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Show Js The Salt LakeTribune SUNDAYSunday, January 24, 1999 _ Unmarried cohabitants need to plan their assets carefully BY JAN WARNER KNIGHT RIDDER of our mates. Eachof our estates exceeds $750,000. What do we need to do? Q. My femalefriend and I— she is 63 and I am 68 — decided not to get married fora lot of reasons,but westill wantto be able to have each other handleourassets and affairs should the other becomeill andto leave eachotherassets in ourwills. Since we operate a small business togetheras a partnership, this is yet another problem we mustface. Eachof us has two grown children byourprior mar riages, which ended with the death A. Because unmarriedco-habi- er, it does meanthatsince you will not be able to take advantage ofthe marital deduction, your estates maygeneratetax liabili tants have many issues to consid- erandbecauseno one document cansolveyour problems, you should take a coordinated approachto the planningprocess, whichincludesnotonly planning for asset distribution, but also health care issues. Whilenot being married means that neitherofyou can be held responsiblefor the debts or health care obligations of the oth- t side, living trusts maybepart of the answer because, as part ofa coordinated plan, eachofyou may notonly reducethe potential ofchal. lenges byyourchildren, but also providean easiertransition upon the death or disability of oneof you. Since aliving trustis a revocable tru: uu can changeorterminate it at anytime while you arestill competent. Properly prepared and implemented, a living both life and death, leave youin charge of your wealthuntil you die, and avoidprobate. But before youdecide to use a revoca bleliving trust, however, make sureyou understandthelong. termeffects and what it will — andwon't — do for you and your partner. For example,there are no tax benefits, andyourestate will still include whateverassets maybe transferred into thetrust This meansthat, depending on the growthrate ofyourassets, each of you may want to begin a planninggifting program. Andif should notfind himself or herself left with unwanted art ners” or the busines eitherof youhas life insurance, annuities, or IRA's andother accounts containing qualified money, you should get appropri. ate adviceon beneficiary desig- unexpectedestatetaxes or as nations andt e Since youras business ownedand oper: you andyourpartne! continuation and su important issues to consider becausea remaining partner sold totry to cashto pay part ofadissolution. You will want to makesurethat you have in place a buy-sell agreement or other document through which eachofyou can beassuredof pre dictability uponthe deathor dis ability oftheother. (Jan Warner is a matrimonial. tax and elder-law attorney based in Columbia, S.C.) Ryan Galbraith/TheSalt Lake Tribune Ce eeee Leah Hogsten/TheSalt Lake Tribune Book wars: Small retailers vs. nationwide chains salers. The ABA is a nonprofit thenation’s largest book whole: saler. If the saleis approved, small booksellers say, they will beforced to buy books ‘om their largest competitor, Independent bookstores and the ABA have asked the Feder. ade Com. mission to void the proposed ally acclaimed womenwriters annually; sinceits demise, no otherstore has stepped forward to fill that void. “Within the next five yea the entire bookstore indus purchase. “That |aequisition] will in doom all Burton omekindof shake s TonyWeller, manag. Hler’s in downtown m Salt LakeCity Thequalities will have that make the independent stores so good — thesoft chairs and thecoffee bars — have been co-optedbythe chains. But those ofus who survivewill be better for it. The chains haveforced us to makea lot of improvements.” IHE KING'S ENGLISH Book. shop opened in 1977 the sameyear as Waking Owl ina , well-heeled neighborhood rold cat. percent a year until 1992, when Barnes & Noble opened a big co-owner Betsy Burton, thestore has lost mone “We re committed [to staying open), Burton, alightning: fast reader who zips through threeto four new books each week and is quick to recommend herfavorites. Thestore special izes in literary fiction, poetry mysteries and children’s books its best-sellers are not Tom Clan cy thrillers but highbrow novels like The English Patient, “We the booksthat we sell, We know our customers, their tastes,” overnight, says Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keat ing. Ingram would continue to e company, and we know Burton, like many smal! book store owners, believes she could compete with the chains if only theplaying field werelevel. In anti-trust lawsuit filed last h, the American Book Sellers Association and 26 book stores accused Barnes & Noble and Bordersof usingtheir clout to gainillegal discounts and oth er preferential treatment from publishers and book whole: 1 bookstores in Utah are hurt in 1990,is thelargest bookstore 20percentofthestore's business is local; it surviveson thetourists who flood the desert town between March and October. The and independent stores would store's strengths are Southwest be free to order books from other olesalers, she says. Barnes & Noble and Borders also deny bullying publishers or whole. salersinto illegal deals. ern guide books, a The bookstore chains are weary of being blamed for the English leveled