Chapter 2

Before we could get into the transfer of our assets to JAMP Enterprises, we had to explain what we had planned to put in place as JAMP Enterprises’ business structure to Shane. He now had an understanding of the business’s future structure, so he said, “Let’s go back to your lists of assets.

“I think your intent is to have JAMP Enterprises manage your stock and bond investments. You all have portfolios containing stock and some portfolios include bonds, but you don’t have to transfer ownership of your portfolios to JAMP Enterprises. For income tax purposes, that would be a bad idea. You will have to sell your properties to JAMP Enterprises. So selling your portfolios would further increase your taxable income for the year, and result in a larger tax debt.

“If you want your portfolios to be managed by JAMP Enterprises, then I suggest you create an LLC that is dedicated to managing its clients’ portfolios of stocks and bonds. Then each of you can use that LLC to manage your stock and bond portfolios.

“Phyllis, your assets are the easiest - some stock and two bank accounts. Once your new stock management LLC is in business, the business will help you with transferring your portfolio from the firm currently managing your portfolio, to your new business. You should maintain your personal bank accounts as personal assets.

“Madge, your assets are similar to Phyllis’s, but they include your real estate business. What I said to Phyllis also applies to your portfolio and bank accounts. Do you intend to continue being an agent for others to assist them in buying and selling real estate?”

“We talked about that, Shane. Lately, I have only been using my business to buy properties in this area for us. We will continue to do that until we have purchased all of the properties we plan to buy. We haven’t decided on what to do with the business after that. We briefly talked about purchasing real estate outside of this area in the future, and my business would be useful should we decide to do that.”

“Okay. I suggest JAMP Enterprises create an LLC to support the sale and purchase of real estate by its customers, and for you to sell your business to the new LLC. You can be the LLC’s President and your real estate license would make you the agent of record for the business. Later, you could hire a licensed agent to run the company if you want to do that. The four of you will need to decide how much Madge’s business is worth to JAMP. Don’t try to sell the business for one dollar or you will have problems with the IRS. Cotton Molinari and I can help you with that.

“Next we have Alicia. Your situation is a little different. Your stock portfolio can be transferred to JAMP Enterprises new stock LLC as I described earlier.”

Alicia protested, “But, I don’t own stock.”

Shane said, “You forgot that each of you owns twenty five percent of JAMP Enterprises’ stock.

“Keep your bank accounts as personal assets. However, the balances of your accounts are significantly higher than that of Phyllis and Madge’s accounts. I think you should keep enough money in your accounts for your personal needs, and invest the remainder through JAMP’s future stock management LLC.”

“I can’t do that right now, Shane. You see Jeb and I have been providing the money JAMP needed to buy the properties. We also need our money to pay for the costs we incur as the Facilitators of the meetings related to the Alliance Agreement between Earth and the Empire. We will also have to fund JAMP’s expansion during the coming years until our LLCs become profitable.”

“All right, we don’t need to address your bank accounts now. But you and Jeb own the properties Minnus Enterprises bought. So I suggest that you sell those properties to JAMP Leasing. You will have to pay fees to transfer ownership, so I recommend that you set the purchase price to what you paid to buy the properties plus a small amount to cover the costs related to selling the property. You may want to use Madge’s real estate business as the seller and buyer’s agent.

“We don’t need to go into it today, but you said you and Jeb are providing the money to purchase the properties that JAMP Enterprises, LLC bought. So, we need to take a closer look at the financial aspects of JAMP Enterprises, LLC. Specifically, how JAMP Enterprises, LLC obtained the funds to buy the properties?

Shane said, “Finally, we need to address Jeb’s assets. With the exception of your inheritance, Jeb, everything I said to Alicia applies to you. Your list of assets indicates you have assets gained as part of your inheritance without mentioning what assets you inherited.”

“Yes, I know. My inheritance was extensive. I was given a list of the assets I inherited, and I brought the list with me.”

I handed a folder containing my list of inherited assets to Shane, and said, “That is a copy, so you can mark it up if you need to.”

He spent about ten minutes going through the list. He then said, “Handle your stocks and bonds the same way that I described earlier, and from what Alicia said, I assume you need to maintain a high balance in your bank accounts. You will need a commercial business management agency to manage the businesses you inherited. Talk to Cotton about creating another LLC to manage investments in commercial properties and businesses. You can then have that LLC manage your commercial business interests.

“If you want me to help the four of you with anything we discussed today, I will be happy to do so. Is there anything else?”

I thought to my wives, “Ladies, there is that matter we discussed last night concerning Shane. Shall we do it?”

They each nodded their heads yes, and I agreed.

