Morris Law Firm

Office Phone: 770.956.1000
Fax: 770.956.1002
1950 North Park Place, Suite 400
Atlanta, GA 30339

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770.956.1000

Cumberland Legacy, LLC

Cumberland Legacy, LLC is an affiliated company of Morris Law Firm that provides for the strategic creation, development, and implementation of family office functions for wealthy individuals. Morris Law Firm launched Cumberland Legacy in 2002 in order to assist clients and their families with their specific personal and business needs.

Cumberland Legacy is similar in design to individual family offices, while taking advantage of the economies of scale. Cumberland Legacy offers solutions for wealthy clients who are seeking direction and assistance with respect to all of their personal and business affairs. Cumberland Legacy concentrates on forming sincere and distinct personal relationships with each client, therefore enabling Cumberland Legacy to precisely identify and understand the client’s specific goals. Once these relationships are established, Cumberland Legacy assembles an integrated team of specialists to realize these very specific client needs and objectives. A family office operation that is coordinated by Cumberland Legacy provides a centralized source of strategies for long-term wealth accumulation, management, and preservation.

Acting as an advocate, Cumberland Legacy coordinates the following services:

  • Legal consulting, administration, and review
  • Trust management
  • Net worth/cash flow analysis and budget creation and review
  • Preparation and review of financial statements
  • Tax consultation, planning, preparation, and protection strategies
  • Asset allocation and consolidation/investment policy development and review
  • Retirement planning
  • Investment management and monitoring
  • Wealth transfer planning and estate planning strategy creation and administration
  • Business succession planning
  • Bill paying
  • Assistance with asset purchasing
  • Bookkeeping
  • Capital management
  • Risk management
  • Management of real estate transactions and properties
  • Conflict management
  • Project Development
  • Financial and investment education
  • Charitable and trust administration
  • Private foundation administration
  • Philanthropy
  • Special needs (hiring domestics, college admissions, gift services, etc.)

Cumberland Legacy allows each client and his or her family to enjoy their wealth, and works toward ensuring that the family will remain a financially viable and stable entity for future generations. If you would like to receive further information about Cumberland Legacy, please contact Thornton W. Morris at (770) 956-1000.

Business Support

In addition to providing help related to our clients’ entity maintenance needs, MLF Company Support expands upon these services to serve as a trusted advisor to small and medium sized business entities. MLF Company Support works hand-in-hand with each client and with various outside specialists to coordinate and implement a wide range of services associated with the formation and maintenance of a viable corporate entity. These services range from basic “start-up” matters, including the opening of a bank account, finding a temporary employee or office space, and setting up payroll or retirement plans, to more substantive assistance including finding an experienced CPA, legal counsel, or other experienced specialist based upon each client’s needs.

As the foregoing suggests, MLF Company Support serves as a central point of contact for its clients’ business needs. If you would like to receive further information about MLF Company Support, please contact Jason C. Aufdermaur at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or (770) 956-1000.

Annual Corporate Maintenance

After formation of a legal entity, Georgia law requires that certain requirements be met for the entity to remain intact and to preserve liability protection. For instance, an entity must, at a minimum, keep registration forms and fees current with the Secretary of State. For corporations, a meeting of the shareholders and directors must be held at least annually, with the minutes of each meeting kept on record. In addition, an entity must be operated in a manner that is both financially and otherwise distinct from its interest holders. For example, the entity’s checking account should not be the personal checking account of an interest holder. While individual owners have the knowledge and interest to run their business, they often lack the planning and expertise required to meet their businesses' legal obligations. Thus, once a legal entity has been formed to shield liability, MLF Company Support works with our clients to ensure that all legal obligations are timely met.

MLF Company Support helps our clients comply with various statutory formalities by, among other things:

  • Filing Georgia annual reports with the Secretary of State, including advancing payment of the current year’s filing fee;
  • Attending annual meetings of shareholders, directors, or members of the corporation or limited liability company and preparing minutes thereof, as requested;
  • Discussing with company officials, as requested, matters that must be addressed at the annual meetings;
  • Performing an annual legal analysis to determine the status of the business’ compliance with law and possible advantageous tax strategies, as requested;
  • Maintaining the “corporate books”; and
  • Serving as the registered agent for the business in Georgia for service of process.

Preserving Liability Protections of the Business Entity

The “corporate shield” provides the liability protection desired by individual shareholders, members, and limited partners. It serves to shield individual shareholders, members, or limited partners, and their personal assets, from individual liability for corporate acts. The protection of the “corporate shield” operates only if the corporation remains properly organized, adequately capitalized, and completely distinct as a legal entity. Should a business entity fail to comply with statutory formalities, the validity of the entity may be open to question, and an outside party might be able to “pierce the corporate veil” and impose liability upon the individual shareholders, members, or limited partners.

MLF Company Support focuses on what is often the main objective of every business owner when considering the formation of a company: the protection of his or her personal assets from business-related liability. MLF Company Support helps to ensure that a legal entity is properly created and maintained by an experienced legal professional, increasing the likelihood that the entity will shield an individual’s assets from such liability and from potential economic downturns related to the underlying business. A properly structured and maintained legal entity can also aid in the raising of capital, provide freedom to transfer equity, and allow a business to continue despite the departure of vital personnel or owners.

MLF Company Support realizes that the key to protecting personal assets lies in creating and maintaining the proper legal entity for business owners. Once the appropriate legal business entity has been selected, proper filing with the Secretary of State or similar administrative body creates the legal entity and brings to life a “fictitious person.” This fictitious person has the ability to engage in business, own property, and be legally obligated. MLF Company Support's mission is to help each client increase the probability that the client's business entity is properly formed and maintained so that this “fictitious person” can provide a liability shield for the client's assets.