Business
Capitalist Sage: How Estate Planning is More Important in the COVID-19 World [Podcast]
Published
5 years agoon
The hardest part may be imagining the world without you in it or without a healthy and capable you in it. There’s never a better time to start thinking about estate planning than right now.
No matter who you are as a business owner or individual, planning for the future is an important step. In this episode of Capitalist Sage, Rico Figliolini and Karl Barham are joined by Estate Planning Attorney Jim Miskell. Listen as they discuss all the details you need to know to start planning now.
Resources
Website: LetsTalkEstatePlanning.com
“The reasons to do it are, and I’m sort of joking that if you don’t do it, somebody else will. That’s really the heart and soul of it. If you want to control how what you’ve worked so hard to build, benefit your family in the future. Make the plans.”
Jim Miskell
Timestamp:
[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:01:59] – About Jim and Estate Planning
[00:05:58] – Risks and Benefits
[00:08:41] – What’s Entailed
[00:11:21] – For Business Owners
[00:14:14] – Why doesn’t everyone do it?
[00:16:30] – Sheltering
[00:19:22] – Navigating Partnerships
[00:22:59] – Starting the Conversation
[00:28:32] – Younger Estate Plans
[00:30:17] – Closing
Podcast Transcript
Karl: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Capitalist Sage podcast. We’re here to bring you advice and tips from seasoned pros and expert to help you improve your business. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors, and my cohost is Rico Figliolini with Mighty Rockets Digital Marketing, and the publisher of the Peachtree Corners Magazine, which is out.
Rico: [00:00:54] Yes, in most places. And if you haven’t received it, let me know, but it should be out there in your mailboxes. And I, you know, while we’re doing this, we’re going to obviously, we’ve been getting some technical difficulties. So bear with us as well. Everyone’s on, everyone’s online, so it’s the world out there, right? So I might as well introduce our sponsor Hargray Fiber. They are, in fact, they’re doing a great job those guys, they’re in the Southeast. They’re doing work with many small companies, midsize companies, and enterprise larger companies as well, providing internet services. IT management services as well, and they’re doing several promotions. And right now they’re there to be able to help you work remotely and collaboratively for free. So reach out to them at HargrayFiber.com and find out the sources, the solutions they have for you, and it’d be a great place to be. Thank you Karl for letting me do that.
Karl: [00:01:59] Absolutely. Well, let’s get right into it. I am so honored to have our guest today, Jim Miskell, who is an attorney, an estate planning attorney that has offices both in Johns Creek and Lawrenceville, Georgia. I got a chance to chat with Jim a couple of times. And he just was a wealth of knowledge in the area of estate planning, in ways that people may not have realized. So we wanted to have him come on today to talk a little bit about what all these business owners that are going through. This may be a good time through all the business owner that are going through. Sit back and think about some of the things that they should be putting in place to help protect their legacy as they go forward. So with that, I’d like to welcome Jim Miskall. Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself, Jim.
Jim: [00:03:03] Thank you, Karl. Thank you, Rico. It’s pleasure to be here. Always appreciate the opportunity to speak to people about the importance of estate planning. Our practice is estate planning and elder law as you said Karl, we’ve got two offices, Lawrenceville and Johns Creek. Of course now, with the way things have been the last little bit, the physical offices are a little bit less important. We’re doing the entirety of our meetings with clients remotely, either by phone conferences, facetimes, zoom, some other mechanism of that kind. Signing ceremonies for our plans we’re handling in person, usually in the parking lot so that everybody stays safe and socially isolated. But we get those documents witnessed and signed. We offer estate planning services from folks that may not even think they have an estate. An estate plan that’s for rich people. No, if you’ve got spare change in a jar on your dresser. You have an estate. And it’s worth planning for. So we have clients that range from young couples who just had their first child to older folks. We do a lot of elder law planning for long term care benefits, which might be Medicaid or VA benefits. We handle the aid and attendance, preparation to be qualified for that. And so along that we’ve got some clients for which we do will plans, some clients for which a revocable living trust plan is the way to go. Some folks that in conjunction with those things, use an irrevocable living trust that gives them asset protection. We’ve used that not only in the areas of elder law, but also for clients who own small businesses. Because it gives a, an additional
layer of asset protection that you don’t get with just an LLC or a corporation. You can still retain control and income interests in your business. So for some folks that that’s a really good fit. It’s an area of practice that I love. I started out my career 12 and a half years as a prosecutor. And left prosecution in 2005 and realized pretty early on I wanted to focus on this area of practice because I noticed that the folks that were coming in for estate planning. Only came to see me for one reason, and it wasn’t because they were mad at their spouse and it wasn’t because that’s so-and-so who had a store in the same strip mall. Their clients were parking in their parking spaces. It wasn’t because they were mad at anybody. It wasn’t because they created a bad situation by committing a crime. It was because they loved their family. My clients only come to see me for one reason. That’s because they love their family and they’re trying to avoid problems in the future. And for a small business owners really fall into that category because they work so hard. They work so hard, and those with foresight don’t want that work to be lost.
Karl: [00:05:58] So Jim, let me ask you. That’s one of the things that I realize, you know, every day a small business owner is really busy running their business. And during this time of the pandemic, there is a pause for a lot of people where they have time to think about the future. And it’s becoming really real. And I see that in the conversation with people and people love their families. Why should someone than, consider putting together an estate plan. What are some of the risks they have out there if they choose not to do that or delay it too much longer?