“We have one final matter, Shane. We have found your advice to be very valuable. JAMP Enterprises will have a legal department as part of its Administrative Division. We are wondering if you would be interested in being the manager of that department. Any interest?”

“You caught me off guard with that, Jeb. I might be interested if the position challenged me and the compensation was adequate.”

“Shane, there is a lot that we haven’t told you about JAMP Enterprises and our lives. You are our lawyer for configuring JAMP Enterprises to support our business activities, so we believe lawyer-client confidentiality applies to our conversation. Are we correct?”

“Yes, if we are going to discuss JAMP Enterprises’ business structure or activities.”

“Good, for we are going to share a few confidences about our business affairs with you.

“Anyone here on Earth could have approached the Altairians and asked about how this Alliance Agreement will affect business on Earth. Apparently, my wives and I are the only people who asked those types of questions of the Altairians. We learned a lot and are under no obligation to share what we learned with others, so we have kept what we know a secret.

“For reasons we don’t want to discuss at this time, we believe the Alliance Agreement will be created, ratified by Earth, and approved by the Empire. Once the agreement is approved, there will be more highly profitable business opportunities available to Earth businesses than you can count. There are certain things that I can’t talk with you about at this time concerning our future Empire business areas. Once the agreement is in place, many of those things will become public knowledge and you will understand why my wives and I created JAMP Enterprises, LLC.

“We told you that we want to change Minnus Enterprises’ area of business. I won’t tell you why until later, but Minnus Enterprises will be selling cosmetics, hair care, and skin care products that are manufactured in the Empire. It will also sell other Altairian merchandise.

“Earth has similar cosmetic, hair care, and skin care products and the Earth manufacturers claim their products make a woman’s skin look younger and that their hair looks healthier. But when a woman removes her cosmetics, the wrinkles, age lines, and age spots are still there. Her hair is still that of an older woman.

“The manufacturer’s claim is sort of misleading, Shane. The key phrases in the claim are look younger and looking healthier. Looking younger or healthier is different than being younger or healthier. Use of the products changes the appearance of their skin and hair, but it does not make their skin and hair younger or healthier.

“The Empire produces products that heal and rejuvenate a person’s hair and skin. The skin care products repair damage to the user’s skin, and the cosmetics protect and hydrate their users’ skin. The hair care products do the same thing in that they repair the damage done to their users’ hair.

“After using these products for three to six months, the users’ skin will heal and in most cases the users will have no wrinkles, age lines, or age spots visible when you remove the makeup; their hair will also be healthy.

“We think you have a general idea of how much money Earth’s cosmetic companies currently earn in a year. Not to mention the earnings of the skin and hair care companies. We can sell Empire beauty products for about half of what the Earth companies charge and still make close to an eighty percent profit, although we don’t intend to gouge our customers that badly. So our prices will be even lower.

“Within three years of starting to sell these products, Minnus Enterprises will have more than a seventy percent share of the cosmetics market and the hair and skin care markets. Most of the current Earth companies in that area of business will go out of business before they can establish trade agreements with Empire traders and switch to selling products manufactured in the Empire.

“A few of the companies will partner with Empire companies to manufacture and sell those products on Earth. We intend to have Minnus Enterprises become one of those companies.

“I’ll tell you why we were interested in buying so many properties in our area. The Altairians we talked with told us that when the Empire traders begin trading with a new trade planet, the Empire builds an embassy on the planet to monitor and enforce the Alliance Agreement’s trade provisions. We have reason to believe their embassy will be built near our farm. Historically, when an Empire’s embassy is built on a new trade planet – like Earth – the planet’s countries build embassies close to the Empire’s embassy.

“My wives and I believe that Empire traders will come to Earth and Altair will build an embassy in this area. We will be contacting a few of those traders, so we can establish trade agreements with traders who deal in the products we want to sell. There are other Earth companies that will enter into trade agreements with Empire traders. Those trade agreements will essentially force Altair to build an embassy here on Earth.

“I am not at liberty to explain things at this time, but we know that when the Alliance Agreement is approved, Altair will build an Embassy on the land across the street from our farm. We have purchased most of the available property near our farm that is suitable for use as the site of an embassy.

“We expect close to twenty of the nations on Earth to build embassies near us, or they will be in the process of negotiating a lease with us to build a property on our properties within two years of the Altairian embassy opening its doors. There will be additional embassies built in the subsequent years.

“As of today, we have made offers on over seventy of the local properties, and more than fifty of those offers have been accepted. Our list of assets only includes those properties we own. The rest of the properties are still in escrow.

