John,
Can you help me out with some info?
I own 2 properties (3 units) in my name that I manage. I would like to set up an LLC, which I’ve looked into and think I’ll do myself (looks like it should take 15 minutes and be pretty easy). Additionally, I would like to put my own home and both other properties into seperate land trusts with the LLC being the beneficiary. I am also about to turn management duties over to a management company so I can concentrate on accumulating properties quickly.
My questions are:
- Is this what I should be doing for maximum asset protection?
- What affect will the LLC have on the difficulty of doing my taxes
- Will the land trusts really make it difficult to track my assets? If motivated, wouldn’t a lawyer simply make my management company turn over my info to them?
- Question 4 is where I start pushing the free advice too far: Am I missing anything that would make it a mistake for me to do the LLC myself? I plan on using a generic statement for purpose such as “The purpose for which the LLC is formed is to engage in any lawful activity for which a limited liability company may be formed under the laws of the state of Ohio.” and skip entirely a single-member operating agreement. If by doing this I will end up far more likely to have the corporate veil pierced, I will check into having you do the LLC also, but I’m trying to minimize initial investment, and saving a grand or so on this would be nice.
Thanks in advance for the help! We spoke via email a while back about the differences b/n your KISS Guide to Bookkeeping and a couple of the other systems people had spoken of on these forums.
Thanks again,
Steve Reutzel