Feb. 25, 2025

Will the Corporate Transparency Act Affect Your Estate Plan? (Episode 314)

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Well, good afternoon, michiganers. It is Tuesday, February twenty five,

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twenty twenty five, and of course this is Tuesday with Tom,

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Michigan's only weekly internet show where we answer your questions

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about a state planning and a state settlement in Michigan.

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And we have actually been answering those questions now for

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nine years.

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The first episode of Tuesday with Tom was.

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On We were a twenty third twenty sixteen in which

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I talked about what is an estate plan So anniversary

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celebration today.

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Doesn't seem possible.

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That nine years have gone by in producing this podcast,

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But of course I am your host, Tom Doyle, estate

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planning attorney, lifelong Michigan resident, and ambassador for all things.

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Good in this great state of Michigan.

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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to this anniversary episode.

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Today, last episode how.

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To save your children from a twenty percent capital gains

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tax on your home. If you're thinking about transferring your

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home or other real estate perhaps or even other assets

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to your children by way of a gift, and those

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assets have appreciated, I invite you to be sure to

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listen to last week's episode before you make that gift,

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so that you understand whether or not you might be

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passing on a capital gains tax to your children. Today's

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episode the question will the Corporate Transparency Act affect your

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estate plan? But please remember what I'm about to discuss

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during this program is, as always for educational purposes only.

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It is not intended to be legal advice. You need

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to work with your.

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Attorney and in this case, your tax advisor excuse me

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to determine what is appropriate for you and your estate plan.

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Will the Corporate.

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Transparency Act affect your estate plan?

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Well, let's begin with what is.

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The Corporate Transparency Act or abbreviated as CTA, which took

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effect on January first, twenty twenty four and introduce new

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reporting requirements for certain business entities. While the goal of

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the Act is to prevent financial crimes, the Act can

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actually have significant implications.

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For your estate planning. So again, what's the Act?

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Well, the Act basically requires small businesses, especially corporations and LLCs,

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to report there what they call beneficial ownership information to

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the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. So the idea is that

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if you have a small business which is a corporation

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or an LLC, you might now have the obligation or

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you likely in fact do have the obligation to report

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who owns or who has the beneficial ownership of that

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business entity to the federal government. So who qualifies as

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a beneficial owner, Well, it's anyone who owns at least

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twenty five percent of the entity or has substantial control

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over it. So the government hopes that what this will

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do will curb anonymous ownership for illicit purposes. The idea

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being these businesses have to report to the government who

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owns them, and hopefully by doing that there will not

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be as much anonymous ownership of entities that might be

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involved in illicit per purposes. But for state planning, it

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can in fact introduce new consideration. So how can the

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CTA impact the state planning. Well, let's kind of break

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it down for what it might mean for you. Many

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estate plans involve trusts that hold business ownership. You might

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have a trust. Maybe you have a business that is

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owned as an LLC or owned as a corporation, and

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part of the funding of your trust might involve transferring

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ownership of that LLC or of that corporation to your trust. Well,

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if you do that under the CTA, trustees grantors or

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beneficiaries who might now qualify as beneficial owners are going

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to be required to report their information to the federal government.

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So if you have a trust and you're going to

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be transferring an LLC, maybe you have maybe you don't

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have an LLC set up for a business, but pretty

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common for a lot of clients, they took a family

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cottage and converted it to an LLC as a way

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to continue ownership of the cottage and use by the

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family into the future. Or perhaps you have some rental properties,

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and in part of the conversation that we oftentimes have

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with clients about rental properties when we're setting up a trust,

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is do they first want to transfer ownership of the

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rental property to an LLC for asset protection purposes, to

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put someone in between you and your trust and the

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property in case there is somebody who gets seriously injured.

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On that property.

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Or maybe you're a farmer and you're looking at part

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of your estate plan, and part of that plan, again

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more from an asset protection strategy, might be you take

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your equipment, put it into a separate LLC, and then

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you have the business into a separate LLC, so.

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You can end up with these multiple.

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Business entities that now are going to be subject to

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the reporting requirements of the CTA.

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So that's the first thing.

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Your trustees or you as the grandeur, or the beneficiaries

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of the trust might now be considered beneficial owners, requiring

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them to report their information. A second concern oftentimes, when

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we're talking to clients about preparing a trust in particular,

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they might consider the trust as a tool for protecting privacy.

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We'll have a conversation that if your state has to

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go through probate, that's a public process. Anybody can go

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down to the probate court and learn information about your assets.

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But by having a trust, normally.

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A trust is going to protect privacy because the trust,

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at the normal trust that's prepared for a state plan

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is a private entity. However, now these new reporting requirements

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mean that some individuals are going to have to disclose

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their information to the federal government, which is essentially limiting

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some of that anonymity for those certain business structures. It's

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not that they were looking at doing something illicit with

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the business structure, but they like the fact that something

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inside a trust, nobody has a public record where they

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can go down and find out.

