WORKING PROFESSIONALS and INDIVIDUALS
Life Change Management from a Trusted Source.
The “wealthy” who don’t feel that rich. In our modern economy, working professionals and their families have sufficient income to qualify as “wealthy” by U.S. standards. Realistically, the definition of “wealth” has not kept up with the cost of living. In 2007 dollars, the top 20% of the people reported after-tax income of $198,300, and the next 20% reported $77,700 (Source: Congressional Budget Office, Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979-2007, June 2010). To report this amount of income, most of these people are salaried employees or running small businesses. In other words, they are working long hours to earn these amounts. When this income is needed to pay for the cost of living in major urban areas, there is little doubt that these earners need qualified, attentive counsel to manage the legal issues that they face.
There are defaults everywhere. State, federal, and municipal governments each provide a baseline for the regulation of finances and employment that is intended to capture as many people as possible. Most of these laws and regulations are enacted as ‘defaults’ with generic solutions for deeply personal matters that could not possibly cover the diversity of circumstances in peoples’ lives. Further, the separate government entities internally organize these many laws and regulations for purposes of administration, often without attention to or coordination with the acts of the other entities. This means that there are multiple defaults, in hard to find places, all of which will impact individuals, often in a way that is unexpected and unwanted.
Putting these two factors together, we realize that our clients have legal questions, concerns, and needs. However, they are too busy to conduct a complete investigation of the issues on their own. But our clients need to spend their money wisely, and they cannot afford the expensive legal fees for lawyers who cater towards the truly wealthy. We also realize that these legal issues are not in one exclusive area. Hancock Legal has worked for years representing clients in the inter-related areas in which they most need legal counsel.
We work with our clients to understand their legal rights and obligations, and to identify when and where they would be better served by opting out of the “defaults.” We counsel on tax planning and savings. We assist with preparing Life Change Management plans. We negotiate and craft executive contracts and severance packages that more accurately reflect the needs and priorities specific to our clients.
Small businesses employ over half the US workforce and generate over half of the non-farm U.S. GDP. (source www.SBA.gov). They are subject to most of the same regulations as large businesses with respect to employment, tax, commercial transactions, securities and other laws, but their size prevents them from having personnel with comprehensive expertise in these issues. We consider ourselves to be partners with our small business clients, providing necessary updates, counsel and insight into the law.
Our years of focus on small businesses have given us the ability to anticipate and understand the issues that arise for our clients. Our experience in tax, entity formation and dissolution, contract negotiation, employment and all phases of litigation and alternative dispute resolution match the most common needs of small businesses. In addition, our attorneys have been on both sides of the table, representing small and large businesses and individuals. This gives us the ability to advise our clients on matters that involve other parties with insight into the motivations of these parties and their counsel.
While businesses of any size must pay attention to the high cost of legal fees for any sort of matter, the relative percentage of a legal bill on the operating budget of a small business is enormous. We recognize that the fiscal impact of retaining counsel is a critical concern for our clients, and we work closely with them on evaluating the cost of various strategies. The entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners often means that our clients would prefer to help themselves instead of risking the expense of an enthusiastic attorney. We encourage our clients to take the laboring oar when this can help their bottom line without hurting their legal position. However, we also regularly conduct seminars and provide our clients counsel on how to do things correctly from the start because we know how expensive it can be to fix a mistake made early on. We also work with our clients on alternative billing arrangements and clear budget outlines to keep the costs of our representation transparent and affordable.
