Planning/Asset Protection involves business, estate, tax, and charitable planning. We represent individuals and families throughout the varying stages of advanced estate planning. Briefly, these services include the following:
BUSINESS FORMATION
Incorporation, S or C Corporation
Many of our clients have charitable goals. We can explore a diverse array of techniques tailored specifically to achieve those goals, while doing so in as tax-favored a manner as possible. Such techniques include, but are not limited to:
Charitable remainder trusts (CRT; CRUT) – inter vivos or testamentary
Charitable lead trusts (CLT; CLAT) – inter vivos or testamentary (TCLAT or Super TCLAT)
Gifts of artwork and other tangible personal property
Donor advised funds
We also have a unique planning strategy for business owners through the use of identified intellectual property, separately owned by your own intellectual property company (the IP-LLC) and licensed to your widget business. The IP-LLC is in partnership with a Donor advised fund. The implications of such a strategy are boundless. For further information, see our Intellectual Property practice area.
From day-to-day counsel to the most complex transactions, we keep our clients’ business objectives at the center of our practical approach to business law. We advise clients in a complete range of corporate and other related business transactions, including start-ups vis-à-vis estate-planning, unbundling techniques, asset protection, forming strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
Choice of Entity: We advise our clients on alternative business structures available for their business, financial and estate-planning objectives and also assist in the organization of the entity. Our approach is educational. Strategies of ownership include unbundling techniques that our corporate owners can use for various legitimate business purposes. Additional services include counsel on reorganizing existing businesses.
Tax Planning: Our services include advising clients regarding the income, gift and estate tax consequences of the formation, reorganization, division (unbundling) and liquidation of corporations, LLCs, partnerships and other entities; the sale and purchase of business entities and assets; transfer of ownership including strategies that take advantage of the new Nevada business entities, the Restricted LLC and Restricted Limited Partnership; and, ongoing business activities.
Purchases and Sales of Businesses: Clients rely on our extensive experience in representing sellers and purchasers in both taxable and non-taxable transactions. We advise regarding transaction structure and legal terms, assist in the negotiation of transactions and manage closings.
Succession Planning: The appropriate succession of ownership and management of family or closely held businesses involves not only legal matters, but also sensitivity to how related issues will impact family members and employees. We are prepared to work closely with you on every aspect of succession planning, advising regarding ownership and management structures, the desirability and implications of making lifetime gifts, preparation of wills and trusts and more.
General Business Representation: We work to gain an understanding of your unique business and circumstances that allows us to help you achieve your business, financial and family goals. General business services include preparation of annual corporate minutes; special yearly minutes for strategic transactions; annual state filing and notification requirements. Once again, our approach is educational: we will work with you to gain value for your business. We will counsel you on how to grow and define value, stay organized, document your financials, and create an intellectual property, trade secret, culture within your business. Once this intellectual property culture is created, we can show you how to use your intellectual property through various monetization techniques by licensing your protected intellectual property.
Financial planners come from many different educational and professional backgrounds. To us, financial planning means the study and teaching of the cross-over points in life’s major planning areas; how they connect, interact, and conflict. These major planning areas include:
Our approach is educational. We will work to enable you to bring your professional and business goals into harmony with your personal aspirations. We will work with your existing advisors or, if you do not have a particular professional advisor and one is needed to perfect your plan, we have access to a number of advisors in their fields of expertise.
Personalized service and education are the cornerstones of our legal practice. When it comes to income and estate tax planning, we believe you cannot practice one cornerstone without the other. We are here to educate you and your family on what you can do with income and estate tax planning, how to do it, and how to maintain it. We are here to provide you with personal design and legal drafting services to realistically realize your goals and aspirations in the income and estate tax planning arena. Some of the general principals we use as income tax planners include:
In the estate tax planning arena, we believe in avoiding or minimizing estate taxes. But it does take planning. However, through personalized service and education, it is quite possible for you to reduce - and is some cases eliminate –both federal and state death taxes. Some of the general principals we use as zero estate tax planners include:
A strategy to identify, develop and protect your intellectual property rights is critical to establishing and growing a successful business. We provide both traditional and innovative strategies that help you take care of some of your most valuable intangible assets.
Trade Secrets and Confidential Information: Our work includes the design and implementation of a trade secret culture within your business environment; we can provide you with a process to identify then classify and then protect your ideas (a Trade Secret Protection Program). We can create a “Compilation” of your ideas specifically designed to indentify your industry in general, what ideas, procedures, and processes that make your business special and what your future plans are vis-à-vis past trial and error. Also, our work includes the preparation and negotiation of agreements to protect and secure trade secrets and confidential information, including assignment of inventions, rights of first refusal, and noncompetition, nonsolicitation and nondisclosure agreements.
