(650) 735-2436   (209) 643-2436

Andy I. Chenandy-chen-attorney

Andy founded the firm in the midst of the great recession in 2010, a decision which continues to bear fruit to the present day. Helping businesses and individuals is Andy’s passion, as well as taking cases that meet the firm’s core values.
Learn more


From the blog

The 3-List Approach to Preparing a First-Time Estate Plan

Many people are in the position where they are preparing an estate plan for the very first time. Typically, they hear that they should have one or that they see on the news that it’s a good thing to have. In my experience, interest in estate plans seems to pique whenever someone famous dies, such as Michael Jackson in 2009, Steve Jobs in 2011, or Prince in 2016. Prince, in particular, died without an estate plan of any kind. When this happens, it’s called “dying intestate” and a process called Intestate Succession applies. I went over California Intestate Succession in a prior post from 2017. Anyway, despite all of the interest and the publicity, when a person actually sits down to create an estate plan, they usually don’t know where to start besides, for instance, “find a lawyer”. The process gets too daunting and, human nature being what it is, the person usually puts it aside and promises to “get back to it soon” which, in real life, means never. Lawyers, after all, are expensive. Today’s post, therefore, is aimed at that person who wants to make an estate plan, but doesn’t know where to practically start.  If that’s you, keep reading. First, let’s define the term “estate plan”. That refers to the set of documents that a person creates to specify what they want to have happen as they near death. This can include many concerns, including (1) what happens to the person’s property, (2) who cares for their minor children, if any, and (3) what medical care they want to receive in the event they cannot articulate...

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Forming a Limited Liability Company

I’ve written a few posts now about Limited Liability Companies (LLC) in California. In prior posts, for example, I’ve discussed whether an LLC can be used to form a law firm in California. I’ve also described the minimization approach law schools in the US typically use when teaching about business entities, like an LLC. I’m going to talk about LLCs in this post, but the basic logic I’m describing will apply to other types of entities also. In this post, I am going to expand on this idea of minimizing tax and legal liability. Most law schools start there and, unfortunately, also end there which means there is a bias towards always forming an LLC because, essentially, why would wanting to minimize tax and legal liability ever be a bad thing? In my view, it’s not a bad thing, but it might not be as good a thing as you initially think. The reason is because of Cost-Benefit Analysis. In other words, forming an LLC will result in several benefits, advantages, or positives. If you just stop there, then you should clearly always form an LLC. Realistically, of course, forming an LLC will also involve certain costs, drawbacks, or negatives. This should not be a groundbreaking concept to anyone because the same is true for all decisions you make in life. What ultimately matters when deciding to form an LLC is — like it is in other arenas in life — what the net result is. Do the benefits of having an LLC outweigh the costs of having an LLC? One relevant consideration here would, for instance, be whether...