How to Use Limited Liability Companies & Limited Partnerships

by Garrett Sutton, Cindie Geddes (Editor)

Designed for entrepreneurs and individuals interested in starting their own business, this book provides an indepth study of how the special characteristics of limited partnerships and limited liability companies may be used to your advantage and to assist you in protecting assets, managing wealth and strategic estate planning to minimize taxes. It features strategic uses of limited liability companies and limited partnerships to hold real estate and other assets, how to easily manage and operate a limited liability company or limited partnership, how to creatively plan for your future and your family's future, and how to follow the rules to keep your assets protected.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Finance, Self Help

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2001

About the author

Garrett Sutton, Esq. is a Rich Dad Advisor, a nationally acclaimed corporate attorney and asset protection expert.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Hastings College of the Law, the University of California’s law school in San Francisco, Garrett has written a number of books guiding entrepreneurs and investors. Garrett’s best sellers include: Start Your Own Corporation, Loopholes of Real Estate, Writing Winning Business Plans and Run Your Own Corporation in Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Advisor series. Garrett is also the author of How to Use Limited Liability Companies & Limited Partnerships and the co-author of Finance Your Own Business.

Garrett is the founder of Corporate Direct and Sutton Law Center, which since 1988 have provided affordable asset protection and corporate formation and maintenance services for investors around the world.

His articles and quotes have been published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CBS.com, Time.com and Credit.com. More information is found at CorporateDirect.com and Sutlaw.com. Garrett serves on the boards of the Birmingham, Alabama-based American Baseball Foundation and the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Nevada. He is married with three children and lives in Reno, Nevada.

Reviews

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of useful info that I will have to come back to in the future.

[Mark Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a good book in comparing the LP with the LLC. I personally was focused on the LP side of things and I appreciate the "corporate minutes" examples he provided for each.

Sutton dives deep on preventing the "piercing of the corporate veil" with each entity throughout the book, and throws in some brief history here in there as to where the laws for these entities began. I wish there was a bit more history, but that is just me.

Since I am a California resident, I also appreciate how Sutton lays foundations on the weak asset protection laws in California. For example, the charging order is NOT the exclusive remedy for creditor attacks in California, like it is for Nevada and Wyoming.

I like how he (Sutton) explained the difference between "Inside" and "Outside" attacks, and how the Charging Order only applies to an "Outside" attack since the injured party does not have a contract, or privity, with the LP or LLC it would sue. An "Outside" attack is where you are sued by someone because, for example, you injure them in a car collision.

And my final take-aways was Sutton's explanation of holding your PRIMARY residence in a LLC where you can perform equity stripping for further asset protection. All-in-all a great book!

[Tim Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be both very informative and somewhat tedious. Like many business start-up books, it offers solid advise, some good case studies, and some tedium on taxes, etc. The case studies were informative and helped the tedious parts go down better. Also like many business start-up books, it assumes one has a good deal of money to start the business. Many people like myself, are starting on a shoestring, have not family money, no inheritance, no property gathered up, no investors, but simply want to protect what we may have through the tools of LLC or LP. So, even for us, not-so-silver-spoon crowd, the book is useful. The forms and comparisons between Nevada, Wyoming, and Delaware LLC vs California and other more grabby states is very helpful.

[Marvin Boswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about small business corporate entities but want to start learning about them. This book was very understandable. It is not necessarily geared to be an overview of the topic, but I thought it did a very good job of giving me a lot of information I did not have before. There are sections of the book that I will probably want to come back to in the future. Not an exciting read but from my very novice standpoint it was a very good read.
Glad I read it and would do so again in order to get some basic knowledge of what and why to organize as a business in a LLC or partnership or corporation.

[Ervin Susanto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very useful for understanding the differences (pros and cons) between various company structures (corporation, LLC, LP etc). The explanation by the author is very simple and easy to understand without going into all the legal jargons and he provided good examples to illustrate his points. Also he re-emphasised his points throughout the chapters to ensure the readers absorb them. Definitely a very good one for those in corporate or starting your business. I really like his writing style.

[J Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be an excellent summary of how LLCs work, potential tax consequences, potential roles of entities in estate planning and tax management. There were a few references to the author’s professional services, but only after descriptions of the type of service that could be requested from other attorneys.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the read for sure.

Pretty good book about different use cases for different business entities. I think this is definitely worth the read for anyone looking to start a business and to understand the type of tools at their disposal.

[Vikram X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garret did quite a good job - There quite a lot of information and scenarios crammed in this .Its a good introduction into corporate taxation and at least put you in a position where you can sit across the table and get the conversation started with a CPA .

[Josue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of those books you need to keep in your bookshelf for reference. Highly recommend this for every new business owner looking to protect their personal assets and getting the most out of their business entity.

[Pinaki Saha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly insightful and strongly recommend

A very informative book to learn about entities and how they provide benefits if chosen right. Garrett Sutton has done an amazing job in explaining to a non-legal reader with utmost simplicity and clarity.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful book for asset protection and estate planning

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you own or plan on owning an LLC or LP this book should be required reading. Plenty of examples of each topic he discusses in the book make even more difficult topics easier to understand.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book but felt like a step-by-step guide for setting up each entity would have been useful for the first few chapters.

[Brent Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

In short is a key book on the subject and very valuable!
Excellent book that entrepreneurs and investors should not stop reading to increase our chances of financial success.
It contains specialized information on asset protection strategies for both individuals and business owners, and this edition is up to date with the new tax laws and obligations. I did not read any of the previous editions and can not make a comparison. What I can say is that the many examples of different situations make the strategies more understandable and affordable.
One part that I found very valuable is the comparative between the different entities, their strengths and weaknesses, the taxes that each pay. But what I liked the most are the strategies for Family Limited Partnerships.
The writing style is straightforward, being such a large and complex issue, Garret Sutton manages to organize and communicate everything so accessible. It is not easy to find books like this that gather and integrate information from a broad picture into specific situations. In short, it is a key book on the subject and very valuable.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

[John]

Review available on Pacific Book Review.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great way to understand many potential pitfalls of diving into an LLC. It does come down to due diligence and long term goals. I enjoyed the perspective.