Phone scams are on the rise again. Please be careful.

December 15, 2007
I have had several clients get caught in a scam this year. An owner of a trucking company; a restaurant; and one who works on boats. Most of the time it involves a foreign company. Sending money to get a government grant for a minority owned business; receiving a phoney cashiers check for too much money and the scammer asking you to send back the excess money; ordering supplies with multiple credit cards and having you pay the shipping to a phoney company. In each case the scam involves you sending or spending thousands of dollars.
Before you agree to send money over the phone, please talk to your accountant first. I would be able to tell you if other clients have been ripped off by the same gimmick. It hurts to see my clients lose typically some $3,000 on these phoney deals.
Be careful please.
The photo above was taken on the "Liberty Clipper" on Thanksgiving day with my family, my wife Pat, myself, our daughter Andrea, and our son Daryl, in Key West, Florida.
Henry (CEO)

Daryl and I have decided to expand our business to Central Florida.

June 15, 2007
Over the last 26 years, we have expanded our business as far away as Pennsylvania and Arizona but have neglected our own state of Florida except for the Panhandle.
So as of this month, we will begin to expand our accounting business to [I-75] Lake City; Gainesville; Ocala; and [I-95] St. Augustine; Ormond Beach; and Cocoa Beach, in Central Florida for starters.
This will be a fun project and should take several years. Daryl has already told me that he wants Key West too! I guess, I will never retire at this rate!
The above photo is from last years New Mexico XLR Rendezvous (our first Cadillac XLR event!). (You can click on the photo to make it larger.) At the XLR Rendezvous having just left Carlsbad Caverns, NM, a young girl asked us when we stopped at a lookout view area, if she could sit in Kent's XLR. How could he refuse!!! Henry (CEO)

"Henry, when I retire, I would like to transfer my business to my son. What suggestions do you have?"

January 4, 2007
You have many choices. Like most of my clients, you have an incorporated business.
..1) You could issue stock to your son on a gradual basis. However, you would lose some control when you pass on stock.
..2) Or if you want to stay in complete control until you retire, then you could create a will listing your son as the beneficiary of your corporate stock. But when you use a will, it means that your asset will go through probate. Say your business is worth $350,000.00. An attorney's fees might be 4% to 8% of the assets. That means your estate could pay $14,000 to $28,000 just to get the business transferred to your son.
..3) Another option is creating a Living Revocable Trust. It serves like a will, but avoids probate and the cost of probate. Setting up the trust should cost $1,400 to $1,900. This is much less than compared to the large fees above. Usually the settlement of the trust is quicker than probate. The subject is more complicated than can be fully explained here. Feel free to set up a meeting so that I could explain more in person.
Above is a photo of my Cadillac XLR Roadster and my friend Jean's XLR (from New Mexico) while hanging out in downtown Panama City. Henry (CEO)