Trademarks: We develop trademark protection strategies; perform trademark searches; prepare, file and prosecute trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Copyrights: We secure copyright protection for all types of original work of authorship, including computer programs, and are experienced in handling disputes involving material protected by copyright. Our services include developing copyright protection strategies; copyright searches; preparing, filing and prosecuting copyright allegations; preparing and negotiating copyright license agreements and work-for-hire agreements.
Licensing and Distribution: To help protect our clients in today’s modern business environment, we offer expertise in drafting and negotiating license and distribution agreements. We may unbundle your intellectual property from the company, license the intellectual property and create other various monetization techniques to increase the wealth earned by such. Most family and closely held business owners do not realize that by not defining and licensing their intellectual property, they are losing substantial value either through direct revenue earnings or tax savings. Our approach is educational and we are uniquely positioned to counsel you and your business accordingly.
Using Life Insurance as an advanced estate planning tool is virtually universal throughout the advanced estate and business planning world. So often life insurance is used as a wealth replacement tool and a tool to grow long-term family wealth. We stay up-to-date in the ever changing life insurance planning world as the founder, Dale Bethel, has acquired his life insurance license and we have numerous strategic advisors to assist in the most complicated life insurance transaction. For example, for the high net worth individual who would not want to interrupt the cash flow of their investment portfolio there are various life insurance premium finance structures one could draw upon. These transactions allow high net worth individuals to finance large amounts of life insurance, funding and securing the loan primarily through the policy itself.
We have experience in using and drafting the Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT). The primary objective of a life insurance trust is to avoid inclusion of life insurance proceeds in the insured’s taxable estate. We are also experienced in using and drafting Buy-Sell Agreements for one’s business. The financing of a Buy-Sell Agreement is commonly done through the use of life and disability insurance. The primary objective of a Buy-Sell Agreement is to insure the loss of a primary owner and/or key man so that their loss will not cause catastrophic harm to the business; and, to ensure that the insured’s family is rightfully compensated for owned shares of the business if one or more trigger’s of the Buy-Sell Agreement should happen: common triggers of a Buy-Sell Agreement payout are death, disability, divorce, disinterest, and bankruptcy.
After more than a decade of practicing in Elder Law, we are uniquely qualified to discuss and provide long-term care insurance for our clients. As we see it, there are two types of long-term care insurance: the “debt” approach which is your typical long-term care policy where you provide an annual premium payment; and, the “equity” approach that combines universal life insurance with long-term care benefits: “If you don’t use it, you won’t loose it,” the policy amount will pass to your designated heirs.
In short, if long-term care is needed, the equity approach helps pay for those expenses. If long-term care is not needed, the equity approach provides an income-tax-free death benefit under IRC Section 101(a)(1).
Usually, paid with a single premium, the equity approach provides the most comprehensive coverage for an individual. It usually includes a lifetime money-back guarantee, minimum death and long-term care benefit guarantees, and a residual death benefit:
Medicaid/Medi-Cal is the only public benefit for long-term care. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. This is a public health insurance program which provides healthcare services for those who qualify; specifically, we have represented hundreds of clients seeking nursing home payment and those who qualify for In Home Supportive Services (IHSS).
For 15 years, we have been qualifying clients for the public benefit. The process includes the actual qualification for Medi-Cal; the legal re-arrangement of the estate assets to qualify; and, the avoidance of what is commonly called a Medi-Cal recovery claim by the state of California for benefits received. All our revocable trust documents and financial powers of attorney include specifically drafted clauses that extend to the family authority to qualify one for Medi-Cal if, in fact, the medical need arises during one’s lifetime. Our goal is to handle the Medi-Cal process privately, without court supervision. Thus, the purpose behind the specifically drafted trust and financial power of attorney language. However, if the language is not present at the time of need, or other circumstances arise compelling such, we are fully prepared to enter probate court and request special orders to facilitate the re-arrangement of family assets for Medi-Cal illegibility.
If you have lost a loved one handling the final details of the estate post-mortem administration can be difficult. You will be going through the emotions of losing a loved one, while trying to make decisions about paying off creditors and closing out final affairs – selling homes, closing accounts, distributing IRAs, annuities, life insurances, final tax return preparation, distributing furniture and other keep sakes, opening up a trust account with a federal tax ID number, and marshalling the assets for a proper accounting – to name a few.
We work with successor trustees and personal administrators to help you resolve these complex final issues relating to post-mortem transfer of assets and property. We have experience in first and second death trust administration, including simple and complex trust administration for A-B-C, Disclaimer, and QTIP trusts; and, second death post-mortem administration of simple, complex, special needs, and dynasty trusts.
People planning for their retirement, or who are already retired, are faced with a bewildering array of plans, tax rules, and investment possibilities. Just sorting out what all the potential financial options are can be overwhelming. We simplify the process by guiding clients through the entire planning process, from gathering the necessary financial facts and setting realistic objectives, to investment and asset distribution strategies to meet income needs in retirement. While Mr. Bethel does not actively participate as a financial broker, he does maintain his security licenses, Series 6 and 63, and his life insurance license. He participates in yearly continuing education requirements and therefore, stays up-to-date with the latest pre- and post retirement planning strategies.
Pre-Retirement Planning: The process involves determining: when do you wish to retire? How much do you need to save to meet your goals given your current retirement asset base? What are your lifestyle choices? Your goals, present savings, time horizon, risk profile, income need and many other factors will be analyzed and a realistic projection will be developed. You will learn what adjustments you need to make to your life savings and spending now in order to make your retirement goals attainable. In addition, we can work with your current financial advisor to specifically integrate your tax and estate planning tools with the nuts-n-bolts of your investment choices.
Post Retirement Planning: We will lay out investment and asset distribution strategies to assist in meeting income needs in retirement.
An example of some of the more sophisticated planning tools we use in the area of pre- and post retirement planning include:
The Self-Directed IRA: is an IRA that requires the account owner to make investment decisions and investments on behalf of the retirement plan. The IRS permits all sorts of investments (not just stocks, bonds and mutual funds) including, but not limited to, real estate, stocks, mortgages, franchises, partnerships, private equity and tax liens. By allowing such a wide range of investment choices, self-directed IRAs improve the account owner’s opportunities to diversify their IRA portfolio(s). In an effort to reduce fees, paperwork, and processing delays, some self-directed IRA investors choose to employ an IRA LLC structure. In such a structure the account owner directs the IRA custodian to invest into a limited liability company that the account owner manages himself/herself. The account owner can then execute transactions on the LLC level without the involvement of the IRA custodian, thus reducing fees and eliminating custodian transactional fees and delays.
The IRA Inheritance Trust: is all about leaving your IRA to a trust for controlled distributions. If poor planning options are chosen, an IRA strategy which mismanages the distributions from your plan will lead to costly estate and tax planning consequences - for you and your beneficiaries. Leaving your IRA to a trust offers several advantages: an inherited IRA will be better protected from creditors and from reckless spending. Using a trust provides greater assurance of long-term tax deferral. Leaving an IRA to a trust with a reliable trustee can ensure that only minimum required distributions (MRDs) are taken if there is no pressing need for cash. This will provide your heirs with extended tax deferral and the chance for superior wealth-building.
Probate is the legal process of transferring a decedent’s estate (title) to the rightful heirs of the estate. The probate process involves (1) collecting and identifying the deceased person’s property, (2) paying any debts and taxes, and (3) identifying the proper heirs and distributing the estate property to them. While the court oversees this process, in most cases the work is done by the executor of the decedent’s estate with the help of an attorney. We have administered probate cases in California for 20 years. While we believe in avoiding the formal probate process through a properly funded living trust, there are advantages to probate:
A conservatorship is a formal, legal authorization for the conservator – usually a spouse, domestic partner, sibling – to make decisions for the benefit of the protected person (the conservatee). It restricts the conservatee’s powers over his or her own personal care and/or financial decisions. It is particularly useful when the protected person is mentally or physically unable to understand and accept help, or is vulnerable to persons who might take financial advantage of them. We have represented conservators and conservatees in California for 20 years. We are experienced in representing the conservatorship of the person only and conservatorship of the estate only, or both together. We can assist you in:
Our firm believes in personalized service for each and every client. Our approach is educational and proactive – we first determine each client’s individual goals and then tailor their plan to best fulfill their values.
We are well-versed and stay up-to-date in the ever-changing trust and estate laws that can have a profound effect on our clients’ financial futures. We also want to keep up-to-date with our clients’ ever-changing personal family changes. Therefore, with each of our estate plans we include a no-charge 4 year review to ensure that as our clients’ lives change, so does their estate plan and ensure that all our clients’ assets are held properly for maximum protection.
In addition, we advise clients regarding pre- and post-nuptial agreements, perform reviews of existing plans that may be out of date, and handle all aspects of administration after the death of a loved one.
We represent families throughout varying stages of life:
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