Jim: [00:06:34] Well, the great thing about estate estate planning is that it’s optional. And if you don’t do it, if you don’t make the decisions for you and your family. Somebody else will do it. So if you’re comfortable with somebody else making those decisions and handing over control of those things and letting somebody else, another family member, or hopefully not a judge, make those decisions, then you bypass estate plan. Say, it’s not for me. That doesn’t fit the profile of most small business owners. As you say they work so hard every day. And we were talking earlier, I think Rico made a remark that we all see ourselves as the star or the lead in our own movie. And I think that’s especially true for small business owners because the person that picks up the trash, the person that cleans the bathroom and sweep the floors. You’ve done that job. You can do that job. People that are in the clerical and answering the phones. You could do that job and it needs to be done the way you want it to be done. Estate planning, the difficulty to get small business owners to do it is realizing that it’s something that needs attention. The reasons to do it are, and I’ve sort of joking that if you, if you don’t do it, somebody else will. That’s really the heart soul of it. If you want to control how the, what you’ve worked so hard to build, benefits your family in the future. Make the plans, make the plans. One of the things, that is a great opportunity in the time we’re in right now is it is giving folks the pause as you said, Karl. That, you know, you’re not on, on, on, and it gives you a minute to think, you know what? Tomorrow’s not guaranteed for me any more than it is that person across the street or the person I heard about on the news.
Karl: [00:08:21] So when folks introducing estate planning, how do you describe what it is? What, what’s entailed in estate planning? What does that actually look like?
Rico: [00:08:35] And, you know what, make a comparison to someone’s will because some people think they have a will and that’s good enough.
Jim: [00:08:41] Okay. A will is a good concrete place to start with estate plan, and that’s that. That’s a great, great place to start. Every estate plan needs to take into account a couple things. And the will does covers one of those bases as, who gets your stuff when you die? And that’s all well and good. The will says this is what happens, but the will is a death document. What I mean by that is it doesn’t do anything for anyone while you’re still alive. The person, you make your executor, they don’t have any authority while you’re alive. You can get sick, be in a coma, be critically ill. It doesn’t give them any authority to do anything for you. So what are you, how do you cover that disability portion, which is also really important state plan. That’s where we’re talking about powers of attorney and healthcare directors at the basic level. Powers of attorney allow you to extend your power to someone else to act for you when you cannot while you’re alive. So you can designate who is it that runs the business if you’re not able to be there. If you get laid up, collect an Aflac or your disability insurance, who’s going to the office and making sure that things get done to your specifications? The beautiful thing about power of attorney is you get to select the person that does that. I have a lot of folks and it happens with elderly folks and it happens to detail, with detail oriented, driven people who may be A type, they get to the power of attorney and they think, Oh, I don’t want to do that cause I’m giving up power. I’m giving up my independence. In the elderly folks, that’s a big issue also with business owners. I don’t want to give up any of that authority. The beautiful thing about power of attorney is you don’t give up one wit of authority. You’re just extending your authority to somebody else to act for you when you need them. So at base you need somebody, you need to think about not only may I just, not only is there a possibility the eventuality that you’re going to die. But I may not be well and able and competent the day I die. I may have dementia, I may have a head injury. I may have something that makes it difficult for me to do the things that need to be done. You need to address that as well. So the estate planning really needs to cover both of those situations. Because your estate can be squandered, misused, lost, argued over in either situation, you can prevent all those things from happening with planning.
Karl: [00:11:21] But can I ask a question? You mentioned a couple of things. We said the term will, and we said the term power of attorney. So within the state plan, what are some of the other documents and or devices or tools that are used that makes up a good estate plan for most people that might own a business, for instance.
Jim: [00:11:44] So for most people that own a business or even folks that have, some accumulated a state, a great option for many folks is a revocable living trust. A revocable living trust has a couple strong advantages where you hear about it most, and you may hear Susie Orman on TV on the PBS thing, or she says, you got to have a living trust. You’ve got to stay out of probate. Well, she lives in California and I, if we lived in California, I would say, yes, absolutely. You got to stay out of probate, Georgia probate, we’re very fortunate. It’s less expensive and less onerous, than probate in other States. But at the same time, it’s a court process by which your executor has to prove that the will is valid. And to do that, he has to
present it to the judge. Your executive has to show it to all your heirs, whoever would inherit from you, if the will is no good, get them to sign off or they can raise a complaint. Your executor can act for 30 to 45 days at minimum after that petition for probate is filed. To avoid that, you can build a revocable living trust. And the idea here is, isn’t that great with the retirement accounts where you can set a beneficiary designation? Isn’t that great with insurance? You just write down who they’ll pay and those companies are bound by contract. When you die to pay who you told them to, you don’t have to go through that probate process. I wish we could do that with my house. How am I, how can you do that with the house? You build a revokable living trust. It’s your own designated beneficiary machine. Every trust has three people involved as the person who makes it. That’s the set lore in Georgia. It’s got the trustee, that’s the administrative person. They have the rulebook and the checkbook. They have to manage the assets and they can write checks to the beneficiaries when the rule book says it’s okay. With living trust, you’re all three. You build the trust, you put your stuff in it, you remain the trustee as long as you’re able. When you’re no longer able, this is a great question, who’s trustee when you can’t? Whoever you pick. In the order you pick them. And they’re not just flying by the seat of their pants like they would with the power of attorney. Power of attorney’s long on powers, but it doesn’t have any instructions in it. It says, if I get in trouble, and I can’t do it, you can go do my banking. Well, how do I do that? Well, just go, go do my banking. A trust can be very specific. This is how I want you to run the business. This is how I want you to distribute the quarterly earnings. This is how I want it. You can make a rule book very specifically with the trust.