off, ‘OTALL theindependent in southeastern Utah. Less than Tony Hillerman. mysteries and the works of envi ronmentalist Edward Abbey “Thave deep inventory in spe cialized sections like natural history or my Native section that even Barnes & Noble can't hold a candle to, sincethenational chains cameto cansell books cheaply, says Barbara Hoagland, co-ownerof The King’s English, “but it doesn’t matter ifit’s not zedbestsellers in favor theright book.” One customer visited Barnes & Noble's Sugar ‘ational or children’s house store five y Utah, Deseret Book has de “Ourcustomers have remained very loyal.” says Roger Toone, Deseret Book'svicepresi dent of retail, Deseret Book staffers sometimesrefercus: tomers to the national chain stores, he says. “We hold no ani mosity towards them. That's just the way business is.” Golden Braid Books has cor- nered theSalt Lake marketfor metaphysical books by such authors as Deepak Chopra. The storealso sells music, candles, cards and imported artwork; after13 yearsin its first location it moved in 1995 to largerdigs and opened an adjacent restau. rant. “The fact that w ized,” says co-owne! makes all the difference.” Inklings, a bookstorespecial izing in gay and lesbian titles, opened last March in Salt Lake ago and askedfor The Shipping News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Annie Proulx. The befuddled ed him to theperiodiction, “People can comein here and “My Aunt Harrietlikes such and such,’ says co-owner Burton, “andbeassured we'll recom mend something she'll like.” MALL BOOKSTORES and national chains both face a potentially devastating threat online booksellers. After record sales in 1997, Waking Owl's busi ness slumped precipitously last r Owner Patrick de Fr blames Amazon.com and the oth erInternet bookretailers. of his customers Many university professors and students who use computersdaily and feel com City. Thanks to word-of-mouth, fortable shopping on the Inter: business has quietly grown each net month, Salt Lake stores such as Experienced Books, Seallywag's and Ken Sanders Rare Books survive by selling mostly used volumes. Sam Weller’s, which opened in 1929 and remains Utah's oldest bookstore, devotes “People cango online at 11 o'clock at night in their under. wear and buy books,” says de Freitas. Theindustry leader, Amazon.com, sold four times as many items during the 1998holi season as the year before, tion, Colo,, phone book until and Rudyard Kipling; asigned ble.com, launched just 20 months ago, quadrupled its sales in 1998 and is nowthe third largest shop: advertised in the Grand June Barnes & Noble opened a store the e. In Logan, The Book Table has. many as 175,000 titles more than five timestheinventory at store specializes in Western lit The King’s English. These super erature such as Wallace Stegner; Books & Beyond in October 1997 in an 1870s brick Victorian. The stores, their spc one-third of its businessis spe attract people who might other: wise not set foot in a bookstore. Our customers are telling us they want a broader selection of titles, says iting. “And we carry everything that’s out there.” In many cities, cafes at Barnes & Noble and Borders stores have become gathering cial orders. In their eagerness to please, staffers even will deliver books to customers’ homes. You do whatever you can (to win customers), short of selling your first born,” says co-owner Jan Sloan. Perhapsas a result business has grown steadily ‘That [personal service] is where ourniche is at's the only thing that's going to keep usgoing Niche marketing is crucial to the smaller stores that survive in the shadowof the big chains. Deseret Book was concerned when Barnes & Noble opened it ing space to used books. There. signed books by Joseph Conrad first edition of Mark Twain's col lected works sells for $4,000. Ifyou like to go into any mall in the country and find the same stores, then obviously my store has nothing to offer you,” says Tony Weller. “We've lost the mainstream crowd, But the bib liophiles people who don't care what book was on Oprah are still coming here. One such customer is Michael Coulson, who makes special trips from his Alpine home to shop at Sam Weller’s. They have more technical publications here, You wouldn't be able to go into Barnes & Noble or Borders and find this sky atlas, for example,” he says, pointingto a book filled with charts of the constellations, “I get a lot of used books here, Peo: ple who aren't into books may not understand how many won: derful books are out of print Thisstore is hard to get to, with parking and all, But it's worth it In their fight against the first Utah store across a parking chains, Sam Weller’s lot from oneof its own. Bul with King's English emphasize per sonal § ervice and their staffers 16 stores in Utah, the Mormon and The new customers. Barnesandno- pingsite on the Internet. Shop: pers can choose from more than 600 onlinebooksellers offering every book inprint plus millions of used and rare titles. People buy books differently than they used to,” whichbegan as an independent store in 1971 in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Webelievethere's room for everyone.” As bookselling titans flex their muscles, publisherslike Bantam and Doubleday merge and Barnes & Nobleacquires Ingram’s, smaller merchants