Reib Law - August 2020

SHATTERPROOF NEWSLETTER

AUGUST 2020

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can be like trying to walk uphill in shifting gravel. If you’re cagey and vague about what you want, you’ll end up with a very general estate plan that doesn’t serve your family as well as it could. After these initial steps, you reach a plateau where many people rest and keep going — or turn around and go back down the mountain. Your attorney will give you a quote on how much their services cost. In a world ravaged by COVID-19, many people understandably want to hang onto their money in case they lose their job or face some other kind of emergency. However, I would say that if you’ve already made it to this part of the estate planning process, it’s probably important enough to keep going. Once you accept the cost, you’re ready to continue up the mountain. This is where things start to get easier. The path levels out, and you’re feeling strong. This is where the actual work begins. You review your documents and get feedback, then make an appointment to have them executed. You’ll hit another plateau when you actually have to start funding the plan, putting your assets in the right places, and informing your beneficiaries of your decisions. At this point, you can see the crest of the mountain. It feels like you’re almost there — with just a few more crucial steps to go. Before you can take in the view, you need to follow- up with your lawyer so they can make sure all of your insurance policies have the right beneficiaries, talk to your financial advisors to confirm that everyone knows how the plan works, and generally make sure that everything goes according to plan. You might groan at the prospect of having to talk to your lawyer again and again. I can’t understand why; as a lawyer I think we’re lots of fun to talk to. But I digress. The view from the top of Estate Planning Mountain is a sweet one. You’ll be able to rest easy knowing that because you took those first few difficult steps, your family’s future is as secure as you could make it. So, if you haven’t started the journey yet and you’re currently looking up at the peak, don’t fret — there’s a way forward, and you can take it. – Scott Reib

HOW ESTATE PLANNING IS LIKE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN HOW TO TAKE THOSE COURAGEOUS FIRST STEPS

Nobody would ever say that climbing a mountain is easy. Quite the opposite — it’s a challenging undertaking, requiring persistence, determination, and drive. And while the view from the bottom of the mountain is daunting, the view from the top is always breathtaking and always worth the hard work. As with climbing a mountain, and with many challenges in life, the first step toward creating your estate plan is often the hardest. You have to acknowledge that you are starting your journey to the mountain’s daunting peak. You have acknowledged your own mortality and your family’s need for a plan after you’re gone. Then, you have to call an experienced estate planning attorney and schedule an appointment. After those first few steps, things might get a little rocky. The best way to keep moving, however, is to be completely open and honest with your estate planning lawyer about your goals for your estate plan. For example, not letting your lawyer know about family situations and dynamics,

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MANAGE CASH FLOWWITH 'PROFIT FIRST' MIKE MICHALOWICZ SHARES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

updated in 2017. It’s been a huge hit, garnering rave reviews from the business world due to its simple yet innovative profit-first formula. The book has been so successful because Michalowicz has faced these types of challenges before, and he used these experiences to develop principles that make life (and business) that much easier for small- business owners. You’ll get the scoop on Michalowicz’s profit-centered approach and how his innovative system flips traditional accounting on its head, making money management more streamlined. If you find yourself struggling to manage the financial side of your business, then he has you covered. His tips are especially useful for businesses that have cash flow that varies from month to month or that have a peak season. Michalowicz’s insight is even more valuable in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere look to get back on track in the second half of 2020, boost their businesses, and recover lost profits. If you’re a seasoned business owner and are already money-minded and exceptionally organized, this book will likely serve as a quick refresher, but if you’re a startup business owner and want to improve your accounting systems and catapult your profits, then “Profit First” is just what you need.

Running the day- to-day operations of a business while

also managing the money can be difficult to

juggle for many small-business owners. Even if they have systems and processes in place, these methods don’t always work as well as they should and can easily become difficult to navigate. When you hit this kind of wall, it can be hard to keep your focus on growing a profitable business.

Enter Mike Michalowicz and his book “Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money- Making Machine.” The book was published in 2014 but was

BIZ TOOL OF THE MONTH: REMOVE.BG SAVE TIME BY CUTTING OUT PHOTO BACKGROUNDS

If you have several images for which you want the backgrounds removed, you can run them all through the program at the same time — and work on other tasks while you wait! Once you’ve removed the background of a photo, you can use one of thousands of backgrounds available on remove.bg. Download remove.bg to use it with Windows, Apple and Linux operating systems for a seamless integration into your workflow. It also easily integrates with Photoshop. With just a few clicks, you can use remove.bg to create unique images and a marketing campaign that will engage your customers better than ever before. The entire program is completely free to use and simple enough that it should be included in anyone’s marketing tool belt. So, whenever you have a spare second between your millions of tasks, be sure to explore everything remove.bg has to offer.

“There are approximately 20 million more interesting activities than removing backgrounds by hand.” That’s a quote from the front page of the website remove.bg, where you can upload pictures of yourself or anyone else and remove the background in just a few seconds. How many times have you had a great photo of yourself that you’ve wanted to use for your website or newsletter but didn't because removing the background proved too painstaking? With remove.bg, now you’ll be able to get to the approximately 20 million other things on your to-do list. The website itself is simple and easy to navigate. All you have to do is select the photo that has a background you want removed and drop the file anywhere on the screen. Then, in just a few seconds the background will vanish and you’ll have a professional-grade portrait of yourself, your team, or your customers. You’ll even be able to see where the program cut around individual hairs if you zoom in on the finished product!

