You have built a successful career as a Trust, Entertainment, and Business Affairs lawyer in Music City. Can you explain how your role supports the careers of creatives and entrepreneurs?
My practice is kind of unique to Nashville in that I do a lot of family Trusts, Wills, and estate work for business owners, but I do a lot of entertainment work as well. I coach people on how to handle their intellectual property and what it could be worth in the market—just like you would want to approach your real estate and tangible business assets, you’d want to purchase intellectual property as well. As property values increase in Middle Tennessee, a lot of people have been surprised to learn that their net worth has grown as well. Nobody should be having to run their assets through probate, ever. I teach a lot of estate planning classes around town and a lot of people say, ‘why wouldn’t I just do a Will? Why would I need a Trust?’ and my line of demarcation is if you own a home, you should have a Trust. You hear the word Trust often, and [many think] that’s only for wealthy families, which could not be further from the truth. A Trust will save you so much money and so many headaches—pushing back on that and educating others is a big passion of mine.
Why is it important to start planning and investing in a family Trust early, and what long-term benefits can this provide for your family?
There is some immediate value in approaching your estate planning… if you put your real property assets in a Trust, those assets receive a level of anonymity and your name is no longer public-facing. It’s good to have those financial Power of Attorney documents in place because you just don’t know… I hate coming back to that point of ‘you just never know,’ but it’s true! On certain types of asset-protection trusts, assets have to be in there for a certain amount of years before you get the protection. People with public-facing profiles, [or those who work in a riskier field, such as entertainment or construction], probably need some asset protection. It’s best to be proactive.
From a legal perspective, what does “investing in yourself” actually look like?
Having your estate plan in order. It’s along the same line of thinking of, ‘why do I need life insurance?’ If something happens to you, this could really be a good resource for your family in picking up the pieces and setting them up for good. It’s the same for your estate plan… you want to have that stuff in order, especially if you have a business, but double as important if you have a family and children. Signing a Trust isn’t going to feel like Christmas morning for a client, but they’re getting peace of mind, and that’s intangible. So much of what I do is a common sense check: if something happens to you, who has access to those business accounts? Who knows what’s going on in your business? Who knows what’s happening in your personal financial affairs? It’s an annual thing. I talk to each client every twelve months—just like you’d have a physical with your doctor, there should be somewhat annual conversations because life changes… people have new kids, open up new businesses, and there are new assets.
At what point in an entrepreneur’s career should they begin thinking about legal guidance, even if they’re just starting out?
Day one. The entrepreneur is the hero in the story, but they’re going to build out a team. I think that first call should be the attorney… that way, you are setting up the right kind of business in making sure your operating agreements are sound and you’ve got a good tax resource… often times, business owners call me because they’re forming their business, or maybe they’ve had it formed for a couple years, and they realize they rushed the process when they started and need to get their legal affairs in order. I’m very commonly handing those clients off to a tax professional because we have to be wise about how they’re approaching their tax affairs now. I’m very rarely serving a client where it’s just the two of us—it’s usually a square between me, the financial advisor, the client, and a tax professional. Just like in sports, you have to have the right coach, the right trainers, the right dieticians or in music, you have to have the right manager, tour manager, attorney… entrepreneurship is a team sport.
What are some of the most common legal mistakes you see artists, founders, or creatives make when they’re first building their brand or business?
Trying to step outside their area of expertise and taking the do-it-yourself approach too far. I see a lot of business owners set up a $300 LLC and then they’re off to the races… especially if you have business partners, that’s just going to cause you so many headaches from a tax and liability perspective. I also see a lot of people wanting to do too much too soon, so I would focus on keeping expenses low and focus on profit. That doesn’t mean you should skip out on legal expenses, but I see a lot of owners wanting to pump their money into marketing and be at every networking event in town, but let me tell you this: there is no shortage of resources for entrepreneurs. You could spend all day listening to podcasts, going to happy hours, reading coffee table books, but none of that is fundamental. Fundamentals are calling people back, having mentors, doing really good work… if you say you’re going to do something, you do it. It’s really easy to get distracted by all the other stuff, [but I think it’s best] to make money and focus on your clients.
How does having the right legal structure actually create more opportunity for long-term career growth?
I think, more and more, when business owners come to me, they may be on first base in their business, but they’re already thinking through what third base could look like. We’re in the age of merges and acquisitions where people build business and sell them... that makes doing things right from day one so important. There are things you could be doing right now in 2026 that your future self in 2036 will really be thanking you for.
What advice do you have for anyone that has been putting off the hard conversations of planning for the future? How would you encourage them to start tomorrow?
There are a lot of good estate planning attorneys in the Middle Tennessee area so the process should be pretty painless. Now, I’m not saying it will be like being on the beach… but I would say go do it tomorrow because we’ve got a lot of good attorneys in this market that would love to help your family and your business. I mean, it’s corny, but if not tomorrow, when are you going to do it? There’s going to be value even in that initial meeting [with your attorney] and you’ll learn something that will likely save you money and protect your family. Tennessee is known as one of the small business capitals for business owners, so we want to balance that out and make it true from an estate planning perspective as well. [We are] also looked at as one of the most advantageous estate planning states in the country. We have what is called a Tennessee Community Property Trust which can provide a lot of advantage to married couples here and also have a trust called the Tennessee Investment Services Trust, which can be really advantageous to business owners. Tennessee, specifically, has been very intentional about getting certain tools in place for people who live here and move here.
“There are things you could be doing right now in 2026 that your future self in 2036 will really be thanking you for.”
“There are things you can do today that your future self will thank you for a decade from now...Entrepreneurship is a team sport—you need the right advisors around you from day one.”