tremble at the growing cone: trationof power in the book industry.Profit-minded corporate they argue, will be lesslikelyto support controver- sial booksor books without obvi ous commercial appe: The big publishers. as time goes by, will be less likely to pub: lish first fiction that they can only sell 6,000or7,000 copies of, says de Freitas of Waking Owl Too Many Stores? attracting more than one million Way, two entrepreneurs opened It’s nice to be able to come in here and sit down. s Chris tian Barrett, leafing through book in an armehair at Borders in downtown Salt Lake City, “If1 had a choice I'¢ here ortoa ture, Thechains discerningcustomers will find with sheet music, art supplies and video rentals. And in Mid. and other groups who linger over exhaustive knowledgeoflitera: by dominating the growing mar: ket for LDS-themed books and related products. In theyears two-thirds of its creaking, sprawl Barnes & Noble and Borders believe they are expanding the marketplace for books, Barnes & Noble's biggest stores carry as coffee, Some Borders stores host mol » than 30 events each month. Chureh-owned chainhas thrived all over Utah; Knighton even enjoyed solid business since 1978 by supplementingits book sales places for students, book clubs Stuffed chairsin the store. says store manager Jose Knighton, Customersvisit from independents’ woes. Instead of wiping out their competitors, z= in recentye: Carving Niches ing special book orders tomers moreefficiently by fulfill wholesalers simply because they order more books, hesays storein a Sugarhouseshopping centerfive minutes away. Sales sit on thefloor and read forsix adime.” ing. Many of thosein small towns San Francisco attorney repre: senting the bookstore chain National retailers such as Bor ders get bigger discounts from grew about 20 fortableplace. Youcango in and beyond the Wasatch Front places the chains so far have ignored — aredoing fine. Back of Beyond, which opened in Moab publishers,” says RegSteer, Agatha, whosleepsin an arm and Borders for what they're doing,” says Gene Needham, owner ofThe Book Table in Logan. “They'rebringing better merchandising for people. Barnes & Noble is a very com Barnes & Noble, onthe oth erhand, expects the deal to go through. Buying Ingram would allow the chain to serve its cus: any preferential treatment from store with free coffee, well-read store owners grudgingly admire thebig chains’ retail savvy ‘T applaud Barnes & Noble wecould compete. “We don't think Borders gets crampedbutcozy cottag at TheKing’s independents,” says 1 > is no viable wa ay operate as a se David vs. Goliath d tion. And priceis a factor. Most of the timeI find stuffon sale.” Even some independent book- Barnes & Noble announced plans to buy Ingram Book Co., edreadings bydozens ofnation chair. Business storejust becauseof theselec. dent bookstores; Sam Weller's is oneof theplaintiffs in thesuit, which is scheduled for trial in fede again last November when @ Continued from J-1 Barnes & Noble over a smaller trade organizationfor indepen- ABOVE:Borders,in Crossroads Mall downtownSalt LakeCity, has an espresso baroverlooking Temple Square. LEFT: Bares & Noblein Sugar House wants customersto bide their timestrolling aroundthetwo-story bookstore or thumbingthrough a book while relaxing in one of many over- says Marcelyn Ritchie, who worked at Waking Owl Books for nine years before taking a job with the University of UtahPress. “People don't take the time to browse in a book The Random Houses will still churnout thecelebrity bios and the John Grisham novels, “but it's the subtle,chilling effect of what doesn't get published Whilesmall booksellers stock titles that reflect the specific tastes of their communities, one central office in New York orders inventory for all 505 Barnes & Noble stores, A Barnes & Noblestorein Orem, for exam ple, will carry the samebooks as a store in Orlando. I'd orderan unusual book and therep would tell me You'retheonly storein town who's ordered that,’ says Ritchie, the former manager at Waking Owl. “But they sold —so somebody wanted them.” Several Utah booksellers say they sense the beginnings of a consumer backlash against national chains, Customers are returning to Weller’s after months of crippling Main Street construction, and The King’s English enjoyed a bustling December It's the most encouraging month we've had in five years says co-owner Burton, “The tide is turning Of course, Meg Ryan in “You've Got Mail” thought so, too A few months later, she was out of business. store. They're on the Internet Despite the boom in book out lets, bookstore sales across the country remain sluggish, Com bined, Barnes & Noble and Bor. ders opened more than 100 stores in 1998, yet growth in national book sales lag behind overall iil sales, Some 1,700 independent be have gone under in the years, Many smaller bookstore relieve the chains have turated the market. The chains say they open new stores only after doing market research that shows a need for them. ‘We can co-exist with the independents Says poke wom. an Ann Binkley of Borders, Mr. and Mr: R.A, Partain { Sandy announcethe engawement of their daughter imberly Kathleen, to Michael T, MeNamara Jr the son of Lt,Col. (Ret. Mry. Michael T, McNamara Sr. of West Linn, OR. The weddiny will take Septern 0, |
