Our clients are busy and they sometimes forget to keep their information updated with the Secretary of State’s Office or file their annual reports; they pay for a registered agent who does nothing more than forward their mail; and they sometimes fall victim to scams like this and this. 

We’re offering a yearly plan that includes serving as our client’s registered agent and filing their annual report, among other things.  A description of the plan is attached to this email.  This plan helps to ensure your privacy (if your business is ever sued, the lawsuit will be delivered to our office’s address); you will be less likely to fall victim to a scam (we will sort through and destroy junk mail); you will be more organized and have less paper (we will scan and forward your mail immediately to your attention after sorting); and we will ensure that corporate records and Secretary of State records are kept up to date.
 
We’re also offering an upgraded yearly plan that includes unlimited access to attorneys throughout the year.  No more billing for .1 emails or .2 telephone calls.  We want to encourage people to contact us anytime they need us instead of being afraid to get a bill from us. 
 
This is a continued effort from us to offer flat fees instead of hourly billing.  Annual reports are due April 15, and they can be filed now, so this is a great time to switch over to having Jesson & Rains handle it.  Please contact us if you’re interested, and please forward to any busy business owners you think may need our help!

​In honor of that day, we thought we would provide an overview of the healthcare-related documents we draft for our clients in addition to the standard wills and trusts that most people realize are part of jobs.  Additionally, though, estate planning attorneys draft documents that deal with the potential for incapacity during their clients’ lifetimes.  These documents cease to have any effect after the client has passed away, so they are not true estate planning documents if you consider that definition to include only documents that deal with property distribution.  Estate planning attorneys help their clients plan for possible incapacity with the following documents:
 
(1) Durable power of attorney.  In this document, you would name an agent to act in your place as to financial, business, and legal decisions, if you were incapacitated (unable to handle your affairs).   
 
(2) Health care power of attorney.  In this document, you would name an agent to make medical decisions for you in the event you cannot speak for yourself.  It is not necessarily an end-of-life document.  You could be going in for a routine surgery and under anesthesia, for example. 
 
(3) Living Will.  This is an end-of-life document.  You will state under what conditions and terms you do not want to be kept on life support.  If you do want life support (or if you want to leave it up to your healthcare agent), you do not complete this document. 
 
In order to sign these documents, you must have capacity to know what you’re doing.  Waiting until someone is incapacitated to handle this means that you have waited too long.  These documents must be completed in advance of any medical issues.  If you would like more information, please give Jesson & Rains a call.
 

Many of our clients who own businesses do business under an “assumed name” (a/k/a DBA … “doing business as”).  This means that the name the business operates under is different to the name registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office (e.g. Jesson & Rains, LLP doing business as simply Jesson & Rains). The law in North Carolina has been, up until recently, that you had to have a “certificate of assumed name” filed in the register of deeds office for each county in which you do business.
 
As of December 1, 2017, a change in the law has begun the creation of a centralized database that is being run by the Secretary of State’s office (as opposed to each of the 100 county register of deeds offices located in North Carolina). This, accompanied by a new streamlined application process, will make searches of the assumed name database and filing for a certificate of assumed business name easier than it was in the past. However, the Secretary of State’s office does not yet have the database completely up and running so, for now, when applying for a certificate of assumed business name a search for the desired name must be carried out in the county or counties in which you wish to do business.
 
A big change that it is important to take note of is that any certificates of assumed name that were filed before December 1, 2017 will expire on December 1, 2022. This means that anyone wishing to continue doing business under an assumed name that they were using in the past will need to file a new application for a certificate assumed business name with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office before the December 1, 2022 deadline.
 
For assistance or for more information please don’t hesitate to reach out to Kelly or Ed who would be happy to assist.