Shani is a dentist who has been in a partnership with other dentists until recently, but now wants to set up on her own. The partners have returned to her the capital and profit-share she was entitled to. Shani and her family have also now moved to a new growing town in South Australia, so that she can have a wider pool of new clients (and also not be competing with her old practice). She and her husband buy a new house (with only a small bank loan and mortgage required to complete the purchase, i.e mostly out of Shani’s own capital)near the town centre, which has a separate wing at the front that will be used for the surgery.

Now Shani wants advice from you on the best business structure for her new practice. Her husband Lloyd will be employed as her receptionist/dental nurse, for which he is qualified. Shani wants to pay him a salary. There will be no other staff. Shani and Lloyd have three children. The oldest, Deb, from Lloyd’s previous marriage, is a budding young lawyer in Sydney, aged 25. Deb hopes to get married next year when COVID is over. Their other two children are Brad, aged 16, who has a part time job at the supermarket after school, and Kayla, aged 13, who is at school. Brad wants to be a poet when he finishes school.

Shani and Lloyd would like to help their children establish themselves in careers and life in the next few years, especially Deb and Brad, but Shani can’t tell yet how successful her new business will be. In her previous practice, one of the partners was found negligent for administering the wrong amount of anaesthetic, and after a fight with the insurers was lost, all partners had to contribute to the patient’s damages.

(a) Shani, while fairly confident she would never make a mistake in treating patients, still wants your advice on how she can protect her and her family’s home and assets from any such claims arising from the business, as well as providing for her family out of the business profits, and what sort of costs and liabilities might be involved in the possible business structure options so that she can compare them.

(b) Shani also wants to know what legal options there would be for involving Deb in having a key role in the business ownership structure later on, if anything happened to Shani.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a iShani being a sole proprietorher liability will be unlimited ie to the extent of her personal ass... View the full answer