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3 COMMON MYTHS ABOUT ESTATE PLANNING

To put it lightly, estate planning is a complex process. Licensed attorneys have to study for years, and practice for years after that, to gain enough insight into the process to help people create their estate plans. Unfortunately, the complicated nature of the industry means that misinformation abounds. Here are a few potential estate planning myths that you may have come across. IT’S CHEAPER TO MAKE MY OWN ESTATE PLAN While the legal standards for creating a will or other estate planning tools are fairly simple to meet, you need to consider more than just the cost you’re saving by not hiring an estate planning attorney to help you. Consider the possibility of making a mistake while putting your plan together. Without the practiced eye of an estate planning attorney, that small mistake could end up costing your family more time and money than it would have cost to talk with an attorney in the first place. ONLY WEALTHY PEOPLE MAKE ESTATE PLANS The words “estate planning” might conjure up thoughts of countryside mansions and fancy living, but the truth is that if you have any amount of wealth at all, you have a reason to make an estate plan. The purpose of an estate plan is BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU BELIEVE!

to dictate who has guardianship over your kids, who gets your assets, and what will happen if you suddenly become incapacitated. None of these things happen exclusively to the wealthy. It benefits people of any wealth class to have a plan for when they die. MY FAMILY WILL SORT IT ALL OUT You might think that your family will all get along in the wake of your passing, and that they’ll make calm, rational decisions about carrying out your final wishes, but this is rarely the case. In times of grief, frustration comes easily, no matter how well a family gets along. That’s why it’s best to have clear, legally binding instructions that dictate your final wishes. That way, you can be at peace knowing they’ll do the right thing. If you’re not sure if something you heard about the estate planning process is factual, give REIBLAW a call today. We’ll help you distinguish fact from fiction.

RESTAURANT-STYLE FETTUCCINE ALFREDO

We want your feedback! In editions of this newsletter, we’ve covered everything from business contracts to how to handle the former spouse who wound up with everything because there was no business succession plan in place. But now we’re wondering: What would you like to see? You know those legal questions that Google can’t give you a satisfactory answer to? The ones that keep you up at night as you wonder whether it’s time to call a lawyer? We want to answer those. Send us your questions and we’ll use them to address the topics you want to know more about. Text your questions and curiosities to 972.677.3002 .

Inspired by The New York Times

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup

• Salt • 2 tbsp butter • 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream • 1 large egg yolk • 1 lb fresh fettuccine

freshly grated Parmigiano- Reggiano

• Freshly ground pepper, to taste • Fresh parsley, chopped, to taste • 1 lemon wedge

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot, bring 6 quarts of generously salted water to a boil. 2. In a large, deep skillet, while the water heats, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant and sizzling (about 2 minutes). 3. In a bowl, whisk heavy cream and egg yolk until blended and pour into garlic butter. 4. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir until hot, not boiling. Keep warm on low heat. 5. In the large pot, cook pasta until al dente. (The pasta will float once it’s done.) Reserve about 1/2 cup pasta water and drain pasta. Pour hot pasta into cream mixture and toss to coat on low heat. 6. Add Parmigiano-Reggiano and keep tossing gently until cream is mostly absorbed. If the sauce is absorbed too much, toss with extra pasta water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 7. Serve with parsley and a squeeze of lemon.

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How Estate Planning Is Like Climbing A Mountain INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 2 2 3 3 4 Biz Tool of the Month: Remove.bg 3 Common Myths About Estate Planning Restaurant-Style Fettuccine Alfredo Meet the Man Who Stole the ‘Mona Lisa’

What Small-Business Owners Can Learn From ‘Profit First’

THE MOST FAMOUS ART HEIST YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

MEET THE MAN WHO STOLE THE ‘MONA LISA’ One hundred and nine years ago this month, one man — or was it three? — fled from the Louvre Museum in Paris, carrying what would quickly become the world’s most famous painting: Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”

Either way, we know that Peruggia successfully spirited the painting back to his one-bedroom apartment. There it lay concealed in a false-bottomed trunk for more than two years. This period of mysterious absence (during which police grilled and dismissed Peruggia as a suspect in favor of J.P. Morgan, Pablo Picasso, and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire) is what made the “Mona Lisa” world famous. Peruggia was eventually caught attempting to sell the painting in Italy. He pleaded guilty and spent eight months in jail. After his release, he enlisted in the Italian army to fight in World War I, surviving the war only to die of a heart attack on his 44th birthday. Though Peruggia married after the war, some suspect that the true love of his life was the “Mona Lisa” herself. In a CNN article, author and art history professor Noah Charney speculates that over his two years with her, Peruggia developed romantic feelings for the portrait. Perhaps he fell victim to a kind of “reverse Stockholm syndrome,” Charney suggests, the captor falling in love with his hostage. “In this case,” he says, “the hostage was a work of art.”

Historical accounts of the theft agree only on who was the ringleader: 30-year-old Louvre handyman Vincenzo Peruggia. He was a house painter, an immigrant, the bearer of a glorious Monopoly Man mustache, and a vehement Italian patriot. At some point on the morning of Aug. 21, 1911, Peruggia lifted the glass case he himself had constructed to house the “Mona Lisa” and smuggled the painting from the building. Some versions of the story say Peruggia was assisted by two brothers, fellow Italian handymen Vincenzo and Michele Lancelotti. NPR reports the trio spent the night preceding the theft huddled in one of the Louvre’s supply closets, lying in wait to steal the portrait. In his documentary about the theft, director Joe Medeiros claims Peruggia acted alone, driven by an obsession with the work and a dream of returning the painting to Italy.

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