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But now if that trust.

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Is going to have inside it LLC's or corporations, then

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that information is likely going to have to be disclosed

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to the federal government. It can also impact your business

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succession planning. If you're thinking about passing down a business

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to your heirs, be it and it's an LLC or

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a corporation, Now the CTA may require the disclosure of

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new beneficial owners so that when you die and.

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Your business now is passed down to your heirs, your heirs.

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Might now be obligated to disclose their beneficial ownership of

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that asset, which basically means it can create extra administrative

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hurdles or families who are managing business transitions. So in

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settling your trust, if you have a trust, or if

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your estate is going to go through probate and that

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LLC or corporation is going to be passed on through

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the probate process, or maybe your LLC or business is

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set up to take advantage of transfern ownership opportunities where

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it's going to transfer directly to a beneficiary without having

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to go through probate and without having a trust. In

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all of those cases, though, now the individuals receiving that

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LLC or the individuals receiving those businesses might now have

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to concern themselves, along with everything else that's involved in

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settling your estate, with reporting their business ownership information.

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To the feeds. Essentially, what does that mean?

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Well, really that is going to to potentially increase the

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compliant obligation by the person settling your state, whether it's

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the executor or a personal representative or a trustee. And

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you as a business owner, now you have to stay

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on top of these reporting requirements in order to avoid penalties,

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because non compliance could lead to fines and even criminal consequences.

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So what do you do?

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What steps might you want to take in order to

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protect your state plan? Well, one, review your business entities

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identity by which of those entities need to report under

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the CTA and so you can take a look at

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your entities. Do you have LLC's, do you have corporations?

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You should talk to your tax advisor who's primarily at

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kind of the front end, if you will, of the

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reporting that occurs, and check with them to see do

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you have reporting obligations and have you met those reporting

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obligations under the CTA and if not, have them work

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with you to accomplish that Two, determine beneficial ownership. Try

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and look at who actually is the beneficial owner of

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these businesses, these LLCs, and these corporations in your current structure.

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Three, keep detail records.

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Make sure that you maintain up to date ownership records

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because doing that is going to make compliance easier.

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So if information.

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Has to be reported to the federal government, by maintaining

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up to date ownership records, Who are the beneficiaries of

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your trust? Who are the perhaps the personal representative that

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you've pointed under your will or your successor trustees that

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you have under your trust, Names, addresses, contact information, etc.

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Make sure that information is kept up to date so

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that when there are obligations to report, compliance.

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Will be easier.

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And finally, consult with professionals. These can get complicated. Our

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recommendation is that you start with your tax advisor because

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oftentimes these entities that are created also have tax implications that.

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Go along with them.

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You can also reach out to your legal advisor who

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is involved in having put together or is planning your

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current estates. So the CTA, the Corporate transmittery Act, is

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basically introducing a new layer of regulatory oversight that under

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circumstances might impact estate plans involve business entities, so whether

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you have a trust, an LLC, or corporation as part

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of your state strategy, understanding these new requirements is essential

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for you to avoid legal pitfalls. So if you have

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any questions, reach out to your tax advisor, or you

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can certainly reach out to us at Doyle Lot PC

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to learn about how the CTA might affect your estate planning.

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Of course, Amanda and I would be honored even if

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you don't have questions about the CTA, but we would

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be honored to have the opportunity to help you protect

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your loved ones by putting together your estate plan, a

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mending a plan that you already have, even if it's

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one that we didn't prepare, or assisting you in settling

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an estate. All the information about scheduling appointments with us,

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whether it's going to be in person consultations at our

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lansing office location on West Saint Joe or our Grand

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Rapids location on Ottawa Now, or is it going to

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be a virtual consultation via Zoom or telephone. All of

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that information on how to schedule those consultations will be

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found at our website. Doyle LAWPC dot com. Also, maybe

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all you're looking for is an individual document. You need

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a new, let's say, certificate of trust because you're selling

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real estate on behalf of a trust. Visit our Legal

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Store again available at Doyle LAWPC dot com and you

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will find out how you can actually order individual documents

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through the legal store. Information on ordering legal documents is

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also available through the DOYLAPC Facebook page.

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Well, I think.

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That that is going to be it for today's anniversary show.

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As always, though, if you have.

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A comment about our program, a topic that you'd like

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to have me discuss, or questions you'd like to have answered,

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just head on over to Tuesday with Tom dot com,

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leave a voice message by clicking on the microphone, or

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send me an email. That would be Tom at Tuesday

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with Tom dot com. We invite you please follow us

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That would be Tuesday with Tom. You can follow the

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Your smart speaker to play Tuesday with Tom. Well, thanks

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again for spending some of your time with us today

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and as always, I hope that you have an awesome

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day and an awesome.

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Week in Michigan. Stay safe now.

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Tuesday with Tom has been brought to you by the

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estate planning attorneys at Doyle Law PC. To learn how

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settling a loved one's estate, please call us today at

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