In our last post, we spoke about the importance of businesses being aware of their fiduciary responsibilities and establishing solid compliance policies to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations. One area where this is particularly important for companies sponsoring retirement plans under ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Because these plans constitute an important source of support for many Americans after they leave full-time work, companies who sponsor these plans have a large responsibility.

The term fiduciary is an important one in the business world, and refers to relationships in which trust is place in one party to manage and protect the assets of another. The relationship entails what is commonly referred to as fiduciary duties, which include the obligation to manage assets for the benefit of the individual or entity who entrusts the assets.

The organization of any business as a limited liability company ("LLC") brings with it attendant protections for the members from the liabilities that arise in the course of the business as well as beneficial tax treatment. This protection is not a two-way street, however: the member's financial interest in the LLC does not receive complete protection from the member's personal liabilities. Judgment creditors of LLC members have at their disposal a unique remedy to collect distributions and more from the judgment debtor's membership or partnership interests; that remedy is the charging order.

In our last post, we wrote about a trademark infringement case out in California involving a small business owner who is up against a large corporation in protecting a marketing slogan she trademarked. In such David vs. Goliath cases, it is important to work with an experienced attorney to protect one's business interests.

All members of Kentucky Limited Liability Companies, whether they hold a majority or minority membership interest, have rights under Kentucky statutory and common law, but these rights may be modified, curtailed or extended to a nearly unlimited extent by the provisions of the operating agreement. In this post, we will briefly discuss various rights afforded to members of Kentucky LLCs, which are less statutorily-defined than other corporate rights under state law.

In our last post, we began speaking about letters of intent and their use in negotiating the terms of construction projects. As we noted, letters of intent are not contracts, but courts do sometimes enforce them as binding, depending on what the parties intended by the document. In cases where it is evident that both parties intended to be bound, they may be enforced by a court. In cases where parties did not intend to be bound, they may not be enforced. It depends on the circumstances, though.

Anyone who works in the construction industry knows how important it is for everybody to have the same understanding about the terms of a project, including the materials needed, deadlines to be met, and the procedure for resolving disputes. Without a reasonable degree of certainty about these things, there is always the risk that something will go wrong and that money will be lost.

In a recent Forbes article, contributor Steve Parrish wrote about an interesting issue that most closely-held businesses, often family-owned, face in some way or another: how to maintain control over a business. The problem is not a small one, because failure to properly plan can create a situation where ownership of the business falls into the hands of individuals who aren't right for the job.

Those managing closely held businesses are as prone to disagreements with each other as are those managing any other kind of business. However, a closely held business does present a unique series of challenges in that resolution of those disagreements can be difficult to resolve.

This week, it was announced that Kentucky State Treasurer, Todd Hollenbach, has returned more than $100 million in unclaimed property to its rightful owners during his six years in office. According to Hollenbach, that is more than all the state treasurers combined returned in the 60 years before his administration. That is quiet an impressive statistic.