I was looking for a little help. Im a retired firefighter and want to protect my pension and other assets from any legal issues and what works better protecting my personal assets a LLC or INC.
Ed, ask your attorney and accountant. You’ll get more & better answers. We have a legal system not a justice system.
Move to Florida where your personal property is all protected.
Which Assets Are Protected?
The most important and well-known Florida protection is the homestead exemption of real property.
Florida Statutes also exempt many types of financial assets from creditor execution. Florida protects property owned jointly by a husband and wife from the creditors of either spouse. Limited partnerships and limited liability companies are used for asset protection of businesses or investment assets.
Additionally, some types of financial accounts and some properly-drafted estate planning trusts protect the beneficiaries’ interest and inheritance from their creditors.
100% Sad isn’t it.
My accountant and lawyer tell me “S” corp for the same question and for tax purposes but could be different in your state and I have had others say LLC.
You can choose most any business structure that fits your goals. These different business structures have different operation methods, protections, & forms of taxation.
LLC can be very practical for 1 man or small operations as it allows much of the simplicity of a sole proprietor with the ability to elect S Corp status for taxation purposes.
Different states have different rules, fees, and taxation to take into account when choosing a business structure.
An LLC in and of itself will not protect your personal assets in the event of suit or liability.
For the “Limited Liability” portion to hold up in court & protect your personal assets, you must show distinct seperation of your business & your personal life. This is difficult for many people as they pay for personal things from their company accounts or claim personal expenses as business deductions to cheat/manipulate the tax system, etc.
- Talk to an appropriate attorney about how you intend to work (1 man or run a multi inspector company) and the best business structure options to protect your personal assets.
- Talk to an accountant about which of those options from the attorney offer you the best advantage in regards to accounting & taxation.
I’m an accountant and do the LLC. the commingling of personal and business assets referred to by the other gentleman above is as true with an LLC as with a corporation. Llc is much simpler to administer, costs you a whole lot less to maintain. Get good insurance, that’s more important than the entity’s structure.
In Florida your protected, just ask this guy.
By 1999, Simpson had also availed himself of Florida’s strong homestead protection laws. Under Florida law at the time, any domiciled resident of Florida could take advantage of an unlimited homestead exemption. That simply meant Simpson’s home could not be touched by the Brown or Goldman families, though following the collapse of WorldCom (and the fact that many WorldCom execs had used their fraudulently obtained funds to build huge Florida mansions), the Florida legislature carved out some “securities fraud” exceptions to the homestead exemption.
Additionally, in 2005 Congress altered the application of state homestead exemptions within the context of bankruptcy proceedings.
Just In, you can ask this guy too…
Funny, how stuff like that (OJ, Trump) dovetails…