Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 10, 2015

13

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 10, 2015 

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Many sellers are tempted to list For Sale By 
Owner (FSBO) because they feel home prices 
are down and they don’t want to lose one more 
penny to paying a commission. But with fewer 
than ten percent of all home sales falling into the 
FSBO category, it’s a challenging strategy.

 In personal terms, you’ll have to safeguard yourself 
against prospects who have not been screened 
and qualified by a professional. When someone 
calls to request a showing, note their caller ID 
and keep a log of visitors. Stash away prescription 
medications and valuables before showings, 
and afterwards check that all your windows and 
doors are locked.

 There are also legal considerations for your listing 
and hopefully, your eventual sales contract. 
Be sure your listing complies with the Fair Housing 
Act, which prohibits discrimination against 
buyers. If you’re unfamiliar with escrow and title 
insurance, hire a real estate attorney to draft, review 
and record all documents.

 This economy makes securing a loan difficult, so 
it’s wise to require a loan pre-approval letter from 
buyers before accepting any offers. If you really 
want to get attention, sweeten the pot by offering 
a two to three percent commission to any agent 
who brings buyers to you. FSBO is not the easiest 
route, and many impatient and frustrated sellers 
end up hiring an agent to make the sale happen.

Luther Tsinoglou was named the top producing 
sales agent in The Podley Property’s Sierra Madre 
office. Luther has been licensed and practicing 
real estate since 1992. He specializes in residential 
and income property in Southern California. Luther 
can be reached at his direct line (626) 695-
8650 or at luther@tsinoglou.com.

10 TIPS TO ENSURE FAMILY HARMONY 

OVER YOUR ESTATE PLAN

TEAMLOGIC IT OPENS IN ARCADIA

#1 Technology Franchise Serves the IT Needs of Growing Businesses

One of the many challenges my wife and I face as 
parents is simply trying to keep the peace between 
our children. Our six-year-old son and five-year-old 
daughter can be the best of friends … and the worst of 
enemies (often alternating between the two multiple 
times within the span of just a few minutes). 

 I suppose it’s all part of raising small children, 
but unfortunately, I see this same scenario play out 
time after time among adult siblings when a messy 
estate causes family rifts. And it doesn’t need to be 
that way. In fact, if handled properly, your estate plan 
should help bring your children together rather than 
tear them apart. Here are 10 tips to help prevent your 
children from fighting over your estate:

 1. Talk to children about your estate plan. It may be 
a difficult discussion to have, but you need to have it. 
If you find it too difficult, enlist the help of your estate 
planning attorney to go over the details of your estate 
plan with your children and answer their questions. 
In fact, because this is so important I include just 
such a “family meeting” in every estate plan I put 
together for my clients.

 2. Write your children a letter. If you can’t face a 
face-to-face discussion (or even if you can), put it in 
writing with as much detail as you are comfortable 
providing to your children. You can frame the 
discussion in general terms and ask for their input. 
This is a great way to get them invested in ensuring 
your plan works the way you want it to.

 3. Email your children your estate plan summary. 
Your estate planning attorney will usually provide 
you with a summary of your estate plan that doesn’t 
disclose details or actual dollar amounts. Ask your 
estate planning attorney to copy your children on an 
email with the summary and ask for their input.

 4. For complex estates, consider a mediator. If you 
have a complicated estate that may include valuable 
collections or a family business, ask your attorney 
about bringing in a professional mediator who 
can meet with you and your children separately to 
identify any potential issues and then meet with you 
together to iron out those issues.

 5. Use equal treatment. If possible, leave your 
children an equal inheritance; most family fights 
result from children being treated unequally.

 6. If you establish a trust for children, name each 
child as a co-trustee of their own trust at a certain 
age. Choose a reasonable age for when you feel a child 
will be able to participate in managing their own 
trust so they can learn about handling an inheritance 
with the guidance of the main trustee.

 7. Consider staggered distributions from a trust. 
To help a child learn how to manage a substantial 
inheritance, estate planning experts often advise 
staggering distributions over a period of time (i.e., 
age 25, 30, etc.).

 8. Provide children with an option to remove 
or replace the main trustee. Similar to arranged 
marriages, you never know if children and trustees 
will make a go of the relationship. Give children 
limited power to remove and replace a trustee with a 
different, qualified trustee.

 9. Allow children to name their own co-trustee. 
If your children are competent adults, give them the 
power to name the independent co-trustee of their 
trust. 

 10. Include mediation instructions in your 
estate plan. Your estate planning attorney can add 
mediation language so that if a dispute arises, your 
children will not be tied up in emotionally and 
financially draining litigation.

If you’d like to ensure your estate plan doesn’t lead to 
a family feud, I’d be happy to sit down with you and 
help identify the best strategies to provide for and 
protect the financial security and family harmony of 
your loved ones.

