Estate Planning Attorney in Westlake Village, CA

Westlake Village Estate Planning for Business Owners and Professionals

Westlake Village carries a concentration of business owners, executives, and licensed professionals unlike most of Ventura County. A lot of the wealth here is not sitting in a bank account. It is built into a company, a practice, or a partnership interest, and that kind of asset does not transfer itself when an owner dies or becomes unable to run things. I am Eric Ridley, an estate planning attorney serving Westlake Village and all of Ventura County. I build plans that keep a business running and a family out of court, not just a stack of signed documents.

What happens to a business when there is no plan

When a business owner dies without a succession plan, the business does not pause to wait for an answer. Payroll still runs. Vendors still expect payment. Clients still expect the practice or the company to function. But the person who signed the checks, approved the contracts, and made the calls is gone, and whoever inherits the ownership interest, often a spouse or adult child with no background in the business, is suddenly legally in charge of something they may not understand. Partners can be left negotiating with an estate instead of a person. Employees leave because no one can tell them what happens next. A business worth real money while the owner was alive can be worth very little by the time an estate sorts out who owns what.

The buy-sell agreement is the document most owners never get to

A buy-sell agreement is a contract among the owners of a business that decides, in advance, what happens to an owner’s interest at death, disability, divorce, or a decision to leave. It sets the price, or the formula for setting the price, so the value of the interest is not fought over at the worst possible moment. It is commonly funded with life insurance, so the surviving owners or the company itself have cash on hand to buy out the deceased owner’s interest without draining working capital or taking on debt. For a Westlake Village business with two or more owners, this is the single document that keeps a deceased partner’s family from becoming an involuntary co-owner of a company they have no ability to run. More detail on structuring this is at business succession planning in Westlake Village.

Professional practices follow a different set of rules

A law firm, medical practice, accounting firm, or other licensed professional practice usually operates as a professional corporation or similar entity, and California restricts who is allowed to hold an ownership interest in it. In most cases only someone licensed in that profession can own shares. That rule alone means a spouse or child who is not licensed cannot simply inherit a piece of the practice the way they could inherit stock in an ordinary company. The succession plan for a professional practice has to be built around that restriction from the start, usually through a buy-sell agreement among the licensed owners rather than a plan that assumes the practice itself will pass to family.

The living trust still has to hold the interest correctly

A revocable living trust remains the foundation of the plan, but a business interest that was never properly assigned into the trust, or an LLC membership interest that the operating agreement does not permit to transfer that way, defeats the purpose of having a trust at all. Membership interests, corporate stock, and partnership interests each have their own transfer mechanics, and the trust and the entity’s governing documents need to agree with each other rather than work against each other. I review the operating agreement or bylaws alongside the trust so the funding is done correctly the first time. See living trust planning in Westlake Village for how the trust fits the rest of the plan.

Incapacity is the more likely problem, and the more urgent one

Death gets the attention, but incapacity is the more common event, and a business does not run itself while an owner is recovering from a stroke, surgery, or a long illness. A durable power of attorney needs to specifically authorize the agent to act on the owner’s behalf in the business, sign on company accounts, and satisfy whatever the operating agreement or bylaws require of a member or shareholder who can no longer act. Many operating agreements say nothing about what happens if a member becomes incapacitated, which leaves a gap the estate plan has to fill instead.

Beneficiary designations can undo the whole structure

A retirement account, a life insurance policy meant to fund the buy-sell agreement, or a payable-on-death account all pass by beneficiary designation, outside the trust and outside the will entirely. If those forms were filled out years ago and never revisited, they can contradict the succession plan, sending life insurance proceeds meant to fund a buyout to the wrong person, or leaving a retirement account to someone no longer part of the plan. I check every beneficiary form as part of the planning because the form controls regardless of what the trust says.

The federal estate tax rarely drives this decision

The federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person, or $30,000,000 for a married couple, made permanent under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Most Westlake Village business owners, even successful ones, are under that number. That means the reason to do this planning is rarely the federal estate tax. It is control: who runs the business the day after you cannot, who has the cash to buy out your interest, and whether your family inherits a functioning company or a legal dispute. For owners whose combined business and personal assets are approaching or exceeding the exemption, or who are gifting ownership interests to the next generation using the annual gift tax exclusion, $19,000 per recipient for 2026 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf), that conversation connects to high-net-worth estate planning and, where professional liability is a factor, to asset protection.

If a family member has a disability

Some succession plans have to account for an heir who receives government benefits. An inheritance paid directly to a person receiving SSI or Medi-Cal can end those benefits, so if a share of the business or its eventual sale proceeds is meant for a disabled family member, that share needs to go into a properly drafted special needs trust rather than to the person directly. See special needs trust planning in Westlake Village.

What happens without any of this in place

Without a funded trust and a succession plan, a business interest passes through probate like any other asset, and probate in my practice typically runs twelve to eighteen months. A business, its employees, and its clients often cannot wait that long for clear direction on who owns it and who can sign for it. Avoiding that outcome is the point of doing this work while you are healthy and the business is running normally, not after a crisis forces the issue. See how probate works for what that process involves, and fees for how I charge for this planning.

Questions Westlake Village business owners ask

I already have an operating agreement. Do I still need an estate plan?

Yes. An operating agreement usually addresses what happens between the owners of the company. It rarely addresses your personal estate plan, your incapacity documents, or how your ownership interest is titled for probate avoidance. Both documents need to work together, and I check that they do not conflict.

My co-owners and I have never discussed what happens when one of us dies. Where do we start?

That conversation is the starting point. A buy-sell agreement only works if all the owners agree to it and it is properly funded, so this planning usually involves more than one meeting and more than one owner at the table.

Can you work with my CPA and my business’s other advisors?

Yes. I regularly coordinate with a business’s CPA, financial advisor, and any corporate counsel so the succession plan, the tax picture, and the estate plan are consistent with each other rather than drafted in isolation.

What if my business is my only significant asset?

That is common and it raises the stakes rather than lowering them. If the business is most of the estate, a buy-sell agreement funded with life insurance is often what gives your family cash to live on while the business itself is sorted out or sold, instead of leaving them dependent on a company they cannot run.

Related planning for Westlake Village owners

See also business succession planning, living trust attorney, high-net-worth estate planning, asset protection, and special needs trusts, all in Westlake Village. For general background, see probate and fees.

Book a consultation at https://ridley.click/eric-60 or call 805-244-5291. I serve Westlake Village and all of Ventura County.

Comparing attorneys before you commit is worth the ten minutes. This list of estate planning attorneys in Westlake Village includes credentials and State Bar numbers, so you can verify whoever you are considering.

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Written by Eric D. Ridley: Estate Planning Attorney, Ridley Law. Serving Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles Counties since 2010. Learn more about Eric →