Karl: [00:14:14] Why do you feel that more people, that sounds pretty, pretty simple to understand. What do you see as the barriers where a lot of folks choose not to do that? And I’m going to put aside any myths and perception around cost for a second, but that seems like a more sensible way for someone with assets like businesses or considerable to handle that.
Jim: [00:14:41] Well, that’s, that’s a great question and a lot of folks, when we’re doing a webinar or a live presentation, folks ask me that question. Why doesn’t everybody do this? Well, I don’t know, but I can tell you a story about a client that I spoke with last week who had done a will plan with us 2014 maybe. And was just calling up to check and have sort of a, a little checkup. He’d been, had seen some of our online content and gone through the education process again and he had a lot of questions about revocable living trust. He said, well, that’s definitely for us, and definitely the surviving spouse, one of us dies, the surviving spouse is going to go do that. I said, well okay. That’s a plan, but what if you’re both in the car? He said, what do you man? I said, well, what if you get killed and she gets a head injury? She can’t do it. He said oh, yeah. I said, well why would you want to make a grieving spouse have to redo your estate plan after one of you dies. When you guys can set up now? So I don’t know. There’s an inertia to it. There’s a resistance, and I think there is a perception that that’s for rich people. And that, Oh, it’s complicated. When it’s actually simpler. It is more complicated to set up. It takes more work now. I don’t think the answer is that people are lazy, but everything that you do, setting up your revocable living trust takes pressure and work off your agent when you die. It’s things the executor would be doing later with a little plan. You do it now so that the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted and things weren’t run very smoothly for the family. I don’t know why people don’t
do it all the time, but I do know that very often the folks that do it say, I don’t want my kids having a fool around with that other stuff when we can make it really easy for them right now with a little extra work.
Rico: [00:16:30] Let me ask you something, doesn’t it also shelter the assets of an estate though. Doesn’t it shelter it from taxes and all that, as well? Doesn’t it provide some protection for family inheriting, if you will.
Jim: [00:16:46] The a, I’m going to give you the lawyer’s answer is it depends. A basic revokable living trust? No, it’s transparent. It’s like a see-through entity. The way you might think about a S election on a corporation or LLC where it flows through everything that happens there. The basic rule or the way I explain asset protection and the way I think of it is asset protection is based on the principle, that anything that I can get for me they can get from me. If I can get it for me, they can take it from me, so if I run over your foot in the Kroger parking lot, I got $15,000 in my pocket, you’re going to be able to get it. So to build a trust that gives you asset protection and the rule that that trust must have, and it must be irrevocable, is that whatever you put in that trust, you can’t get back out for yourself. So you can build a trust that gives you asset protection. But it’s a different mechanism and you would never put everything you have in a revocable trust only what you reasonably calculate. You’re never going to have to spend on yourself during your own lifetime.
Rico: [00:17:56] Or is it property that you not selling? So some, I know from my family up in New York, New Jersey, some of them have estate plans like this where property is in it. Because the property’s not going to be sold. It’s something that they feel it’s going to be out there for the rest of the family. So stuff like that, I guess. Those types of assets probably.
Jim: [00:18:16] Sure. Residence is a great first, first thing you would think of. That’s the prime candidate, and the beautiful thing is you might even be able to be trustee of that trust. You can’t violate the rules. You can’t sell the house and put the money back in your account. But you could as trustee sell that house and buy a condo on the 18th fairway in Myrtle beach. Yeah. All inside the trust. So you may not give up control, but you’d give up your ability to benefit from it. And you might set it up to where even though you can’t take money out for you, you could take money out for your kids. Pay tuition. Yeah.
Rico: [00:18:54] So there are good advantages for a business owner to really like, really think hard about doing this.
Jim: [00:19:00] Oh, absolutely.
Rico: [00:19:01] You know, just waiting. Okay.
Jim: [00:19:03] Another place that it really appeals. Is that idea of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s myself. I’m gonna make sure this thing runs right, because I may be, I may think I’m
George Washington some point in the future, but I’m going to get this thing right today. So even my knuckleheaded brother-in-law can’t mess it up.
Karl: [00:19:22] So you brought up the topic of children. And so I got to think about succession planning in business. Not only when it’s children, but also what if there’s partners that are not part of your family? What role does estate planning and helping people navigating exits when there’s a partnership in a business. Where does that end and where does something else begin from the business side?
Jim: [00:19:48] Yeah. I see it as a slow transition where you can’t even tell where the business planning and the estate planning ends. I don’t know that there’s a hard and fast line. One of the things, an idea to get used to in estate plan, and I think also business succession planning is that it’s possible to separate control from benefits. You may want your spouse to continue to benefit from the business after you die, but your spouse has never worked in the business, so you don’t want her running it or him running it. So it’s possible to separate those two things, which are very often it’s children. There may be one child that has worked in the business and three children that haven’t. You may want them all to have a profit interest, but the one who’s familiar with the business to continue to work in the business and make the decisions. And you don’t want a vote of those fours. What the right thing to do is you want that one child, your daughter, who you’ve taught the business to make those decisions. So that, to get going a long way around to your, your question is those are operating agreements. And buy-sell agreements with the partners. You know, you don’t want to…
Karl: [00:21:01] What’s a buy-sell agreement if you can.
Jim: [00:21:04] So a buy-sell agreement is where if you and I are partners in a business, we did sit down and have this conversation. What happens if one of us wants out? What happens if death takes one of us out? What happens? An injury takes one of us out. How are we going to handle that? Do you want to be in business with my spouse? Do I want to be in business with your spouse? What are the rules and parameters around that?
Karl: [00:21:25] I feel like that conversations would happen in a ring somewhere when two people are having that. But I think it’s important though, realistically, to set aside time, and this could be a time like that where you’ve talked to your partners and you might start off together, but get someone to guide you through that conversation, which may lead to what happens with the business, but then leads into what happens with each family.
Jim: [00:21:51] I think that’s a great, a great point. And I boil it down this way for clients to give them a way to get their head around it. All estate planning, business succession planning, all this planning for the future comes down to the answer to a few questions is, who’s got the authority? Who’s in control? Who gets to benefit? How do they benefit? And when as things change? So right now, you and I are partners, who has the authority? We do. We make the decisions about how the business runs, we get to benefit and whoever else we say, however
they say right now, if one of us becomes disabled, then who’s got the authority? Do you have to consult with my spouse? You know, how does that work? It’s just walking through those things. And the beautiful thing about estate planning and business planning is that there are very few must-dos. It’s a very highly personal and individualized thing. But it’s working through these, these questions who should be in control? Who should benefit as things unfold? And you sort of play the what if game.
Karl: [00:22:59] I’m curious. So, you know, we’re talking about estate planning and there’s a lot of legal, and I know folks have. I call it an allergic reaction, with things with attorneys or contracts and so on. So if there’s a responsible person in the family, how do they even begin to bring up this conversation with mom, dad, grandpa, uncle Willie, aunt Sue? How do they, what’s a good way to enter into that conversation with them?
Jim: [00:23:30] There are, it depends strongly on family dynamics. Listening for opportunities, how approachable people are in your family. One technique I’ve seen work very well for a lot of folks is, I don’t know how I’m going to talk to mom about this. But you know what? My wife and I, we haven’t done this. So we’re going to do that. And then at Thanksgiving we’re going to tell mom about the process we went through and all we were surprised to learn that if we hadn’t done this, this was going to happen. If we hadn’t have done this. Mom, did you and dad ever have that? You know, mom may be widowed now, but you say, mom, did you ever have that? Dad did you ever have that? Have you guys thought about that for you? Or have you thought about what if something happens to us, how are you going to take care of your grandkids? You know, very often you’re talking to a parent in these scenarios. So there are a lot of ways to get those emotional triggers going where maybe you can get that mind open a little bit to do it. But that’s a tricky one, you know? How do you start that conversation? Because I tease folks in the workshops, raise their hand. I have somebody raise their hand and say, Jim, I have a question. I said, great, what is it? And they’ll say, well if I die, and I say when. No ahead with your question. If I die, when? Say when you die. Oh, there are no exceptions here. It’s not going to happen to everybody else but me. It’s not going to happen everybody else, but you. There are no exceptions there. Now, some folks don’t want to see that. And you know, I love that we’re the lead in our own movie. I can’t imagine what happens when the movie ends.
Rico: [00:25:10] Unless you’re there.
Karl: [00:25:13] There are traditionally natural trigger points where people start this conversation. I know in a lot of religions when people get married, they have counseling with a minister or someone from their faith. And I know that it’s something that’s often covered in that as people going among other things. When people have children, it’s another point where it’s called kind of look at that to engage in the discussion. What I think is interesting that you’re starting to highlight here is finding ways to bring that conversation to the table in a safe way. Probably not a good time to do it just after a bunch of people finished an argument or there’s a lot of family drama going on. And I don’t know that it’s also good to do it, like on mother’s day or father’s day. We should leave those two days out to have that kind of discussion. But a good
way is probably starting by educating folks. And how can people begin to discover more information about this. So they can, they can start, you know, making good decisions for themselves and help bring others along to understand the importance and the process of how this is done.
Jim: [00:26:28] So for almost 10 years, we’ve been doing educational workshops as a way to get an entry point to, to have folks be, have some context and vocabulary to assert this conversation. So I believe strongly that education is where it’s at in getting this done, not just for families at home, but also for business owners and business planers. We do educational workshops. And now we’re going, we’re online and we’ve got an on demand version, and we do about two a month. We just did one April 7th. Our next one is, has not been scheduled for May yet, but we will. If folks are having difficulty finding that information, our website is, LetsTalkEstatePlanning.com. Just English, LetsTalkEstatePlanning.com. No apostrophe. You can contact us there. Joanne, who is our client service coordinator will get back with you and make sure that you’re able to access, all our online content. We’ve got the general workshop and then we’re having some specialized content going up in about the next week or two. But I think education is a great place to start. And I think you’ve highlighted that very often it’s life events, the birth of a child, a marriage, those sorts of things. Maybe for business owners is when you first form that business, when you incorporate. That’s a time where I hope business attorneys are bringing it up. When you get that third employee and you’re having to do worker’s comp insurance, that’s a time the insurance carrier should say, Hey, have you thought about succession plan? You know, those sort of analogous.
Rico: [00:28:03] Well, even when, when families have, you know, parents retiring a little earlier maybe they want to sell their big house, they want to downsize. That’s a good time too, to talk about that time.
Jim: [00:28:13] Yeah. Brilliant time, brilliant time. Also, you know, you’re getting ready to start a SEP or a simple at work or 401k that’s a great time. Anytime you’re thinking about that, that’s why I love to talk to CPAs, tax, for anybody that works with small business people. Just to keep this on their minds.
Karl: [00:28:32] So I’ve got, I’ve got a last question around that. So we’ve talked about this, and very often estate planning is associated with people that are older and have acquired more assets. Is there any advantage for millennials or younger people to start thinking about estate planning at any level. They may not have large assets accumulated, but would be a good time for them to start looking at some of these, these types of documents and concepts?
Jim: [00:29:05] Today is the right time to start. I love that question because it anchors back to where we started talking about wills, powers of attorney and healthcare directives. There’s who gets your stuff when you die? To a millennial who’s just beginning that accumulation phase, that may not be as important. But if there was a car accident and a head injury, God forbid they end up in the ICU, have they designated who can make those decisions for them? Do they have
their living will selections in order? I’ll tell you that we do something for our families. Well, I call it the 18th birthday package. When your child turns 18 they’re still your child, but legally you’re no longer their parent. You don’t get to go back with them to the doctor. You don’t get to say do surgery. You don’t get to say discharge and emit. They end up with meningitis at the health center at the university. You go over there, pick them up, you’re going to be in front of the superior court judge trying to get permission to do that. Or in front of the probate court judge. For the 18th birthday I think all kids should sign these documents designating their parents. We can also handle registrars that won’t talk to you. Oh, we can’t talk to you. We know you paid the tuition, but we can’t talk to you about the grades. There’s a waiver for that. We’ve got it covered.
Karl: [00:30:17] Well, I want to thank you and then I build on that. I would definitely say, I love the idea of 18, but if you were going to say anything later. If you’re going down the path of starting a life with someone. Adding, getting married or having a family. Just realize that your life just got more complicated and there are more people involved in decision making around it. And often giving your input by establishing the right power of attorneys and so on, to know your wife, your mother, your father, your brother, your sisters, what role people may play in your life, and what your wishes are. It’s probably the best gift you can give your family as being a responsible person. So, I want to thank you, Jim, for joining us today and talking about this really important topic. And you know, I hope everyone, and I hope you stay safe and your family stays safe as we go through. And so I want to thank Jim, principle attorney and founder of the estate law group, and he’s got offices right here in our community. If you want to reach out and just start educating yourself with a good starting point. Also Rico, why don’t we thank our sponsor?
Rico: [00:31:35] Sure. Let’s thank Hargray Fiber again for being a sponsor of these podcasts. Both Capitalist Sage, Peachtree Corners Life, the Ed Hour, which we just did this past Monday or Tuesday, actually with Jonathan Weatherington the principle of Paul Duke STEM high school. So I want to thank Hargray fiber. You can find out more information about them, bundled services, IT management and all that. They’re great in the community. They’re so involved in the community they are not the cable guy. So, you need someone that they are right there, right smack in the middle of your community, you can reach out to them and they’ll come out to you. So HargrayFiber.com is where you want to go.
Karl: [00:32:15] And I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors and proud to be a member of this Peachtree Corners and the greater Atlanta community. We help business people, you know, make the right decisions when it comes to starting their business, acquiring a business. When it comes to selling their business, we can help them with that. And I love that we talked today about how estate planning comes into that total planning process around your business. I think it’s really important that people take this time as we’re going through the COVID-19 pandemic. To just think about those things that you never had time to get to. If you love your family, and I think Jim said it well, this is something that you should make a priority to get right and do it the right way. So I want to thank, thank you for that. Rico why don’t you tell us a little bit about what’s going on? The magazine is out. What have we got coming up?
Rico: [00:33:09] Sure. Before we get to that, I want to thank Jim also, because I should know better. My parents had done the estate planning with my siblings. We all got together, we spoke to them and made sense to them. They had property in different states, so it made sense for them to be able to do that. So yeah, and yet, and yet I have not done it yet, so Jim may get that phone call from me at some point because, you know, especially with COVID-19 and all this stuff going on, I mean, it just meant, just puts it at the forefront of being able to take care of that. Well, Peachtree Corners Magazine should be in your mailbox by now. God knows in some places it seems it may not be. The post office is dealing with COVID-19 also. So I’m hoping that everyone’s gotten it. I’m actually going to be putting up a giveaway in the next few days to get people to hold their copy, post it on Facebook, put it on Instagram, hashtag us and I will give three winners from that giveaway contest. Either doing it as credit or a pass to one of the restaurants for takeout of, so, but we’ve been getting a lot of good response on that. I delivered copies to Simpson elementary cause they do have a central personnel there. So it’s gone there and I’m putting it out and it’s out there. MightyRockets.com just to, blow my own horn a little bit, we do social media marketing, online content. We’ve been doing branding and been doing some, besides these podcasts, other podcast productions. So if you’re looking for someone to handle your podcast productions or online content work. MightyRockets.com or just call me, email me.
Karl: [00:34:53] And don’t forget, you can follow us on Facebook, Living in Peachtree Corners on Facebook. What’s our other social media?
Rico: [00:35:02] So the Facebook page is Peachtree Corners Life that you would follow. You get updates, you get tweets or notification of when we go live. And then you could also go to LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com. Follow us there. You can check us, Peachtree Corners Magazine, where I post all the podcasts on LinkedIn. So if you search on LinkedIn for the magazine, you’ll find that there. But anywhere you find podcasts, just Google the Capitalist Sage Podcast, you’ll find a ton of places including iHeartRadio and all that.
Karl: [00:35:33] And so everyone is taking a lot more walks right now. They have plenty of time to listen to more podcasts. So we just wanna thank you, Jim again. Really helpful.
Jim: [00:35:45] Rico, Karl, Thank you.
Karl: [00:35:47] I appreciate that. Everyone stay safe out there where we’re battling through this and we have to do it for a little bit longer, but this will pass and things will get back to more normal, more normal than it is today. So just stay encouraged and be good to each other. Thanks.
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Savannah State University’s inaugural 40 Under 40 list recognizes the achievements of young alumni
Cassidy Bass Jones, owner of LOL Burger Bar, was recently recognized as one of Savannah State University’s (SSU) inaugural 40 Under 40 award recipients.
The award recognizes the contributions of individuals who have excelled in their respective fields before the age of 40. This year’s recipients work in a wide array of environments from municipalities and universities to federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
The list includes company founders, executives, state representatives, doctors and lawyers.
“We’re overjoyed to share with the world what these young alumni have accomplished in just a few short years since graduating from this beloved institution,” said SSU Interim President Cynthia Alexander. “These alumni are the best and brightest and truly reflect the values we hope to instill in all SSU graduates.”
By highlighting the achievements of these alumni, SSU aims to inspire its current and future students to aspire to greatness and to emphasize the university’s role in shaping future leaders across various fields.
Each of this year’s honorees attended SSU and seeks to uphold their core values of collaboration, academic excellence, discovery and innovation, integrity, openness and inclusion and sustainability.
“As we honor these remarkable alumni, we celebrate not only their achievements but also reaffirm the value of an SSU education,” Alexander continued.
About Cassidy Jones and LOL Burger Bar
Originally from Newnan, Georgia, Cassidy Jones opened her first burger bar location in West Midtown in early 2023 and quickly gained public recognition and accolades. In 2024, LOL Burger Bar’s Patty Melt was named a Top 10 burger in Creative Loafing’s Burger Week competition.
Jones recently opened a second LOL location at the new Politan Row food hall at The Forum where her team is serving up signature burgers, fries, wings and shakes to the Peachtree Corners community.
For more information about LOL Burger Bar, visit lolburgerbar.com.
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Business
PCBA Panel: Good Mental Health is Key to Business Success
Published
1 week agoon
February 13, 2025With every new year, it’s not unusual for people to think about their health and ways to improve their physical well-being. More recently, however, mental health has been shown to be just as important.
To help its members start the year right, the Peachtree Corners Business Association hosted a panel discussion on January 30 at Hilton Atlanta Northeast. Titled “How Prioritizing Health and Wellness Can Influence Your 2025 Business Success,” it featured a diverse mix of community leaders and professionals.
Panel members and host
Facilitator Caroline Dotts, owner of Strengths On Site, a coaching and consulting company, is dedicated to helping individuals and teams discover their innate talents and unlock their true potential. She posed questions to the panel members that were geared towards the financial impact of health and wellness on business decisions and company success.
The panel included:
Alex Wright, Peachtree Corners City Council member
Michael Maiorano, tax partner at Hancock Askew & Co.
Toby Anderson, senior financial advisor at SGL Wealth Management Group
Dr. Jeff Donohue, medical director of Elite Personalized Medicine
Ashley Lock, physical therapist at Emory Healthcare
Jason Price, founder and COO of Atlas Behavioral Health and Zenith Mental Health
Good health isn’t just physical
The panel discussed the importance of prioritizing health and wellness for business success by emphasizing the interconnectedness of physical, mental and financial health, highlighting that a balanced approach is crucial for productivity, employee retention and overall success.
Dotts kicked things off by asking each panelist about their philosophy for mental health.
Maiorano explained that prioritizing health and wellness means taking care of oneself before helping others, using the analogy of putting on an airplane mask first.
“For me, health and fitness are like three legs of a stool, and if any one of those legs is out of out of whack, then success is going to be more difficult to achieve,” he said.
He emphasized the importance of spiritual, mental and physical health, stating that all three are critical for achieving success. He concluded by stressing that a healthy mindset is essential for focusing on and achieving important goals.
“I really believe that all of those are critically important to be in a healthy mindset, and therefore help you achieve success,” he said. “That part must be in line if you’re going to be making an effort and focusing on something that’s important and … trying to achieve a goal.”
Implementing positive actions
Price explained that prioritizing health and wellness involves implementing actions that support wellness, not just talking about it.
“I can say as an operating officer that we prioritize health and wellness, but if I don’t put some kind of implementation behind that, it’s all fantasy,” he said. “I work in substance use and mental health, so [with] my staff, if they are not healthy, how can I possibly expect them to help our clients get healthy and get wealthy?”
Lock said that success to her is keeping people out of her clinic.
“A big portion of my job is actually education,” she said. “The first time you see me, I spend 30 minutes just yapping about how you could have not ended up here and how I’m going to get you out fast.”
She added that knowledge is what’s lacking in this society.
“We focused on drive, drive, drive. But we forget to kind of look at ourselves and think about the hierarchy of needs,” she said. “We can’t address the higher parts of that need pyramid until we address ourselves.”
“If you’re not taking care of yourselves, it’s very hard to look outward, and it’s hard for you to want to do other things.” She continued. “If you’re in pain, if you’re not well, you’re not really focused on other things. You’re not being the best for yourself.”
Prioritizing health
Anderson said that health and finances are two of the most important aspects of anyone’s life, and prioritizing health is critical for financial planning.
“If I’m helping somebody plan for retirement, get into retirement, or if I’m helping a business owner launch their business, if I’m not bringing the best version of myself, I’m not doing right by them,” he said. “To prioritize my health is critical to making sure I’m in the right state of mind and have the right ability to guide my clients with extremely important decisions that are extremely personal to them.”
Wright emphasized that health is the foundation of everything else in life. He shared a personal anecdote about the importance of health, stating that without it, nothing else matters.
“This past weekend, I caught some kind of fungus and woke up on Saturday — I normally go work out with some friends of mine — but I just could not get up,” he said. “When something like that happens, everything else is irrelevant.”
He added that you could be 65 years old with $50 million, but if you’re decrepit, you really have nothing.
“I think we’re all kind of saying the same thing in that, if you don’t have your health, nothing else matters,” he concluded.
Getting to the root cause of health issue
Dr. Donohue explained that he practices functional medicine, and it focuses on finding the cause of health issues rather than just treating symptoms.
“Our goal is to make you the best version of you,” he said. “We all practice what you guys preach. … When you come see us, we’re going to work on your journey — what you want to get out of life.”
He emphasized the importance of stress management, diet and exercise in functional medicine.
“I always tell my patients exercising 30 minutes, five days a week, results in a 70% reduction in all causes of mortality. That is a big deal. It’s not blood pressure control and diabetes and cholesterol,” he said. “Make your patients move. That is our goal.”
How to help employees, residents with wellness
Dotts further asked about physical wellness strategies that businesses can implement to support employees.
Price explains that burnout is a significant issue in the substance use and mental health fields.
“It goes back to what the doctor was saying about stress and people aren’t taking care of themselves,” he said. “If I’m just exhausted and drained all the time, and I don’t want to go to the gym, then I’m more depressed because I didn’t go to the gym. And it can spiral out of control.”
Price also mentioned that many employees use their job as their self-care program, which is not sustainable in the long run.
Anderson went further to suggest that employers can and do offer benefits that help workers physically, mentally and financially, but the rank and file don’t always know about them.
“One of the biggest challenges any business owner or business has is keeping and retaining the right employees. And the more benefits you can give to your employees, the more likely they are to stay,” he said. “If they feel like you are investing in them, in their well-being, from a health standpoint, mental health standpoint, functional longevity standpoint, they’re more likely to stay.”
He said helping employees find ways to successfully manage their finances can have a significant return on investment for business owners when that stressor is removed from workers.
“I think the statistic is like 80% of employees do all of their financial planning and most of their health stuff at work,” he said. When I bring on board a new client, whether it’s a business owner, an employee, I love to look at their benefit package … so I can see if they’re in the right plan for their situation.”
Community wellness in Peachtree Corners
Wright went over community wellness initiatives in Peachtree Corners.
“In 2012 there was no gathering place. We were just a commuter city — a series of neighborhoods that kind of slide together. The Forum was our de facto downtown,” he said.
One of the things that the city was very intentional about was creating a place for folks to gather.
“According to some stats I looked up, they’re talking about an epidemic of loneliness in the country,” he said. “The report said one in three adults in the United States suffers from loneliness, and it said that the physical impact of loneliness was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes.”
With foreknowledge of this issue, city leaders created the Town Center as a place to gather.
“Humans want to commune with each other. It’s good for us,” he said. “I’m a member of the YMCA and when it closed for COVID I was in a class that immediately started meeting out on the Town Green because we sort of desperately needed that human connection.”
He added that the plan is to continue in that direction. The city has created venues for people to gather and connect, such as the Town Green and various parks. It has also invested in infrastructure, such as sidewalks and trails, to encourage physical activity.
But it doesn’t mean anything if it’s not utilized.
“There will be a calendar that will be launched soon to be a community calendar, basically anything going on in Peachtree Corners, including PCBA events,” he said. “It will be a one stop shop that’s all about getting people out, giving you opportunities to be around other people, and combating the physical issues of isolation.”
For more about the PCBA and upcoming events, visit peachtreecornersba.com.
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Local small business owner has found a way to keep mosquitos at bay with natural remedies
Geoff Krstovic, a former firefighter, transitioned into the mosquito control business after a divorce, driven by the desire for flexible work.
“Nobody ever thinks they’re going to be into bugs and chemistry when they grow up,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘I want to be a firefighter. I want to be an astronaut.’ Nobody thinks that they want to go out there whacking bugs or says, ‘I want to be in pest control.’”
But as he progressed in his new career, Krstovic took an interest in how to get rid of pests without using harsh, man-made chemicals.
“The more certifications, the more promotions and everything that I got, [and] the more entomology classes I started taking, … I really started to realize what we were putting out into the environment,” he said.