“To summarize, our plans for our current and future properties is to lease them to countries that want to build embassies close to the Altairian Embassy. There will also be a need for support facilities such as: housing for the embassy employees, department stores, restaurants, and gas stations. We believe many of those support facilities will be built on land that we now own. We will lease our land to the countries and support companies, but we won’t sell it to them.

“Will being in charge of the legal affairs of JAMP Enterprises, LLC be a big enough challenge for you? We can assure you the salary and benefit package will be more than adequate.”

Shane said, “I think big enough is an understatement, Jeb. I don’t know all of your plans, but the plans you have shared with me, tells me that the legal issues will be immense and require that I have a large staff. I’m definitely interested in the position, if you make a job offer.

“When do you think the Alliance Agreement will be in place, Jeb?”

“The meeting to determine that will start in a year, and we think the meeting will last for two to three years. Add another six months for the nations to all decide what they want to do, and you are looking at close to four years for the nations to ratify the agreement. Our sources tell us the Empire will have no objection to gaining another trade world, so the ratification of the Alliance Agreement will occur.

“During that time, we will be creating the business structure necessary for JAMP Enterprises to take advantage of trading with the Empire. Shane, one thing to remember is, we do not have to wait for the Alliance Agreement to be in place before we begin trading with the Empire. We can do that now. All we need to do is make contact with a trader and find products that can be bartered for Empire merchandise. I am already aware of a couple of products that would be valuable in the Empire.

When we left Shane’s office, we called Cotton Molinari’s office and were able to get an appointment for 1:30 that afternoon. We stopped for a fast-food lunch and then went to Cotton’s office.

We were back in a lawyer’s meeting room talking to different lawyer. We agreed that we would have Shane and his legal staff represent us at meetings like this one once he became our employee.

“Cotton, JAMP Enterprises needs two new subsidiaries. The first LLC is to be an investment company that manages its clients’ stock and bond portfolios. The second LLC is to be a company that manages commercial properties and businesses.

“Before we get into the details of those two businesses, my wives and I need to know if the properties we bought while doing business as Minnus Enterprises were included as assets of the LLC when you filed to create Minnus Enterprises, LLC.”

“I will get your file to confirm it, Jeb, but I don’t recall those properties as being included as part of the LLC’s assets. Normally, the assets gained through a DBA business are the assets of the DBA’s owners, and I would not include such assets in the filing unless specifically requested to do so by my client. I don’t recall any of you asking me to do that.”

Cotton was back in a few minutes with a file folder. He found a packet of papers and reviewed the filing he had made to the state to create our LLC. He then said, “The filing did not include any assets in the paperwork that I filed with the state. Do you need any further information?”

“No, that is all we needed to know. Thank you, Cotton. Now let’s discuss the two businesses we want to create.”

We spent the next hour discussing the two companies we wanted to create. When we finished, Cotton had the information he needed to create two additional LLCs as JAMP Enterprises’ subsidiaries. When we asked, he told us that it could take up to a month to prepare the papers, file them, and get a response from the state. Most of the time would be for the state to process the paperwork.

We said goodbye to Cotton and headed home to the farm. When we arrived, the appearance of the farm had changed. The farm house was almost concealed by two huge assault shuttles surrounded by tents and a long line of storage sheds. The most astonishing thing was seeing one of Mike’s soldiers walking their post accompanied by a burly seven-foot Altairian assault troop. Mike’s soldier seemed small in comparison. I knew I would not want to tangle with that assault troop. Heck, I wouldn’t want to tangle with Mike’s soldier either for he was not a small man.

That evening we kicked back and relaxed. We would have to wait before we could transfer all of our assets to our new companies. However, we would update our schedule tomorrow to include today’s events and expand the level of detail for Stage 1 of JAMP Enterprises’ creation. However, we could begin the transfer of the properties Alicia and I owned and those owned by JAMP Enterprises to JAMP Leasing when we were ready to do so.

We were aware that some of today’s activities were part of what we considered to be our Stage 2 activities, so we would also add subtasks to the Stage 2 summary task to show the creation of JAMP Enterprises’s new subsidiaries. We would also have to move the Minnus Enterprises summary task and its subtasks to the Stage 3 summary subtask.

In the morning, we had breakfast with the breakfast club. Once John and Mike left to take care of their people, my wives headed to the kitchen to clean it up. They took Vert and Relpt with them to start our dinner in the crockpots, while Simon, Paul, Aaron, and I moved to the living room.

Paul said, “Jeb, John and Mike are the only ones who have full-time jobs to do. Simon needs to monitor John’s activities, I have Aaron doing the same thing with Mike, and I have essentially nothing to do. But Simon and Aaron’s tasks amount to about five minutes of work a day, unless John or Mike has a problem or the President wants Aaron and me to do something. Vert and Relpt seem to have found a job helping your wives, so that keeps them busy several hours a day. Simon, Aaron, and I need something to do. Do you need help with anything?”

