Being invisible

[Chris Martin]

From another BP post I saw this comment:

"No matter if you have your proprieties in a LLC, CORP it is not hard to find out who the owner of the LLC, CORP is. I am no expert but doing normal business hours it would only take me about 2 hours to know who the owner is. Your best bet is a good insurance policy."

I didn't want to further hijack the thread, hence this new topic.

In many cases, I think this statement is correct. But if someone did not want their ownership interest discovered, and went to 'reasonable' means to conceal that ownership interest, I think it is difficult to (using legal methods) find the owner.

Using conventional means, the secretary of state filings are the obvious first choice for where to find owners. LLCs are required to file Organizational documents and annual reports with the state. Some people file themselves. Some use a service. Incorp Services, Inc., acting as organizer and registered agent, has registered and maintains well over 1900 companies in NC. So as registered agents, these are Businesses that Incorp Services, Inc. represents.

In several dozen random views of filings for companies represented by Incorp, several "foreign" (meaning out of state) LLC formations do not list officers. And upon viewing many of the Principal Offices, there are a reasonable number that match UPS Store addresses or other addresses that don't uniquely identify an establishment. A Google search on some of these yielded more information and some led me to web sites where it appeared like I could find a phone contact or other "identification" as to who the owner might be. Others... not so much.

But the premise is 'in 2 hours can you find the owner?'

I'd say 'no' for someone hell-bent on being invisible.

Two parts to the question: 'Do you want to be known as owner of your company?' and 'Can you (without court order or someone using illegal methods) be invisible?'

[Will Barnard]

Being from CA and all our liberal laws, someone can be used for looking at you the wrong way. There comes a price with privacy and public exposure. I have taken the public exposure route and anyone can find me very easily. I use entities, operate in a responsible and legal manner, and carry insurance as protection. The downside of exposure is the opportunity it creates for people to sue regardless if it is frivolous or not. The upside is that it generates contacts, service providers, friends, partners, private money lenders, etc.

I will take the bad with the good in being public. As far as being a borrowe, my public figure and rep provides the lender will a more comfortable feeling I that I am fully and publicly transparent. Someone in another thread yesterday mentioned how building a good reputation takes years and can be destroyed in minutes by messing up, that is so very true.