Why Choose Bass Law Group
A LAWYER FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
As an attorney and a small business owner, I know the importance of quality, cost effective advice for navigating the risks that can damage your business. As a licensed risk manager, I understand the importance of organization, planning and strategy to address, and often avoid, those issues in day to day business that invariably will arise. When you retain Bass Law Group, you receive personal access to the firm’s founding attorney, Sheron Alves Bass. When you contact us, there’s no delay or run around – you speak with me, personally. My goal with each of my clients is to build a relationship, learn about their needs and offer tailored information to help them better understand their options and choose the solution that is best for their business.
LEGACY PROTECTION AND LIFE CARE PLANNING
Over the years, I’ve often heard people comment ”I don’t need an estate plan because I don’t have an estate to plan”. However, estate planning is essentially protecting your legacy, and everyone has a legacy to leave. Depending on your circumstances, that legacy may involve family, loved ones, friends, or even a cause that is near and dear to your heart. I want to help you plan how best to make sure your loved ones are not needlessly burdened at the time of your passing, and that your legacy is used according to your wishes. This planning process may start as soon as you start your family and extend well into your “golden years”. I would be honored to be your trusted adviser in that planning process.
Meet Sheron Alves Bass
I’m Sheron Alves Bass, the founder of the Bass Law Group located in Temple Terrace, Florida. As a member of the Florida Bar for over 30 years, my practice focuses on assisting small businesses and families plan for their future by providing sound, practical legal advice. I chose a career practicing law in order to serve others. I live this mission out by providing accurate legal information which guides your decision-making process and by providing zealous legal advocacy to protect your assets. I have a passion for sharing the knowledge I’ve gained over the years through my law practice, risk management training, and service on various community organizations to help you navigate life’s challenges. Drawing from my training as a risk manager, I’m convinced the one essential ingredient to any successful project is planning – it doesn’t matter if that project is starting a new business, planning for future needs of your family or protecting your legacy. I look for every opportunity to share the valuable information and tools I’ve developed over my career with you to help you attain success in protecting your assets. I takes my role as a “counsellor at law” very seriously and strives to build relationships with each of my clients by spending time discussing your plans, goals and present circumstances to determine which legal solutions will provide the best results for your particular needs.
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Services
New Business Setup – Organization
Whether the business you’re starting is a for-profit or a non-profit, there are any number of regulatory and legal pitfalls you’ll need to avoid. Beginning with its initial organization, Bass Law Group will help you select the appropriate structure for your business to minimize your legal risks. Additionally, we’ll guide you in navigating the complex maze of business filings and notices to help you avoid penalties.
Asset Protection – Risk Management
Once we have set up your business in the format that’s right for you, it’s important to regularly review the legal risks that expose your business to loss. This process of identifying and managing legal pitfalls is called “risk management”. Using my experience as a risk manager, I can not only help you identify those risks, but offer solutions in advance on how best to avoid them to protect the profitability and efficiency of your business.
On-Going Operations – Maintenance
In any business, in order to succeed, from time to time you’re going to need advice. There will be both opportunities and challenges that require careful, thoughtful, and thorough attention. Whether the issue involves the sale of business assets or a lawsuit that threatens to destroy what you’ve built, Bass Law Group has the experience to help you navigate any challenge.
Dissolution of Operations – Winding Down
When the time comes to close, sell or transfer your business, Bass Law Group is available to assist with the negotiations, contracts and closings that are part of the wind down or transfer of your interest in your business. We’re experienced in making certain the appropriate notices are given and filings are made to minimize your liability after business operations have ceased or have been transfer.
Legacy Protection and Life Care Planning
Wills and Trust
Don’t leave your loved ones in legal limbo when you’re gone. Failure to leave a Last Will and Testamentmeants the State of Florida will decide how you assets are distributed. Under Florida law, if you die without a Will, your estate will be distributed to your next of kin in a very specific order which is determined by who survives you, which could be your spouse or your third cousin, twice removed. Without a will, your estate could even be taken by the state!
Probate and Guardianship
Probate is the process that implements the estate plan you created while you were alive. In the State of Florida, if you pass away owning assets that are titled solely in your name, those assets must be re-titled into the name of someone who is still living so that ownership can continue. The probate process is the means by which those assets are re-titled. Probate is better avoided through quality estate planning, but we can help you navigate the probate process if necessary and help your heirs avoid it in the first place.
Legacy Protection
Legacy protection is something that you should be planning your whole life. It may involve some aspects of what is called “elder law”, but the legal tools available in this planning process can benefit you and your loved ones well before you’re gone. People engage in legacy planning for a variety of reasons: perhaps you or your spouse has received a medical diagnosis that threatens to reduce your assets significantly, you want to provide for someone that has special medical needs or issues with finances or substance abuse, you want to make sure your grandchildren can enjoy a better quality of life with your financial assistance, or you have a special organization or cause you want to help through your legacy. Depending on your particular challenge or goal, Bass Law Group can help you explore which options will best suit your individual circumstances.
Life Care Planning
Life care planning involves deciding who will make financial, legal or healthcare decisions for you when you can no longer make those decisions yourself. By implementing a durable power of attorney, which allows another person to make legal and financial decisions for you, and a healthcare surrogate designation, which allows another person to make your medical decisions for you, you and your family are protected from the uncertainty of the guardianship process in which the Court system appoints someone to manage your healthcare, legal and financial affairs. Not only are guardianships expensive, but you have no control over who will be appointed to take care of your needs. Make the decisions that are best for yourself and your family before the state decides for you!
What People Say About Us
- Sheron has been a great advisor to me as a small business owner. She has a depth of knowledge in the consulting and construction industry that has helped me guide the company, and she is always quick to respond to my requests. Both her legal advice and practical wisdom give me peace of mind to move forward on projects and grow the company.
- It has been my pleasure to know Sheron for over 40 years. When I was looking at purchasing the company that I worked for, I had no doubt that she would be able to help me go from employee to owner. As we worked through the purchase, things went as smoothly as could be expected. She was very thorough and helped me with everything necessary to make the transition a positive experience. Being a new owner, I required a lot of advice and she was always there with an answer to my questions. I would recommend Sheron to anyone with business legal needs.
- “I find Sheron to be a caring, trustworthy and knowledgeable attorney. Her extensive professional and personal experience enables her to understand the complex issues of her clients. Her compassion for others is evident in how she devotes her time with volunteering in her community and at church. I will continue to seek her professional counsel and encourage anyone looking for legal services to work with Sheron.”
- “It has been my pleasure to know Sheron Alves Bass over the past seven years, in both a personal and professional basis. She is honorable, diligent, caring, and talented. After both my family and I sought her legal services, it became clear that she treats each client as though they were her only client. Further, there were no concerns that the work would require "do overs." I can, without reservations, highly recommend Ms. Alves Bass, attorney at law.”