It's also a mistake to consider the expense of maintenance of an LLC as a deterrent to this protection or to believe insurance is all that is required.  

They potentially could also do it for asset protection or credit purposes.

Asset protection from dissuading an on looker from filing a suit then yes but wouldnt that be indrect asset protection or "optics," only?  

As a long term, buy and hold investor, should I hold title to the property in an LLC to increase asset protection or is having an umbrella insurance policy enough?

Is it just personal and asset protection or is there more?

So does using the LLC but signing with my name add any real level of security/liability protection - or would the LLC most likely be pierced in the event of a lawsuit?

Here's a question for those people with LLCs - do you recommend creating a LLC for EACH property for protection or is it just better (or easier) to create one LLC and group all of your properties under?

If we choose to proceed with the purchase what kind of protection or hold harmless do we need to put in place to make sure we are not liable for any tenant recourse.  3.  

You can buy and sell without doing this, and you can defend against suits, but you would not be able to bring its claims - and an eviction is a law suit.Trusts offer no protection or limit on liabiity, merely makes it harder to determine who the real owners in interest are. 

I am not doing this for asset protection or any other reason - just as a way to demonstrate that I manage properties in addition to our own and to count those hours of activity.