Establishing an LLC

[Account Closed]

I am a newbie investor and I am preparing to set up my LLC. Is it okay to use someone like LegalZoom to set up my LLC, or should I go to a local attorney. I did not know what the advantages/disadvantages of each would be.

Thanks.

[Jon Holdman]

You need to create the LLC in the state with the properties.

Creating the LLC is trivial and you might as well do this yourself on the state's secretary of state web site. An attorney is going to charge you for having one of their paralegals do exactly the same steps.

Where an attorney is needed is in really defining your asset protection strategy. There's much more to that than just creating LLCs. This is where you, amongst other things, create the operating agreement for the LLC.

Realize than at asset protection strategy assume you have assets to protect. No need to have a complex, expensive-to-create strategy if you have no assets.

Taxes are a different topic and that's where the CPA comes into play. LLCs are generally pass through entities that have no effect at all on taxes. Other options are possible, but the real key is to understand the tax consequences of what you're actually doing and do what you can to minimize taxes. That depends on what you're trying to do and your current personal financal situation.

New investors sometimes get bogged down in tasks like this. Spend your time and energy on doing deals.