You may want privacy of your ownership interest in your business. This could be for a number of different reasons, including avoiding baseless lawsuits. Perhaps someone you know that owns a business got sued last month and you believe you can avoid the same fate if people can’t find what you own. There are a number of Internet incorporation services touting certain privacy benefits, such as asset protection, by organizing your business under the laws of a certain state. Nevada and Wyoming (and even New Mexico and a few others) are usually the states being sold as “privacy and asset protection havens.” These states do not require the disclosure of the identities of the shareholders of a corporation, or members of a manager-managed LLC in the required corporate filings (public records). Usually, these “privacy” states only require that the directors (sometimes only 1) and officers of the corporation, or the managers of the LLC, be disclosed on the Articles of Incorporation (or Articles of Organization) and all annual reports.
But, there are a ton of myths out there regarding privacy and asset protection. Many new entrepreneurs get lured into believing what often amounts to false hype. I will try to dispel a few of these myths. The bottom line is that privacy does not protect your assets by itself, it is only beneficial. The single greatest benefit of a state’s privacy protections is that it can help prevent frivolous litigation. Preventing the average Joe from finding out what companies you may own by searching public records is a good thing. This can save a lot of baseless claims. If it takes longer for someone to figure out who the owners are, that is obviously beneficial. The plaintiff will have to spend more money and most lawsuits are a simple game of pure economics. So, privacy can sometimes make it very expensive for a potential plaintiff to find your assets.
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