Posted by Bill K. (AZ) on May 15, 1999 at 18:52:38:
Greg,
I formed an LLC in my state of Arizona. It was quite easy. It stands for “limited liability company”.
Using an LLC to hold title to property shields your personal assets from lawsuits that derive from the LLC’s ownership of that property. However, in a judgment against you personally, the prevailing party MAY attach a lien against your interest in the LLC. I say “may” because the LLC can be set up in such a way that it would not benefit the creditor to do so. In fact, it may be a negative for them to do so.
One word of caution. If you are already in trouble personally, and you create an LLC to transfer personal assets into it, a court may set aside the transfer as being fraudulent. In other words, you can’t protect yourself AFTER the fact.
Bill Bronchick has an excellent course on forming a corporation or LLC entitled “How to Form Your Own Limited Liability Company or Family Limited Partnership”. It is available on this site, I highly recommend it, and I found it to be quite helpful.
Good luck.
Bill K. (AZ)