Sullivan & Schnittker, LLC

Our Practice

Our areas of practice include:

Introduction

Most things in life benefit from careful planning. And that is especially true when it comes to your estate or your business. Careful planning helps ensure your wishes, ideas, and dreams happen .

At Sullivan & Schnittker, we’ve developed a synergistic approach to your planning needs. Thomas H. Sullivan and Clay Schnittker will help ensure you control your estate and will help you build a solid business.

Estate Planning

“I want to control my property while I’m alive, take care of me and my loved ones if I become disabled, and give what I have to whom I want the way I want when I want. And if I can, I want to save every last tax dollar, professional fee, and court cost possible.”

Quite simply, that’s good estate planning.

Whether your estate is $50,000 or $5,000,000, estate planning is essential. It’s about controlling what happens to you and to what you own. It’s about caring for your loved ones. An estate plan creates a thoughtful, reasoned way to distribute your assets at your death. It provides for you and your loved ones if you become disabled. Estate planning gives you the peace of mind that you and your loved ones are taken care of now and in the future.

Do you want to protect your family? Do you want to take special care of a loved one? Are you single or part of a non-traditional couple? Are you part of a blended family? Do you have a former spouse? Do you want to support a favorite charity? Who will make decisions for you if you cannot make them for yourself?

Estate planning is a highly specialized legal area that demands knowledge, experience, and compassion. It’s not something for off-the-shelf software. It’s not something you should try at home.

The best place to begin this important process? With highly qualified estate planning attorneys. With Tom Sullivan and Clay Schnittker.

At Sullivan & Schnittker, LLC, we create estate plans tailored to your specific needs and goals. Your plan is as unique as you are. There’s no fill-in-the-blank software.

Drawing on listening, counseling, consulting, and legal expertise, we learn about your goals, aspirations, concerns, and fears. Together, we explore your family’s strengths and weaknesses in a comfortable and confidential environment. We discuss ways to help protect your assets and loved ones from creditors and unscrupulous people. We can help you guide, educate, and assist your loved ones in responsible financial management.

That’s not all. Our comprehensive, team planning approach includes everyone you rely on for help and advice. That means all your professional advisors – financial planners, accountants, insurance agents – work with us to realize your goals.

Services

The Sullivan & Schnittker staff handles every aspect of your estate plan. That includes determining your needs and goals, coordinating plan content with your other professional advisors, gathering all materials, and creating the plan.

Our team works with you on situations that require special care. For example, blended families, former spouses, disabled beneficiaries, singles, non-traditional couples, and protection from creditors and people with questionable motives.

And unlike many law offices, Sullivan & Schnittker team members will make sure your assets are re-titled so your revocable living trust is fully funded and fully effective. You don’t have to deal with the details.

Preparing the plan

Because solid estate planning is based on solid relationships, we begin the process with an initial, no-charge meeting. You get to know us, and together we begin to explore your estate planning goals and needs.

Once you decide to work with Sullivan & Schnittker for estate planning, we recommend the best tools and strategies to accomplish your goals. Following another, more in-depth discussion, we prepare your unique estate plan.

Business Planning

At Sullivan & Schnittker, we work with business owners to achieve their goals, grow their businesses, and protect their families. We take care of the “legal stuff” so you can focus on what you do best – running your business.

Business creation

First, we review your business plan and goals with you. Then, together, we choose the best way to structure your business. If you are already in business, we help you determine whether the structure you’ve chosen is still best. We will then create the necessary documents to organize your business and create your corporate shield.

Corporate shield

Your corporate shield, also referred to as corporate veil, protects individual shareholders and officers from liability. Because it is critical to your company, we review your corporate legal documents yearly to ensure your corporate shield is always in place. We help with your annual minutes, bylaws, and operating agreement changes. We make sure your required annual report and franchise tax report are filed with the state. If your corporate shield is in danger, we identify actions to get it back in place. We can also serve as your registered agent.

Annual strategy session

Annual planning is essential to your business’s success. We can make sure it happens. Each year we bring all your professional advisors together – accountants, insurance agents, financial planners, for example – to review your goals and expand or create new ones for the coming year. We help you identify the greatest dangers and opportunities. Then we help you create a plan to minimize the dangers and maximize the opportunities.

Business succession planning

We can help you determine the long-range future for your business. Who will take over if you are disabled or die? How will your business be sold? How will the purchase be funded?

We review your plan for your business and help you create a succession plan to ensure your business continues under the control of the people you choose. And we help ensure you and your family receive the full value for your business.

Fees

At Sullivan & Schnittker, we do most planning on a flat-fee basis. After your initial no-cost consultation, we quote a fee that includes all aspects of your estate or business strategy planning. You know the full cost before you commit to anything.

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