Tredway, Lumsdaine and Doyle LLP

Every year, each TLD office sponsors families in local communities to contribute our share of holiday cheer. This year, we have continued the tradition of extending our hands and opening our hearts.

Long Beach Adopted Family

The Long Beach office of TLD was fortunate enough to be able to adopt a family assigned by St. Mary’s Medical Center: two girls, ages 2 and 8, and one boy, age 6.  St. Mary Medical Center is a 389-bed hospital offering award-winning services to the people of beautiful Long Beach, California. Starting in 1923, St. Mary’s began creating a culture of caring and innovation that you see prevails today.  The Long Beach office generously provided toys for all 3 children and a $160 cash donation for the family to purchase groceries for the holidays.  Lorraine Bornstein delivered the gifts to the hospital on November 30th.

Irvine Adopted Family

The Irvine office adopted the Garcia family: Crescencio (dad), Domitila (mother), and three girls, Monica (age 6), Gabriela (age 12), and Sandra (age 15). The family was struggling due to Dad’s hours being cut at work. They asked for only the necessities, but everyone in the Irvine office contributed $20, Mark Doyle gave a $50 gift card winnings from the TLD firm-wide Halloween contest, and other people brought in gently used items the family could use (coats, sweaters, etc.).  Jena Rivera brought in a beautiful quilt, extra toys, and Dianne Liebbrecht contributed extra gifts.  The firm purchased gifts, and gave them $120 gift card to Albertsons and the $50 dollar AMex card. Jena Rivera dropped off the boxes last Thursday.

Downey Adopted Family

The Downey office’s family came to us from Exchange Club Center. This is a family who has had more than their share of difficulty and despair. Rosalie is a 26-year-old who took custody of her nieces and nephew approximately six months ago. The children, Lawrence, Katrina and Adrina were being raised for many years by their grandmother, Norma. Sadly, Norma passed away due to long-term health problems. Prior to her death, Norma had asked Rosalie to make the commitment to take custody of the three children; she agreed despite knowing this would pose great challenges, to say the least, as Rosalie has two young children of her own, one of which is special needs. Rosalie has yet to receive any governmental financial assistance for taking guardianship of the three children and the family is surviving on the income of Rosalie’s boyfriend, father of her children.  Their wish list consisted of clothes and a few fun items (dolls, cd’s, ect.). The kids each received atleast 4 items on their list. In addition, they were given $100 gift certificate to Albertsons. Gifts were delivered last Friday by Joseph Santana.

TLD is committed to the well-being of their communities.  If you are interested in contributing time or otherwise to TLD’s charitable outreach programs, do not hesitate to contact us.  We and our communities welcome helping hands.

Many “do-it-yourself” (DIY) websites have advertised how low their fees are to start an LLC.  BEWARE: the use of an experienced attorney in this area may save you thousands of dollars in the long run.

Proposition 13 passed in 1978  and basically states so long as there is not a “change in ownership,” the property tax base on residential and commercial property will not increase beyond 2% per year (known as the Factored Base Year Value).

If you have started a corporation in California by filing the Articles of Incorporation with the California Secretary of State, you have only completed the first step in forming a California corporation.  Cal. Corporations Code section 211 requires each California corporation to adopt corporate bylaws.  Most corporations have adopted form bylaws which all seem to say the same thing, and everyone seems to believe that they are necessary but not relevant.  THEY ARE WRONG!  The bylaws of a Corporation set forth the ground rules for meetings, inspection rights, board of director indemnification, number of directors and so forth and so on.

This timely article from Trust and Estates should be of interest to any closely held business owner. Should you have any question don’t hesitate to contact me, Mark Doyle.

The top 10 things owners should be considering now

Large public companies have the luxury of in-house staff and large outside consulting, accounting and law firms. During this economic downturn, they’ve gotten loads of expensive, expert advice on how to manage risk and take advantage of opportunities to gain a competitive edge when the recovery inevitably arrives.

Closely held business owners are more alone and—busy putting out fires to stay solvent—can lose perspective.

So attention advisors! Help your smaller business-owning clients grab hold of the big picture. Walk them through this list of the top 10 things that closely held business owners should consider in these turbulent economic times: