If you own a business, you need three layers of protection that most estate plans never address. The first layer protects your business operations—your LLC or corporation shields you from business liabilities. The second layer protects your personal assets from claims that pierce the business entity. The third layer ensures the business survives and transfers cleanly if something happens to you.
Most business owners have the first layer and nothing else. Their LLC operating agreement was drafted at formation and never updated. Their estate plan, if it exists, is a revocable trust that holds their house and bank accounts but has no mechanism for business succession. Their life insurance names a spouse as beneficiary instead of funding a buy-sell agreement or trust.
The architecture that actually works: a master irrevocable trust with sub-trusts designed for specific purposes. One sub-trust holds the business interest through a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Another holds personal assets. Another holds life insurance. Each sub-trust has its own governance, its own trustee provisions, and its own liability boundaries. Moving an LLC directly into a trust is almost always the wrong approach.
Business succession is generational succession. The family that owns a business across generations does not merely pass shares—they pass knowledge, relationships, governance protocols, and operating philosophy. The trust instrument should create structures for all of these, not just the equity transfer.
If you have built a business worth more than your personal savings, your estate plan should reflect that. Start a conversation with Grace about your specific situation.