All Forum Posts by: Soh Tanaka

@Scott Smith The complication came from the fact that I overprotected my assets relative to the value, not necessarily the fault of series LLC itself. The same thing could've happened, had I created 5 regular LLCs. It's not the tax as I just have to give the information to my accountant (although it got certainly complicated, when I tried to do it myself - mistake.)

If you have 5 series with one property per series, that means 6 bank accounts (1 master + 5 series,) 6 checkbooks, 6 checking accounts, 5 savings accounts (if the master has no savings account,) and carry 6 debit cards. If you want credit card points, add 6 credit cards in your wallet. To avoid a bank fee, you need to maintain a certain amount in each account. Sometimes one account goes low, so you have to move money from one account to another the right way (which is more than just transferring money from one account to another) so that it won't be considered comingling.  

While there was a benefit, which is a clean bank account per property, as all the transaction of property ABC was in bank account ABC, the above hassle factors were bigger than the benefit, at least to me.

In general, as long as the assets are not huge, most of us, if not all, agree that putting one property per LLC (regular LLC or series LLC) is an overkill. A lot of us put at least a few properties under one LLC, knowing that one lawsuit could wipe out all the properties in it. At least to me, the goal of the asset protection is NOT to get the most robust protection I can get but to balance out the cost to establish/maintain, the likelihood of losing everything by getting sued and the hassle factor with the size of assets I'm trying to protect.

Done right, I'm sure there's a way to use trust + LLC (or series LLC) + LLC in another state to make the protection really strong, but I'm not at the point where I feel like that is necessary.

@Melanie Hartmann - Once in a while, the time comes that you just have to jump into the water, not really knowing everything in it. The worst that could happen is you'll get back to where you were before quitting (less some money.)

Try...

Security National Mortgage Company or

Ridge Lending Group

Generally speaking, if you are comparing "1 LLC and 5 properties in it" vs "1 series LLC and 5 series under it with one property per series," in theory, series sounds better. However, as mentioned in one of the replies, the better comparison may be "5 LLCs vs 1 series LLC with 5 series." From an asset protection view, in theory/technically, it should be a wash, as that is the reason why the series LLC was created. But then it becomes quickly complicated as you can tell from all the replies. The questions will be "What does it mean to establish a series LLC in State X while you live in AZ?" or"What is the size of the assets you are trying to protect here?" "How would it affect the cost of establishing it, maintaining it and preparing a tax return?" Etc.

Without saying, this is just my opinion and how I feel, and not necessary recommending or saying is the right thing to do or the right way to think, but for some reason, we like to talk about asset protection, yet we rarely hear about those who lost everything due to no or poor assets protection. It doesn't mean it hasn't happened, it doesn't mean that it's not necessary, and it doesn't mean that you won't need it. It just means that, to me, keep it simple, do it and just move on and get back to the business. We all run into a person/post from those with virtually no assets spending a lot of time wondering what kind of asset protection is the best for him/her. 

Currently, I have series LLC, but in the near future, I won't. All will be in one LLC. While some may argue that series is simpler, to me it was more complicated. As long as each property value is reasonable, I will pick 5 properties under one LLC any day over one series LLC with 5 different series (one series per property).

It's hard for my brain to really understand what it means to have a series LLC. For example, if you have a "Best Investor, Sereis LLC" with 3 series, how many bank accounts are you suppose to have? One for each series, a total of 3? Or 4, one for the "parent" and 3 for the series? If 4, what are you suppose to do with the parent bank account? Use it for an expense that applies to all the series, such as BiggerPockets membership fee? Or you can have 3 or 4? What is the relationship between the "parent" LLC and the series? What kind of transactions are allowed, if any, and how should it be recorded?

One thing for sure (to me), I made a bad decision making a series with one property per series when each property was not that expensive.  

Soh - Not an attorney

This has been discussed a lot here, but generally the smaller you are, the less protection you need. This is just an opinion, but you can start under your name, and once it gets bigger, you can put your assets in LLC or something else.

With virtually anything online, there's a risk. That said, I heard an interesting thing on BiggerPockets Money Podcast the other day, and that is it might be riskier NOT to have an account like Mint, as with Mint, you'll have a one-shot access to all the accounts, and you are more likely to check more often and catch suspicious activities, while if you have to go to multiple websites, you are less likely to check that often and may take longer to find out suspicious activities. 

The only issue I have with Mint is that not all the accounts get connected all the time. For different reasons, it gets disconnected, so some level of maintenance will be required.

Try Belk & Associates. I'm not sure if he has an experience with investors from oversees though.

Try Indiana Title Network Company. They do title work but also has an attorney.

Try Olson Property Services or Property Boss. Good luck!

I personally feel comfortable to those who are active at BiggerPockets. I worked with @Dave Foster in the past, and I had a good experience with him.