Kyle
Not a Good Choice for small Veteran Owned Businesses
UPDATE: Mr. Coons, thank you so much for taking my review under consideration. It really shows sincerety and that you care! You do bring up a few good counterpoints and would love to discuss further improve/re-establish the business relationship. Will reach out for an appointment soon. Thanks! OLD: Andersons is good law firm experienced in large scale routine legal matters that would be an ideal for a large/midsized and structured corporation in the Las Vegas area. Overall they have a friendly staff and professional staff but do not take that a substitute that they have good advice in startup or small business matters. Would you take tax advice or legal advice from someone just out of college or law school? As a small business gaining access to experienced individuals there is a hassle where there are several break in service continuity due to turnover and internal restructuring. Here’s a bullet list of my experiences so you as a potential customer can make an educated choice: 1. They upsell like crazy and don’t listen to your needs, especially as startups where conserving capital is extremely import. a. Upon our initial consultation titanium member was offered at 40% but we had to sign today! We did and paid the $10K retainer fee because they appeared to know more than my team did. We would get unlimited LLC creation, trust creation, digital document storage, and access to legal portal where you can ask legal and tax questions to Anderson professionals. After some thoughtful research this was of very little value to us as a small business. i. Unlimited LLC creation: Neutral Value - Did you know you can create your LLC? My new attorney laughed at me about this service and kindly directed to the State’s Secretary of State Website. Then told us “You can do it yourself in 15 minutes or pay me $800.” He understood the need to conserve capital. ii. Trust Creation: Negative Value – The advisors will claim they hide your identity from law suits and stop due on sale clause in mortgage/loan contracts. It doesn’t hide you from lawsuits. A difficult tenant found out who I was and dragged me through a frivolous lawsuit over 3 months. (My name was on the historical chain of title and they found me!) If you get into a frivolous lawsuit don’t hide from it like they advise – fight it head on. Planning to refinance your assets? Will not happen in a timely fashion. Asked Anderson advisors for help getting the assets back out the trust – they were no help. Had to contact and pay a local real estate attorney to untangle the trust mess. Also an important note: Fannie and Freddie mac have a 6 month title seasoning requirement before debt refinancing so hurry up wait! iii. Legal Portal: Some Value - but not worth $35/mo for access. It was helpful when I had a few questions. Had to constantly fight questions up the chain to get answers for complex situations. iv. Digital Document Storage: No value – We transferred documents to google docs for free instead. b. A few months later asked an advisor how on a tax approach to best shield profits coming in. We discussed that these are for profit entities and require maximum flexibility to maneuver capital. We were told to start a non-profit and that they we’re doing a special for certain amount of money. We declined. c. We got an unsolicited $2500 bill to have a permanent business phone number at Anderson’s. Did they think it was a good idea for us to have a professional business number there? I don’t know but it’s frustrating. Had to go back and forth to get the bill thrown out. d. Last year we contact them about assistance in for the EIDC program (saw it my facebook feed appearing like they know more than I did). We initially purchased the legal assistance package for $2500 that we later rescinded after getting more information from the government. We got $3K EIDC funding so if we would have paid them, yeah the economic assistance would have been next to nothing. A good advisor on the subject matter would take a quick glance at your profile and just got to the government profile to fill out the application. It took about an hour of effort saving $2500. 2. They did not give good tax advice on business or real estate issues. a. In 2019, I sold my home in Las Vegas to relocate to California and I was concerned about paying capital gains tax on the house because I only lived there one year instead of two years and asked if there are any tax considerations to consider. An Anderson Advisor informed me that gains tax had to be paid! A few days later I reached out to an old friend about the issue. He then showed me the IRS publication on the homeowner sale tax exceptions and – it shows that this tax exception is pro-rated! (i.e. at one year your exception limit is 250K instead of the 500K at two years) Anyways, this old friend is now my accountant.
Response from Anderson Business AdvisorsApr 26, 2021
After reviewing your file, I see where our service fell short of your expectations and the experience we strive to provide for our clients. I apologize for this and would like to continue the relationship and would appreciate the ability to rebuild the trust you initially placed with us when you engaged our services. I think it is a mischaracterization to compare the work we have completed on your behalf as "very little value" in exchange for the 10k fee. The attorney who told you entity creation can be done "in 15 minutes or pay me $800" is absurd. There is more to setting up an asset protection structure than just filing the articles of organization with the state. When we work with a client we: advise them on the proper type of entity for their business; guide them on whether the entity should be manager or member-managed; create the entities in a specific order to maintain business privacy; prepare the articles of organization to keep their personal information off the state filing (anonymity); obtain a registered agent and address in the state of organization; determine the proper tax election for the business and make the EIN election with the IRS; draft an appropriate operating agreement that is consistent with those mentioned above; prepare all necessary resolutions and management agreements; complete a unit or stock ledger for the business. This work may seem inconsequential, but I can tell you that I have invested over 30k to create an LLC operating agreement from personal experience. I do not think it is unreasonable for you to have invested 10k to create the 21 LLCs and trusts we set up for you to protect your rental real estate. Our service is far more than just the setting up of entities; it is also planning and advising. As you stated, we did not charge you an hourly fee for this service. We engage with new clients every day who attempted to set up structures, transfer real estate into entities, only to discover they made the wrong tax election, clouded title to their real estate, or triggered a transfer tax because they did not know the nuances of setting up these structures. We are aware of the 6 months of seasoning to do a cash-out refi. We inform all our clients not to transfer property into a trust or LLC if they plan to refi within six months. In the cover letter we sent to you with your entities and deeds, we warned against recording the deed until you refinanced the property. I do not understand your frustration with the EIDL and PPP program we offer. You engaged us to help you qualify for these funds. We guaranteed if we could not get you funding, we would refund your fee. As you stated, when you requested a refund, we returned your money. How did we fall short? Not everyone qualified for the level of funding they expected. We worked with over 1000 business owners like you to obtain funding. We had success with the overwhelming majority of these clients, but some were not eligible. Like you, we refunded their investment because we could not get the funding. I get how you might be upset if we did nothing and refused to refund your $2500, but that was not the case. When selling your residence, you can exclude up to $250k per person if you have lived in the property for 2 out of the previous 5 years. If you have only lived in the home for one year, you are typically not entitled to this exclusion unless you meet one of the 3 enumerated exceptions, which provides a partial exemption. I do not know how you phrased the question to your strategist because I could not find an email in your file regarding this issue. Without additional information about why you might meet an exemption, the advice you were given is correct. Ultimately, we want to work with you and repair the relationship. We value you as a client and appreciate your taking the time to leave us a review - even if it is not 5 stars. These reviews help us improve our service and spot issues some clients may be experiencing, and take corrective action. I hope you reconsider, and as one of the founding partners of Anderson, I would be happy to work with you directly to turn around your impression of our company. -Clint Coons, Founding Partner Anderson Business Advisors