To you family’s health, wealth, and happiness,

 

A local attorney, father, and CASA volunteer (Court 
Appointed Special Advocate for Children), Marc 
Garlett is on a mission to help parents protect what 
they love most. His office is located at 49 S. Baldwin 
Ave., Ste. G, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Schedule an 
appointment to sit down and talk about ensuring a 
legacy of love and financial security for your family 
by calling 626.355.4000 or visit www.GarlettLaw.
com for more information.

 

 

 A local attorney, father, and CASA volunteer 
(Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children), 
Marc Garlett is on a mission to help parents protect 
what they love most. His office is located at 49 S. 
Baldwin Ave., Ste. G, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Call 
626.355.4000 to schedule an appointment to sit down 
and talk about ensuring a legacy of love and financial 
security for your family or visit www.GarlettLaw.com 
for more information.

ARCADIA, Calif., January 6, 2015—TeamLogic IT, 
a national provider of advanced IT management 
services for businesses, recently opened in Arcadia. 
The business is owned by Scott Pauli, and is the 
fourth TeamLogic IT location to open in greater Los 
Angeles County. TeamLogic IT has been named the 
#1 technology franchise company three years in a 
row by Franchise Business Review.

 Scott brings to TeamLogic IT more than 20 years 
professional experience in Technology and project 
management. Early in his career, while employed 
at companies such as PSINet, Inc., and Cisco 
Systems, he gained the knowledge and expertise 
in Internet service provisioning and fiber optic 
telecommunications while servicing most major 
Telephone companies in nearly every major city 
in the U.S. He acquired an in-depth knowledge 
of wide-area Internet and fiber technologies, as 
well as an understanding of corporate enterprise 
network topologies with his more recent roles within 
project management. Altogether, his past experience 
provides complimentary IT and business skillsets 
with a solid understanding of the role information 
technology has in the small-to-medium sized 
business environment.

 Expressing his excitement about the opening of his 
new business Scott said, “I am excited and grateful 
to be building a TeamLogic IT business here, and 
look forward to assisting the local neighborhood of 
business owners. Due to the local presence we now 
have along with a support network of hundreds 
of skilled technicians around the country, we can 
offer local businesses here a more proactive services 
approach that is far better than most computer 
maintenance or repair companies out there. Our 
services are designed to take care of the small and 
medium-sized IT business needs of our clients so that 
they can focus on their daily business operations, 
while we handle all of their IT related issues.”

 Companies rely on TeamLogic IT’s managed 
IT services for proactive IT management to help 
increase productivity throughout their organization 
while also gaining better ROI from their technology 
investments. Solutions are designed to meet client 
needs while helping them build an IT platform 
for future growth. TeamLogic IT also provides 
networking services, security services, data services, 
email services, telecommunications, and hardware 
and software products for companies seeking to 
outsource their IT needs.

 “The combination of being able to provide world-
class IT services because of our nationwide presence, 
combined with the benefit of local management 
teams, has allowed TeamLogic IT to experience 
significant growth over the past several years,” said 
Chuck Lennon, president of TeamLogic, Inc. “We are 
delighted that Scott has joined our network to service 
the Arcadia area business market.”

About TeamLogic IT 

 TeamLogic IT is a leading national provider of 
advanced IT management services for small- to 
medium-sized companies (SMBs). With locations 
across the country, TeamLogic IT provides managed 
services, computer consulting, and support services 
focused on helping companies minimize downtime 
and improve productivity. Thousands of companies 
have turned to TeamLogic IT as their trusted “IT 
Advisor.”

 TeamLogic IT has been ranked the #1 technology 
franchise for three years in a row by Franchise 
Business Review and has received numerous Top 
50 Franchisee Satisfaction awards. The company 
is owned by Franchise Services, Inc. (FSI), a 
management company that also owns the franchise 
brands Sir Speedy, PIP Printing and Marketing 
Services, Signal Graphics, and MultiCopy in the 
Netherlands.

 

Contact: Scott Pauli, TeamLogic IT of Arcadia; Tel: 
626-657-0521, Located at: 444 East Huntington 
Drive, Suite 216, Arcadia, CA 91006; Email: spauli@
teamlogicit.com, http://www.teamlogicit.com/
arcadiaca518/.


OUCH… THAT FONT IS PAINFUL!

The other day I received an email that used all caps in 
a very tiny script font! I needed to read it but it took 
me forever! OUCH, my aching eyes. 

 With so much content coming at us on mobile 
devices, it’s important to take it easy on your readers. 
Choose legible fonts and make them bigger. 

 If email marketing is part of your business and you 
rely on it to convert sales…make sure it’s easy to read.

 Do you know what the most legible font is on-line? 
If you guessed Verdana, you are correct. Arial and 
Helvetica are also easy to read on screens. Fonts that 
are typically more legible in print, like Times, tend to 
look blurry in the on-line world.

 Font size matters too. Constant Contact says to 
stick with 16 point for body copy and 22 point for 
headline copy. 

 You can still add some flavor with bigger, smaller 
and fancier fonts here and there. Just don’t over do it. 
In the end, you want your message to get read.

 

 MJ’s business, HUTdogs, offers helpful workshops 
throughout Southern California and helps business 
owners and non-profits have success with email and 
social media marketing.