Accountants and wealth advisors see problems before lawyers do. You are in the records every quarter. You see the aging receivable, the missed filing, the entity that never quite got cleaned up, the transfer that happened without documentation. By the time the matter reaches a litigator, the window to fix it cheaply has usually closed.
This is written for the professionals who sit closest to those records. None of the items below requires you to give legal advice. Each is a pattern that warrants a call.
- A Nonprofit Client That Has Missed Two Annual Filings
Under section 6033(j) of the Internal Revenue Code, an exempt organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years loses its exemption automatically. The revocation happens by operation of law rather than by IRS determination, it takes effect on the original due date of the third missed return, and there is no appeal. Reinstatement requires a new application for exemption.
The second consecutive miss is the moment to raise it. After the third, the conversation is about reinstatement and retroactivity rather than prevention.
- A Florida Nonprofit Whose Bylaws Predate July 2026
Chapter 617 of the Florida Statutes was comprehensively revised effective July 1, 2026 and renamed the Florida Nonprofit Corporation Act. Section 617.0206 permits bylaws to contain any provision not inconsistent with law. When the statute moves and the bylaws do not, previously valid provisions can become inconsistent while the document sits untouched in a binder.
If you prepare Form 990 for a Florida organization, its governance answers are being given under a statute that was rewritten this summer.
- An Entity That Exists Only on the Return
Administrative dissolution is quiet. The Department of State may administratively dissolve a corporation for failing to file its annual report, for lacking a registered agent or registered office, or for failing to update that information. The corporation receives notice and a period to correct the problem, and organizations that are not watching the registered agent’s mail routinely miss it.
If you are filing returns for an entity whose registered agent is a former officer, a resigned professional, or an address nobody checks, the entity’s status is worth confirming before the next filing.
- A Construction Receivable Aging Past Ninety Days
For contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers, an aging receivable is not merely a collection problem. It is a clock. Florida construction lien and payment bond rights are conditioned on notices and deadlines that are measured from the first and last dates of furnishing labor or materials, and they are unforgiving. On public projects there is no lien on the property at all, and the remedy is a claim against the contractor’s payment bond under its own notice regime.
When a construction client’s receivable crosses ninety days, the question is not only whether it will be collected. It is whether the security for collecting it still exists.
- Assets Held in a Single-Member LLC
Clients frequently hold real estate or investment accounts in a single-member LLC on the assumption that a personal judgment cannot reach inside the entity. For multi-member companies that assumption is close to correct. For single-member companies Florida law is materially different, and the protection many clients believe they purchased may not be there.
This one surfaces in your work whenever a client consolidates holdings, buys out a partner, or restructures for tax reasons and drops from two members to one. The tax result may be clean. The creditor exposure may have changed.
- A Significant Agreement That Nobody Can Produce
If a client describes a material arrangement and cannot produce a signed document, treat that as a finding. Certain categories of agreement are unenforceable in Florida unless they are in a signed writing. Beyond the enforceability question, an undocumented arrangement between business partners is the single most common origin of the disputes that later consume years and six figures.
Why This Matters to Your Practice
None of these calls needs to become a litigation matter, and most do not. The value to you is in the timing. A problem identified at the second missed filing, the ninetieth day, or the moment of restructuring is a problem solved for a fraction of what it costs after it hardens.
Haft Law Group works with accountants and advisors across Florida on business, real estate, and nonprofit matters for their clients. If something in a client’s records is prompting a second look, contact the firm.