“Wherever you form this club, hire an accountant, and a lawyer.Make your club an LLC, and if you ever have an event, then make sure you get insurance for the day.It might cost anywhere from five hundred to one thousand dollars for coverage for one day, but get the million dollar coverage.You’ll be covering your own ass on this.It’s practical.I’m not a lawyer, but you’re going to want to cover your ass on this.”
“Why?”Someone asked and when Aimee turned to him with a raised brow, he nodded.“Bulldog, Ma’am.”
“Well, Bulldog, think of it like this, say you have an event at your clubhouse.You’re not an LLC, nor do you have any insurance for the event.What’s your club name going to be?”
“Tainted Shield,” six men answered.
“Okay, say Tainted Shield has a pig roast at your clubhouse, say this clubhouse is someone’s private barn, on private property.If someone attending gets drunk, falls down, and breaks a leg, they can sue not only every single member of the club, but they can also sue the homeowner.Being an LLC, they can only go after the club, not each individual member, and the insurance is a payout for things like this.I don’t know how you’ll be policing your events, nor do I care, but from a professional accountants point of view, that’s what I would recommend.”
“Do it,” Hogan said.“She came to us for that very reason.At first we scoffed at her, then decided to give in.Two years later, there was a royal asshole at one of our events that had been cut off by the beer tent.We didn’t know he had coolers in his truck and would go out and stuff several cans of beer in his pockets and walk around with them.Anyway, at one point, he attempted to get on someone’s bike and drive off with it.The owner quickly removed him.During the fight, this asshole’s nose was broken.Weeks later, he tried to sue us, the Outcasts, me personally, the owner of the bike, and every club member.We had security camera’s already installed in strategic places, and we were able to prove in a court of law that he was in the wrong.It clearly showed where he was cut off, it showed him going to his truck and stuffing his pockets from his cooler.He has six of them full of beer.Then it clearly showed him trying to steal the bike and the fight where he pulled a knife on the owner.It was a clear case of self-defense, he lost.If we hadn’t had the camera’s installed, nor the insurance, or becoming an LLC, the judge told us that he could have taken every club member for hundreds of thousands of dollars, each.We covered our asses against stuff like that.”
“You’re saying the insurance is only for one day?”Bulldog asked.
“You can have homeowners insurance on your home, but for any event, it’s called event insurance, and it’s under a different policy that won’t touch your homeowners insurance.”Aimee clarified.“Again, I don’t know where you’ll be setting up shop, but when you start to get established, shop around like you would for any insurance, and see if they do special event insurance.You might have to have a different agency for both.”
“What do you recommend?”Paul looked at Aimee with his question.
“Keeping the agencies separate.This way, there won’t be any miscommunication between the policies.One company will have your homeowner’s insurance, a totally different company will have your event insurance.If one of them messes up, they can’t blame it on you not specifying which policy was for which thing.”
“Understood.”He pulled out a small notebook and started taking notes.“Anything else I should need to know?”
“Like I said, hire an accountant, or at least have a good one on call.If you go LLC, you’re going to want to keep that completely separate from your personal finances.”
“What about our paychecks?I’m Snake.”
“What about them?”
“Even though we’re branching out on our own, we’re still employed by the ATF and DEA.We still get government checks deposited into our personal accounts every two weeks.We still work for them, even though we are doing things our way for now.”
“Will you have a cover?”Hank Wittmore asked.
“Yes, I’m thinking of opening a motorcycle shop.”He looked over at Suzie with a sad expression.“After you found me in the hospital, and I was released, then I disappeared for six months, I traveled the country.”
“You said you had done that.You checked in with me every day, so I wasn’t worried.”
“Okay, thank you for that.But I found a plot of land.I won’t give you the location, but let’s just say that its two hundred acres of farmland.It has a large house, I believe five bedrooms, and four or five bathrooms.The basement is also complete and can pass for an in-law suite with a separate entrance, and its own kitchen, living space, and bathroom, separate from the above house.It also has several outbuildings.I was thinking of cleaning one of them out to open a motorcycle repair shop, and as these guys start to arrive, we can have the shop.This will give us all a chance to talk freely about what we plan to do without looking suspicious that we’re always at my home.”
He shook his head sadly.“When I bought the place, it was a little rundown, and the town was booming with a factory.Within the last year, the factory shut down, and the family I rented the farm to had to move.Not because I kicked them out, but because they were able to find better jobs in a different state.I’ll be taking possession of my own property to get Tainted Shield off the ground.”
“Will the men be living with you?”
“Only until they can find their own place.Secretly, the ATF and DEA are buying up all the foreclosed homes in the town.They now own them.The guys will stay with me until they can choose the home they want.Eventually, the ownership of the homes will revert to the agents, quietly.No one will need to know how it gets done, but it will be done legally.”
“Okay, that’s between you and your bosses, but I would recommend that you get heavy insurance on the shop.Yes, it’s on your property, but because it’s a business, you can get a separate policy than your homeowners.Have it covered under the umbrella policy of your homeowners insurance, but then get another policy just on the shop and the contents pertaining to the business.”
Rankin nodded as he took notes again, then looked up with a sigh.“Never thought this would be so complicated.”
“If you want it done right, then it’s best to start out correctly from the beginning.”
“So, Mr.Rankin,” Jorja spoke then.“Will you teach me how to fight using that chain?”
“NO!”her family yelled.She crossed her arms, huffed and glared at her father.
“Fine, then can you tell me what videos to watch so I can learn myself.”
Rankin looked directly at Aimee, and when she smirked at him and gave him a nod, he said one word, “Nun-chucks.”
“Thank you.”