“Humm ... I may have something the three of you can help me with for the next month or so. The delegates are gone and my wives and I have to finalize the meeting by returning the equipment we rented and storing the tents, flooring, and equipment we bought until it is needed for the next meeting.

“Returning the equipment we rented is a relatively easy task. We can provide you with the names and phone numbers of our suppliers and a list of the equipment we rented from each supplier. You could call them to arrange for the return of the equipment. When they are picking up their equipment, you would need to ensure they do an accurate equipment inventory of the tables and chairs. We may have misplaced a couple of those. If so, they should be easy to find since none of the equipment has been removed from the farm. We will call the suppliers later to let them know that we will want to rent the equipment from them again for the next meeting.

“Storing the equipment we bought will be more complicated. First we need to acquire a building for storing the equipment. Then we need to remove our equipment from the meeting and media tents, prepare it for storage, and move the equipment to our storage location. That equipment is mostly things like the PA system, cables, coffee pots, dishes, and trashcans. The final step will be to have Alibaba, the vendor we purchased the tent and flooring from, disassemble the tent and flooring and prepare it for storage. Then a moving company can move the tent, flooring, and equipment to our storage location. That will be a lot of work, but most of the work will be done by others. All you would have to do is supervise.

“My wives and I will acquire the storage facility, contact our tents’ vendor, and engage a moving company. If you want to do the remaining tasks, we will be more than happy to let the three of you handle the effort, but you will have to wait for us to acquire the storage facility.

“I was considering storing the walkways also, but that may not be necessary. Our construction company built them to last at least ten years. We won’t need them once the next meeting is finished, so I think we can just leave them where they are during the coming year.

Aaron said, “As I said a few days ago, I’ll do anything to avoid boredom, so count me in.”

After a couple of chuckles, Simon and Paul volunteered also. Then Paul said, “You don’t need to hire a moving company, Jeb. Mike’s company has trucks that can be used to move everything to your storage facility once you find one. The President’s direction was that I am to assist you with anything you need regarding the meetings. I interpret that to mean, providing any personnel and equipment you need to set up, conduct, and clean-up after the meetings.”

Simon said, “Ship Commander Shimlt provided me with similar direction, Jeb. So I will see that you get what you need to finishing negotiating the Alliance Agreement.”

I thanked Paul and Simon and then excused myself and went to our office. I returned with the folder containing the copies of our rental agreements and gave it to Paul. Simon’s translator made it possible for him to speak English, but he couldn’t read or write any of our languages.

My wives, Vert, and Relpt rejoined us, so I explained what Simon, Paul, and Aaron had said and agreed to do.

Alicia said, “Good. That’s one thing taken care of. Did you mention that we will need to set the tents up again and rent the same types of equipment?”

“Ah ... No. I thought I would wait until later to mention that.”

Alicia looked at our friends, and said, “We will have to set the tents up again for the next meeting and we will need to rent the same types of equipment but in larger amounts. If you are thinking of helping us set everything up for the next meeting, you may want to take photos of the current setup.

“Jeb, it won’t take long for them to get rid of the rental equipment, so we had best get busy finding a storage building. For now, I don’t see us buying a warehouse. Madge, can your real estate search program find property for rent or lease?”

“Yes, and it won’t take long for me to find us something. Let’s head to the office and get started.”

Simon said, “Paul, I think we need to get some rental property returned to its owners.” They went to the mess tent to review the rental agreements. Paul or Aaron could use their cell phone to contact our suppliers.

After lunch, we left for our appointment with Richard Wells. We each took copies of our personal financial information with us. In total, it was more paper than I expected.

After introductions with Richard Wells were exchanged, we were ushered into his meeting room. Dick, as he asked to be called, was a pleasant man and we all felt comfortable with him as a person. Madge had assured us that he was very competent, so we were willing to give him a chance.

Dick started out with a question. “Jeb, you all used the same last name of Connor. Are you all related and have you and Madge married?

Madge answered, “No, Jeb and I aren’t married. There is a family relationship between Jeb, Alicia, and Phyllis, but none of us are married to Jeb.”

That answer led to Alicia describing our relationship. Dick was surprised that three attractive women had agreed to share one man, and the relationship didn’t have the expected internal jealousies.

Dick said, “Madge told me you all need a CPA and you would prefer to use the same person. I provide two services: accounting and tax preparation. If you want me to be your accountant, like Madge does, I can also do your taxes.”