“I spend 90% of my time outside, and I see so much wildlife. So, when I would see a deer eating a leaf or a rabbit run out of bushes that I just treated, it really made me start to think about the effects of what we were doing to them.”
Not to mention pollinators like bees and butterflies.
“When I [would finish a treatment], I’d look back at the yard and everything that I’d seen flying around was just gone,” he said.
As a parent and a pet owner, he knew there had to be a better way to get rid of pests but still safeguard ourselves and the animals around us.
With a growing concern for the environmental impact, he developed a natural mosquito treatment system. The company he was working for wasn’t interested in his new product, so he started his own business.
Road to pest control
Krstovic graduated from Georgia State with a major in English. He joked that many of his contemporaries in the field have similar backgrounds.
“There’s an ongoing joke in the pest community where it’s like … what do you go to college [for] to be a pest [control] owner? Well, you major in liberal arts, English or writers’ composition,” he said.
“A lot of the other owners I met had the same degrees. A big part of it is that creativity aspect, and in pest control, you’re allowed to think outside the box, and you’re allowed to adjust and adapt to what you’re seeing and use different methods.”
That desire to do things differently led him to find a way to help keep people safe from West Nile, Zika virus and Eastern equine encephalitis while they enjoyed time outdoors.
With a lot of research and a little help from relatives with backgrounds in chemistry and engineering, he came up with a formulation based on using essential oils.
The dangers of mosquitos
“After you meet your first client that tells you about their experience just walking to a mailbox and they get West Nile, it changes your perspective 100%,” Krstovic said, “because you’re not just out there killing bugs, you’re out there protecting people and their families.”
Mosquitos are often called the most dangerous animal on earth, with the diseases they spread killing over a million people annually according to statistics from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control.
While the more serious mosquito diseases don’t pose the greatest risk to most communities, there are common ailments that can show up in people and pets, including bites that get infected and heartworm in dogs.
Reaching out to the community
Though people were a little skeptical about Krstovic’s natural pest control methods at first, Erin Rhatigan decided to give it a try.
“Geoff cold-called our house in 2021 and revealed that he actually grew up in the house next door,” she said. “He really wanted to return to his roots and offer his services.”
Rhatigan has three young children, and with her home being situated on the Chattahoochee River, the outdoor areas are beautiful, but also plagued by a lot of mosquitos.
“We’re very focused on spending time outside, and our kids are very, very active, so they’re outside a lot,” she said.
But Rhatigan and her kids are also very sensitive to mosquito bites, and the spraying services she tried year after year weren’t satisfactory.
“I had gone through every franchise. I had used the large companies every season. I was switching because it seemed like it would be effective at the beginning, and then it would lose effectiveness,” she said.
She was also concerned about the toxicity of the chemicals being used.
“I felt like using toxic chemicals on our property was not only bad for our family, but because we are on the river, we’re kind of a steward to the environment as well, … so when he mentioned that the product that he uses to control the mosquitoes was eco-friendly, I was happy to try it,” she shared.
Local solution gets a local investor
The treatment was so effective that Rhatigan isn’t just a customer, she and her husband decided to invest in the business.
“It was better than anything I had used for the previous 10 years,” she said. “The amazing thing is that when he sprays the property, you have this effervescence of the essential oils in the air.”
She recommended Geo Mosquito to everyone who’d listen to her, and eventually Krstovic took over maintaining the facilities at Rhatigan’s community pool.
“[What he was doing] kind of piqued my husband’s and my interest because we were looking for a small business to invest in locally,” she said. “I’m now home with the kids, but I have a long career in sales, and my husband is in sales as well.”
Within a year, the couple became active investors.
“We love the origin story of this relationship because it’s reflective of how friendly and supportive the local business community is in Peachtree Corners,” she said.
Caring about the work
Krstovic attributes his success to caring about the work, attention to detail and understanding client needs. He doesn’t just spray the yard and leave; he has a system of mapping out problem areas and educating clients about prevention.
“We’re looking at anything that could hold a water source and eliminating that, asking our clients what time of the day they’re getting eaten up, what part of their body and what part of their yard,” he said.
“That helps us figure out the species of mosquito that’s attacking them, so we know where to target, because different species have different nesting sites.”
Growing the business
Geo Mosquito has begun working with Vox-pop-uli to upgrade their logo, website and promotional materials.
“Geoff is a typical entrepreneur — protective of what he’s doing,” Rhatigan said. “So going through the steps of changing the logo, coming up with a new tagline, starting to do some marketing, is both exciting and a little scary.”
But the team at Vox-pop-uli has been a tremendous resource — helping them go at their own pace.
“This first year of investment was about seeing what the market interest is and expanding brand awareness,” said Rhatigan. “Vox-pop-uli offers so many services, it’s daunting for an emerging company to manage so many different contractors: creative, graphic design, printing, mailing. But they have a great, responsive organization that has been very helpful.”
Next steps
With a proprietary formulation for the mosquito abatement, Geo Mosquito wants to bottle the solution and sell it nationally.
Additionally, in 2025, the company plans to expand into ecofriendly pest control services for inside the home. They are also interested in working with local municipalities, churches and schools to expand their mosquito control services.
The Local Thread: This business profile series is proudly supported by Vox-pop-uli, championing local stories and the communities we serve.
This article is also available in the print and digital edition of the Jan/Feb issue of Southwest Gwinnett magazine.
Photos courtesy of Geo Mosquito.
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