I am the sole manager of an LLC which was formed before my current marriage. I have written a notarized document that names my wife as manager of the LLC in case of my death. Do I need to do anything more to minimize my estate taxes. For the purposes of your answer you may assume that the LLC has a net worth of 6.5 M

We made an offer on a property in south Florida, and followed through on all requests from the lender for documents and LOX's. sadly the lender's estimated closing dates have come and gone twice. The first time we were asked to get an extension, the seller had no problem and signed right away.

However, as a result of the bank blowing through our second closing date the seller's attorney sent us a letter of default in order to freeze our $40k escrow funds and offered to extend a second time by requiring that we release our deposit from escrow, put another $50k into escrow, and pay for all prorated costs from the recently missed closing date.

Our belief is that they were advised by the bank the day before closing, and that we as the buyers cannot be held accountable for a lack of performance on the part of the lender's back office to complete their package. Everyone involved in this deal is dependent on the bank, including the title company, realtors and buyers and sellers.

There is zero involvement on our part other than to turn around whatever requests were being made by the lender. Time was of the essence and we have the email chains wherein we have been pressuring the bank because we have turned around everything within hours of the requests.

This should be a fairly easy deal, with 50% LTV, great credit and no impairments on our part.

The delay has been intolerable for everyone, mostly for the seller who is desperate to collect her recently deceased father's cash and the loan proceeds and go back to South America. The seller and her attorney are insisting that we are in default and that they can take our deposit. Our belief is that they were notified by the title company in advance of the missed closing date, and therefore were aware that the bank had not been able to complete their packaging.

We as buyers have done nothing but chase the lender as hard as we can without discrediting ourselves. Throughout this entire process we have made every attempt to keep everyone in the loop on all our communications. We on we only received the contact information for the seller's attorney this past week when the letter of default was shared with us.

We're in a pickle now. Is the contract dead, and do we have an obligation to continue moving forward to close? Do we need to comply with the seller's conditions to extend? Should we put more money down on a property which the lender has not made a commitment to provide a loan on? Are we really responsible for the pro-rated costs like HOA dues and taxes, etc?

Moreover, do we need legal representation and the added expense of that entails (which we really cannot afford)?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I just did a background check on myself just out of curiosity and found that I have a lien or judgement against me from 2005. I have never been contacted about anything previously. I was living in Florida at the time but I have moved a few times due to my being in the military. How can I find out any information on this or what it is about and how can I resolve it? Thank you for your time.