By Senior Associate Heather McKaig

Roses are red, Violets are blue, relationships change, your planning should too! Valentine’s Day is a great time to make sure that your estate plan matches your relationship status. Changes in relationships mean changes in priorities.  As estate planning attorneys, we focus on your priorities when it comes to designing a plan for your assets, your decisions, and your loved ones. If every relationship status was a candy heart, this is what we would advise:

“FEELIN’ MYSELF”    Flying solo?  If you die without a will or trust, your assets are distributed to relatives according to a hierarchy set by the laws of NC.  With a will or trust, you direct who inherits your assets after you die. If you are incapacitated and unable to make your own decisions about your finances or your healthcare, the courts will appoint a guardian to control your financial and healthcare decisions. That guardian might not be the person you would have chosen yourself to make decisions for you. We can prepare power of attorney documents in which you designate the people you want making those decisions for you.

“LUV U BOO”     Partnered up but not married? NC does not have common law marriage, so if you are not married and you want your partner to inherit from you, we can help you do that through a will or trust. Do you want your partner to make financial or legal decisions for you? Do you want them to be there in the hospital with you to make your healthcare decisions in the event you can’t?  To make sure you can always be there for each other, you need to be named in power of attorney documents.

“I WOOF U”    Disappointed in humans and only speaking to your dog?  We can help with pet trusts to make sure that after you are gone, your furry family member is cared for in the manner to which they are accustomed!

“4EVER”    In sickness and in health? Just because you’re married does not mean that your spouse is able to make decisions for you if you can’t.  Your spouse is presumed to be your agent in healthcare situations in NC, but not for financial, legal, or in personal business decisions.  And, under NC law, your spouse does not automatically inherit all your assets when you die. You and your spouse should review and revamp your estate plans and powers of attorney together with one of our estate planning attorneys.

“FREE”     I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T?  Time to redo your documents and plot your own course. Be sure your ex is not named as a beneficiary or a power of attorney for you.  New estate plan documents make sure you have only the people you want acting for you and as your beneficiaries.

“MISS U”    Til death do us part?   If you lose a loved one, we can help with the administration of their estate or trust, and, when you’re ready, we can help you set up a new estate plan for yourself.  And we can help you with new power of attorney documents, if necessary, to name someone to make decisions for you if you can’t.

Whatever your relationship status this Valentines Day, Jesson & Rains can help you take care of yourself and those you love!

​By Associate Attorney Heather McKaig

Failure to plan is planning to fail: make a resolution to prioritize estate planning in 2025. Estate planning allows you to take control of uncertainty and have peace of mind over difficult and unpredictable situations. Dying without a will in North Carolina means your assets are distributed according to state law and not according to your wishes. Even with a will, the probate process can be confusing, tedious and problematic, particularly with the North Carolina Clerks’ Offices transitioning to “e-Courts” filing and document system.  However, many of the “worst-case” scenarios can be avoided with proper planning. Make 2025 the year you plan for emergency scenarios and protect your business and personal assets for the benefit of your loved ones through estate planning.  

Estate planning allows you to plan for what happens when you pass away, including naming a trusted person to handle your final affairs, naming guardians for minor children, and making sure assets are distributed according to your wishes. In addition to planning for death, our office drafts durable and health care powers of attorneys, where you can name agents to make both financial and medical decisions for you if you are incapacitated and cannot communicate. 

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today: get an estate plan in place before it is ever needed. If you do become incapacitated or ill, it may be more difficult or impossible to get documents in place, as you must have testamentary capacity to create valid estate planning documents. 

Some of our clients delay estate planning because they do not have any friends or family members they trust to serve in important fiduciary roles. In some circumstances, members of the firm may serve in these roles for the client if the client feels comfortable.  It is better for you to take control and name someone yourself than to have the government appoint someone in an emergency or when you pass away.

Your life is what you make it: make 2025 the year you take control. Please call Jesson & Rains if you have questions about getting your estate plan in order or updating an existing estate plan.  While You Build, We Protect.

By Attorney Kelly Jesson

We are writing to clarify the status of the Corporate Transparency Act since there was a lot of activity over the holidays!  On December 23, 2024, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted FinCEN’s emergency motion for a stay of the Texas federal court’s order enjoining the Corporate Transparency Act.  Immediately, FinCEN came out with a press release outlining the due dates for Beneficial Owner Report filings.  Social media and inboxes were filled with warnings and panic.

However, after an emergency rehearing en banc on December 26 (these lawyers and judges took no holiday leave apparently!), the Fifth Circuit again entered an order allowing for the injunction to continue while the case is litigated.

What does this mean for you?  Until there is an official ruling on the constitutionality of the Corporate Transparency Act, no Beneficial Owner Reports are required to be filed.

By Attorney Kelly Jesson

In what seems to be the theme of the year, we have yet another new regulation for 2024 overturned by a federal court.  A new overtime law went into place on July 1, 2024, which dramatically increased the number of employees who may no longer be exempt from overtime.  We wrote about here in detail. Employers were faced with either paying overtime if those workers were working more than 40 hours per week or increasing their salaries so they no longer qualified for overtime.  The law also called for future changes, most notably another minimum salary increase to meet the exemption in January of 2025.  The threshold increases were very large and likely would have burdened some employers, while obviously benefiting employees who may be working long hours with low pay but not receiving overtime.

On November 15, 2024, a Texas federal court struck down the new law, saying that the Department of Labor (“DOL”) did not have the authority to replace the “duties” test of whether an employee is exempt from overtime with a “minimum salary” test.   The court's order applies nationwide, effective immediately.

This is the second time in recent years that the DOL has attempted to broaden the numbers of workers who are eligible for overtime.  The DOL has said that it will appeal the court’s decision, but for now, it’s business as usual for your business!  If you have any questions about this law or anything else related to your business, please give Jesson & Rains a call!

By Attorney Kelly Jesson

If you don’t know what The Corporate Transparency Act is, you can read about it here and here. We had been hopeful all year that it would be invalidated, and we had intentionally waited until the end of the year to file the Beneficial Owner Information Reports (“BOIR”) on behalf of our clients.  In the past few weeks, we have been working on getting the BOIRs done since the deadline is less than a month away and we were beginning to lose hope.

Alas, our prayers were answered yesterday!  A federal judge in Texas has issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the requirement to report the beneficial owners of businesses because the law is “likely unconstitutional.” The order states that companies nationwide do not need to comply with the Jan. 1 reporting deadline unless and until a higher court reverses the order.

What does this mean for you?  For now, there’s no need to report.  But we do need to continue to watch this situation, as the law will surely be litigated in the future.  We probably have not heard the last of the Corporate Transparency Act.