Posted by Rich[FL] on August 10, 2005 at 11:45:08:
FL has one of the better homestead protection laws in the nation. You don’t want to necessarily give that up by transferring your homesteaded property to another entity. It is possible to transfer property to a living trust, but that’s generally only necessary if you have enough other assets to make setting up an estate worth while.
Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs) are still being espoused as being the “in” thing to set up for ultimate family liability protection (in conjunction with trusts.) However, the drawback is that in the partnership, there must be a general partner who will be 100% liable. There is one person I’m aware of who is now suggesting using a Family Limited Liability Company (FLLC) which doesn’t have the limitation of the FLP. Another advantage of the FLP is that the limited partnership law has been around for eons and has good basis and track record in various legal opinions and is well knonw. The LLC is rather new and many people are still skeptical of its ultimate ability to protect as well as the LPs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the LLC won’t work as well or better than the LP. You need to seek out COMPETENT and KNOWLEDGABLE legal advice before pressing ahead in this area.
Hope this helps.
Rich