Part 5 - Loans and Stocks
For years, Nancy had told Peter about the gigantic loan she had made to the company. Nancy had received loan payments of varying amounts inconsistently over the years. The practice continued while I was employed there.
Prior to our wedding, Nancy sat down with us and told us that according to the law and IRS codes, the company must pay her back a certain percentage of the loan each year. The minimum amount she had to be paid each month worked out to a few thousand dollars. Incidentally, there is no law that requires a repayment to the owner of a company in that situation, but we did not question her or even think to question her at that time.
For reasons still unknown to me, she requested that a check be cut on the company account for the repayment amount. I was to cut a check, stamp it with her signature stamp and either give it to her or deposit it in her personal checking account. I could not figure out why she didn’t just call the bank and have them transfer funds. She had always taken care of paying herself that way prior to this point.
Things seemed to be changing and we were not sure why. Peter had always received stock in the company for his birthday. Nancy would give him an amount that she said was worth $10,000. After we began dating, she stopped giving him any stock and before the wedding she asked us to specify in our wills that all of the company stock would revert to her in the event of Peter’s death. She said that Peter had already signed some sort of agreement prior to meeting me that all company stock could only be transferred back to Nancy in the event of his death.
I really could not believe that this was a topic she would bring up but I assured her that I did not want the company stock. It was probably a really stupid thing to say, but I just wanted peace before our wedding. What if we had children and I had just written off their rights to their father’s assets? But I was 25 and in love and in the last stages of wedding planning, I just didn’t want to think about all of the terrible things that might happen in the future.