My father owns a small Physical Therapy business with a partner in our hometown. Recently, I’ve started to becoming suspicious of the business success and financial health for a variety of reasons. Some of the problems include his partner working every other week to pursue other business ventures, terrible relationships with his staff, lack of patient acquisitions, tele health failures, and lack of physical assets. My dads company has been struggling since COVID for a variety or reason which include an older age client population, suspension of elective surgeries, and a shift to tele health. The business has failed to bring in new clients due to poor marketing, and the lack of medical connections. I’ve tried to speak with my father about this but it as always pushed to the side. Recently I’ve noticed my father has been spending less time at the office and that his schedule is often barren in regards to patient and the practice is so small they cannot afford a 24 hour cancellation policy.
Recently in conversation he slipped up and admitted he hasn’t received a paycheck for at least the last month, and doesn’t know when the next one will arrive. I’m very concerned about the state of the business and my parents planned retirement as my mother didn’t work throughout our childhood as this company has been our source of income. I know my parents are set up well financially, but I don’t want companies coming after there assets or my assets that could contain my parents name. I’m not sure how to have a conversation with my parents about this and what actions I need to do to protect myself.
I know that the business has very little physical assets, they have always rented space, and their equipment needs to be replaced. Best case scenario is the practice gets bought out by an a bigger practice, but I fear that the payout will be drastically less than my parent envisioned for all these years. I’m a 21 year old college senior that studies accounting and finance, so I have knowledge on how to read the books and get a grasp but I’m not going to be able to step in and turn the company around. My fear is that this will throw off my parents retirement plans and put them in a bad situation where debt collectors start chasing us and repossessing assets. Over the last 12 months I had removed all my parents names off my bank accounts and etc because I knew this scenario was coming. They are still listed as my beneficiaries if something were to happen. I am a 21 year old college student that still live at home.
My assets include - 47k cash - 43k mutual funds - 8k Roth IRA - 3k Personal Robinhood - 1.5 k in Crypto/REITS - 17k Car payed for with Fathers name on Title
How do I approach my father and have these difficult conversations about his company’s finances? Am I being paranoid about my assets being repossessed, or is there anything else I can do to protect myself in the short and long run?
Submitted March 27, 2022 at 11:43PM by Itchy_Specialist1284 https://ift.tt/9aH5JiI
