Sjoberg & Tebelius, P.A.

06/16/2026

We take pride in the work we do. We strive to make every experience with our team exceptional.
If you’d like to share your legal experience in working with our firm, we’d love to hear from you. https://reviewplatform.findlaw.app/pages/review-request/6648764a5172210001479385

06/15/2026

Minnesota employers: when an employee resigns abruptly, the instinct is often to cut access immediately and move on. But how you handle the final days of an employee's departure carries real legal exposure.

Wage and hour laws require final paychecks to be delivered on time regardless of how the separation happened. Withholding pay to recover unreturned equipment or recoup a training cost is generally not permitted under Minnesota law. And if the employee later claims constructive discharge or retaliation, the details of how you handled the offboarding become part of the record.

A written separation checklist and a clear final pay policy are straightforward protections that most businesses overlook until they need them.

For guidance on employment separation procedures, contact Attorney Anne Brown at [email protected].

06/11/2026

Your will says one thing. Your beneficiary designations may say something else entirely, and under Minnesota law, the designations win.

A beneficiary designation on a retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account takes legal precedence over whatever your will says. That means an outdated designation from a previous marriage, a changed relationship, or simply a form that was never updated can send assets to the wrong person regardless of your current intentions. Reviewing beneficiary designations regularly, and any time your family situation changes, is one of the most important and most overlooked steps in keeping an estate plan current.

For guidance on reviewing and updating your estate plan, contact Managing Partner Mark Tebelius at [email protected].

Estate and business planning, family law, employment law and personal injury law firm proudly servin

06/10/2026

We take pride in the work we do. We strive to make every experience with our team exceptional.
If you’d like to share your legal experience in working with our firm, we’d love to hear from you: https://reviewplatform.findlaw.app/pages/review-request/6648764a5172210001479385

06/08/2026

Minnesota's estate tax exemption sits at $3,000,000 in 2026. The federal exemption is $15,000,000. For many Minnesota families, that difference is the entire planning problem.

Estates that fall between those two thresholds owe Minnesota estate tax while owing nothing at the federal level. The state's cliff effect means that crossing the threshold without the right plan in place can result in a significantly larger tax bill than necessary. Strategies exist to reduce that exposure, but they take time to implement correctly and are far less effective when set up at the last minute. If your estate has grown in recent years or you have not reviewed your plan since the federal exemption changed, now is the right time to take a closer look.

For guidance on estate tax planning, contact Managing Partner Mark Tebelius at [email protected]

Read the full article: https://www.stlawfirm.com/blog/2026/02/minnesotas-2026-estate-tax-outlook-what-high-net-worth-families-need-to-know/

Estate and business planning, family law, employment law and personal injury law firm proudly servin

06/04/2026

Minnesota employers using AI to screen job applicants face real legal exposure if the tools are not carefully reviewed.

AI hiring tools can inadvertently filter out candidates based on race, disability, age, or other protected characteristics, sometimes in ways that are difficult to detect without a close look at outcomes. Under both state and federal anti-discrimination laws, a discriminatory result creates liability regardless of whether the discrimination was intentional. Auditing your screening process, understanding how the tools you use make decisions, and reviewing your hiring practices with an employment attorney are practical steps that can reduce your exposure before a problem surfaces.

For guidance on building a compliant hiring process, contact Attorney Anne Brown at [email protected].

06/01/2026

Most business partnerships start with shared goals and good intentions. What they often lack is a clear answer to the harder questions: What happens if one partner wants out? How are major decisions made when partners disagree? How is the business valued if someone needs to be bought out?

Minnesota's default partnership rules will fill those gaps if your agreement does not address them, and those defaults may not reflect what you or your partners had in mind when you started. A well-drafted partnership agreement covers contributions, profit distribution, decision-making authority, and a clear exit process from the beginning, before disagreements make the conversation harder.

For guidance on drafting a partnership agreement, contact Managing Partner Mark Tebelius at [email protected]

Estate and business planning, family law, employment law and personal injury law firm proudly servin

05/28/2026

Planning a merger or acquisition in Minnesota involves more than agreeing on price. Depending on the size of the deal and the industry involved, regulatory approval may be required before you can close.

At the federal level, deals valued at $133.9 million or more generally require a pre-merger filing under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. At the state level, Minnesota's Attorney General can review transactions that may affect local residents, and healthcare organizations with $40 million or more in annual revenue face a 90-day notice requirement before closing. Banking and energy transactions carry their own separate approval processes with independent timelines. Each layer of review adds time, and some reviews come with conditions attached, such as divesting part of the business or agreeing to temporary pricing limits.

Knowing which approvals apply to your deal before you start the process is one of the most effective ways to protect your timeline and avoid delays at closing.

Read the full article: https://www.stlawfirm.com/blog/2026/04/when-is-regulatory-approval-required-in-minnesota-ma-deals/

05/26/2026

Trust or will? Most people think it is one or the other. In Minnesota, that assumption can leave real gaps in your estate plan.

A revocable living trust only controls the assets you actually transfer into it. Any account or property that remains in your name, whether left out intentionally or simply overlooked, cannot be distributed by your trustee. It becomes part of your probate estate instead. A pour-over will serves as the safety net, capturing anything that did not make it into the trust and directing it there. Without one, Minnesota's intestacy laws fill in the blanks. And for parents of minor children, a will is the only document that allows you to name a guardian, something a trust cannot do.

Read the full article: https://www.stlawfirm.com/blog/2026/03/do-you-still-need-a-will-if-you-have-a-trust-in-minnesota/