Lexern Law Group, Ltd.

Lexern Law Group was founded with a clear purpose and a singular promise - to share our deep expertise in business and estate planning with the business owners and their families who need us most. We like to think that Lexern Law Group offers a rare combination of legal knowledge as well as honest and practical legal advice that our clients just won’t find anywhere else. We get to know our clients so we can be clear on their objectives, learn their concerns, and come up with a plan to implement the best solutions for them. We work hard to be our clients’ trusted lifetime advisor and a place they can turn to for honest and practical advice.

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Successful business succession planning is an essential part of ensuring the long-term success of any business. It’s important to take the time to make well-informed decisions when it comes to your succession plan. A successful business succession plan includes identifying and preparing a successor to take over the leadership of the company when the current owner or CEO retires or leaves the business. Choosing a successor for your business can be challenging, but it’s important to start early so
Continue Reading Successful Business Succession Planning in 5 Steps

Changes are being made to what can be included in severance agreements. If you are an employer, you need to be aware of recent decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board.
What’s the Purpose of a Severance Agreement?
A severance agreement is a contract between an employer and an employee that outlines the terms of the employee’s exit from the company. Typically, this agreement is offered to employees who are terminated, laid off, or whose employment is ending
Continue Reading Updates to Severance Agreements That Employers Need to Know

Minimizing conflict when exiting a business is always the main goal of an exit strategy. From choosing the right successor, to avoiding other challenges that come with succession planning, minimizing conflict goes hand in hand with an effective plan. Learn how to keep your business running smoothly, even after you’re gone. Even if you aren’t close to retiring or leaving your business, you never know when you may need to initiate a plan due to an emergency.
Minimizing
Continue Reading Minimizing Conflict When Exiting a Business

How to choose the right successor for your business means having the right process and plan for your business. You don’t typically go into business considering how you’ll exit that business, but starting your succession plan early can help you with the best plan for how to choose a business successor. Giving yourself time can bring not only peace of mind that your business will be in the right hands, but can guarantee the continued success of your business
Continue Reading How to Choose the Right Successor for Your Business

Challenges of business succession planning shouldn’t keep you from having a plan for your business. A bad business succession plan is a plan that fails to effectively transfer ownership or management of a business from one generation to the next. Business succession planning is crucial for the long-term success of a company, as it ensures a smooth transition of ownership or leadership and minimizes disruptions to operations. Businesses of all sizes need clear succession plans and we can learn
Continue Reading Challenges of Business Succession Planning

Selling a family business isn’t always an easy process…

You’ve worked hard to build your business, or to keep the family business you’ve been handed going, but what happens when it’s time for the next generation to take over? A family business, no matter how long it’s been in the family, has sentimental value that can make succession planning an emotional process. If you are running a family business, start early when it comes to figuring out your exit
Continue Reading Selling a Family Business

New year means new employment laws for 2023! If you are a business owner, now is the time to take a look at the new laws that went into effect at the beginning of the year. Here is a quick rundown of the laws you should know. 

Minimum Wage

  • Minimum wage in Illinois has increased to $13 per hour for non-tipped employees. The minimum wage for tipped employees is $7.80 for employers with 4 or more employees.

Employee Breaks
Continue Reading New Employment Laws You Should Know for 2023

One of the most common questions we get is “when should I start estate planning?”. The answer is if you’re asking the question then you probably need an estate plan. It’s a common mistake thinking that you aren’t “old enough” or “wealthy enough” to have a plan, but realistically everyone over the age of 18 can benefit from some sort of estate planning document.
When Should I Start Estate Planning?
An estate plan should be tailored to your life
Continue Reading When Should I Start Estate Planning?

Do you need to give up control of your assets with an irrevocable trust? A trust-based estate plan protects you in many ways, but knowing the types of trusts and how to use them to your benefit is the key to protecting your assets long-term. When estate planning, you’re not only planning for what happens to your assets once you die, you’re also considering what the best options are your future while you’re still here. A trust-based estate plan
Continue Reading When to Consider an Irrevocable Trust

Reasons to update your estate plan may not be as obvious as you think. While completing your estate plan brings peace of mind, don’t forget that your estate plan should change as your life changes. As you move through the different phases of your life, your plan should move along with you. There are many reasons that may seem obvious as to when your estate plan should be updated, but there’s also a few that may not trigger
Continue Reading Reasons to Update Your Estate Plan

Protecting your assets in retirement may not be the first thought as you’re getting closer to the next phase of your life. Much of our working lives is focused on saving enough to be comfortable in retirement, not necessarily what happens once we get there. But learning now how to protect your assets in retirement will successfully set you up for a comfortable and worry-free retirement.
Protecting Your Assets in Retirement
If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely
Continue Reading Protecting Your Assets in Retirement

Giving gifts from your estate doesn’t need to be complicated. If you’re feeling the generous spirit this year and are looking to spread your wealth to your loved ones, we have a guide for giving gifts from your estate. Here is a quick recap for giving gifts from your estate and an update for the 2022 laws:
Giving Gifts from Your Estate
Gifting parts of your estate during your lifetime is a great way to avoid taxes and for
Continue Reading Giving Gifts from Your Estate

How to pass on your possessions may seem like the main point of estate planning, but passing on possessions has evolved. We are living in times when “stuff” isn’t as coveted by the younger generations. Tastes change right along with technology and what once may have been considered as a “had to have” item, could now be considered worthless to keep. In estate planning you’re typically thinking about your money and large assets like your home. But you should
Continue Reading Passing on Your Personal Possessions

How to protect your digital assets should be top of mind as our lives move more online. Your digital assets may be a huge part of your estate and you may not even know it. Many think that tangible assets are all that needs to be in an estate plan, like your house, your money, etc. But now is the time to take stock of how much of your life is online and how you can protect your digital
Continue Reading How to Protect Your Digital Assets

Five years ago, cryptocurrency was probably not on your radar, let alone a part of your estate plan. Today, it may be an important investment in your portfolio. You could even own some nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which are powered by the same blockchain-based technology. Despite the dizzying fluctuations in the value of these assets, you should ensure that they are included in your estate plan so you can preserve them for your heirs.
Preserving Cryptocurrency: What to do Now
Continue Reading How Cryptocurrency and NFTs Fit into Your Estate Plan

An estate plan often focuses on tangible property such as jewelry, artwork, money, and vehicles. However, in this age of technology, it is important to remember to include planning for your digital assets. Digital assets consist of everything we own online. Because we spend more time on computers and smartphones than we ever did before, you may not realize how much digital stuff you own, from photos and videos to online accounts, cryptocurrency, and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Why Is
Continue Reading Planning for Your Digital Assets and Preserving Your Digital Legacy