We each told Dick, we needed an accountant and someone to do our taxes. Dick said, “So what can I do for you today?”

I said, “Last year, Alicia, Phyllis, and I went to a company that prepared our personal tax returns. I was not totally happy with them. I’m not a tax expert, but I found too many mistakes on the tax forms they prepared for me, and I had to point those mistakes out to them. This year our personal tax situations are going to be far more complex, and we need a good CPA.

“Madge recommended you, and we agreed to give you a chance at this year’s tax preparation.”

Madge said, “They forgot to mention that we are jointly starting several businesses. We each want you to be our personal and business accountant and to prepare our personal and businesses’ taxes.

“Hopefully, I will do a far better job for the four of you and for your companies, than the company did for you last year. Out of curiosity, who did you use?”

“We used the James’ Tax Preparation Service.”

“I understand your opinion for I get a lot of new customers who used them previously.

“You are here as a group, so I assume you don’t have a problem with me talking with you about your personal financial matters. Is that correct?”

We all nodded in agreement, and Dick said, “Okay, who goes first?”

Phyllis said, “My financials and taxes will probably be the simplest, so start with me.”

Phyllis handed her folder of financial information to Dick, and they started discussing Phyllis’s financials and what she would need to provide to Dick so he could prepare her State and Federal Income Tax forms.

In the process, we explained how JAMP and the Alliance Agreement impacted Phyllis’s personal financial situation. Of course what we said about the explanation also applied to the rest of us, but to a greater degree. We would each get around to explaining how we were personally affected.

When he finished with Phyllis, Dick said, “Whose next?”

I think he was surprised when Madge said, “That’s me.”

I could see a quizzical look pass over his face as he looked at Alicia and me.

“Okay, Madge. What have you been doing since we last talked?”

Madge said, “To start with, I became involved with these three. Getting involved in the meetings related to the Alliance Agreement was a big deal for me. But our decision to create JAMP and its subsidiary LLCs has been a complicated effort, both legally and financially. Although on the financial side of things, Jeb and Alicia have funded most of the meeting and our business efforts from their personal assets.”

We got another quizzical look from Dick. Alicia and I just smiled and nodded in agreement with what Madge had said.

Dick and Madge discussed how she had used her business to handle the sale of properties that Minnus Enterprises, which was actually Alicia and me, had bought, and were selling to JAMP Leasing.

When they were finished talking about Madge’s personal financial matters, Dick said, “If the two of you have more complex financial histories, I think we need a break before we begin.”

We all agreed that was a good idea.

The walk down to Dick’s favorite coffee bar was relaxing. Sipping on our tasty coffees on the way back was enjoyable. The four of us kicked back in the meeting room, while Dick put Phyllis and Madge’s financial information into separate expandable legal-sized accordion folders.

After a bathroom break, we were ready to continue. Dick asked, “Whose next?”

“That’s me,” Alicia said. She began with winning the Lottery, and then progressed to us buying the farm and becoming involved with the Alliance Agreement negotiations. Her explanation of her involvement with creating JAMP was simplified by Phyllis’s and Madge’s previous explanation. She did a good job of leaving Mary out of her explanation of how we became involved in the negotiations.

During Alicia’s description, Dick was taking notes like he had with Phyllis and Madge. Sometime during her description, Alicia had given her folder of financial information to Dick, and he had set it aside.

When Alicia finished, Dick turned to me and said, “Now it’s your turn.”

I pushed my folders of financial information across the table to Dick and then went through a similar description of what I had been doing but I started with meeting Alicia in Sam Timmons’ office in Chicago. Dick was taking copious notes.

When I finished, Dick said, “This is going to be more complex than I expected. I will go through the financial information you each gave me. As I do that, I will make a list of the additional information that I will need to track your personal financial situations.

“Phyllis, I haven’t had the opportunity to look at what you gave me, but I suspect your finances are far more complex than what you described to me. Just the fact that you own twenty five percent of JAMP Enterprises means there is a lot you didn’t mention because you probably thought it was not important.

“As I said, I will look at your financials individually. I will then look at what the four of you are doing as a group. I suspect that I will need a lot of information once I have gone through the information you provided to me.”

“Based on what you have told me of JAMP, I get the feeling that JAMP will become a large company. You don’t have to tell me, but it would help if I understood the direction JAMP will take in the business world.”

After a brief mental discussion, Alicia said, “We can provide you with a lot of what you will need to know, Dick. However, right now our business activities are chaotic. JAMP and its LLCs are all new, and we are very busy finding the staff to fill all of the key positions.

Once things settle down, we can explain our subsidiary LLCs, and their business areas in more detail. Perhaps that would be best done when we provide the information you need from each of us.