LLCs and Partnerships

Our objective is effectiveness. Our strategy is being thorough.

Wealth management, meaning the protection of family wealth and the transfer of family wealth from one generation to the next, is the main idea behind any good and comprehensive estate plan. Limited Liability Companies and Limited Partnerships can be important components of many estate plans as they provide a vehicle in which to protect family assets from outside creditors, to gift family assets to children and grandchildren, and to effectively manage family assets.

At Smith and Condeni, we can look at your personal situation and assets and determine whether a limited liability company or a limited partnership would be a valuable component of your estate and wealth management plan. If so, we will explain to you the benefits of establishing such an entity and how such an entity is started and maintained. We schedule an annual meeting for our clients who have Limited Liability Companies or Limited Partnerships to review the business entity, its management and its effectiveness.

Limited Liability Companies and Limited Partnerships are unique in that they are fairly simple to run and maintain and offer a wide variety of benefits, such as:

• Control over management succession in that the written agreement governing the entity can name or set up a procedure to name future family members who will be in control of the company or partnership;
• Maximization of investment return of family assets by consolidating family assets in one entity to allow more sophisticated and cost-effective investment strategies;
• Effective asset protection planning can be obtained through a properly structured Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership to make it difficult for creditors of members or partners to reach the underlying assets held in the company or partnership;
• Keeping assets in the family as the written agreement will restrict who a partner or member can gift his or her interest to and will give the members or partners a right of first refusal if a member or partner wants to sell to a third party; and
• Providing a potentially significant tax advantage with the potential to apply a valuation discount to lifetime gifts of interests in a Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership made from one generation to the next and to such an interest held at death.

Limited Liability Companies do offer better asset protection planning over a Limited Partnership, so at Smith and Condeni we do conversions of existing Limited Partnerships to a Limited Liability Company. Also, if asset protection is a major goal, we can also set up your Limited Liability Company in Delaware.

If you have questions regarding setting up a Limited Liability Company or a Limited Partnership or about an existing Limited Liability Company or Limited Partnership of which you are a member or partner, please contact one of the attorneys who are linked to this area as a specialist in this area of practice.

Practice Area Attorneys

Jennifer B. Cusimano, Stephanie M. Glavinos
 

Please contact Smith and Condeni for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.