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are you thinking about setting up an llc but aren't sure whether to choose manager managed or member managed for your management style well stay tuned because in today's video we're gonna break it all down for you everything you need to know to make the right choice for your llc let's do this hey there my name is jim hart i'm the founding attorney here at hawthorne law where we help you the online business owner get your legal house in order so you can focus on what you do best and that is building a business that truly matters today we're talking to you about the differences between member managed and manager managed llc's if you are an online business owner who is thinking about forming an llc or maybe you already have formed an llc then chances are you're a little mystified by the idea of forming a member managed versus a manager managed llc not quite sure what the differences are not quite sure if you made the right decision and are really wondering whether the choice that you made is right for your online business now this could be you could be an online coach you could be a course creator you could be an affiliate marketer you could be selling e-commerce products you could be a creator on youtube just like i am whatever it is that you might be doing this is a big serious decision that you need to make when it comes time to form your llc and why can't you figure this stuff out well it's pretty simple really it's because it's complicated it's hard to understand and for most people that aren't lawyers they really just don't know where to start in terms of getting this information other than spending hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars hiring a lawyer to help you and if you mess this step up then you run the risk of getting your corporate veil pierced and there's a whole bunch of bad stuff that can happen if that were to happen you put your personal assets at risk if you were to get sued or if your business were to get sued and it's just really something you don't want to ever deal with so in today's video i want to talk to you about the difference between a member managed llc and a manager managed llc and help you figure out which one might be better for you and your business structure for your online business assuming that you formed are thinking about forming an llc for your online business now before we get into the differences between a member managed llc on the one hand and a manager managed llc on the other i want to tell you that the choice you make when it comes to this decision is really going to depend in large part on the type of business you're running how many members you have in the llc and a lot of other factors that are somewhat beyond the scope of this video but in a nutshell here's the difference a member managed llc is exactly what it sounds like it is an llc that is managed by the members so whether you have one member or 50 members they're all going to have an equal say and equal vote in the management of the llc and what this means is that if you want to do anything with regards to your llc any types of decisions you want to make whether it means switching into a new business area or investing in some software or buying some property or assets for the business or moving to a new business location or anything like that you have to have consensus with all of the members of your llc now if it's just you and you're a single member llc this isn't going to be such a hard thing because you just have a meeting with yourself you decide that's what you want to do and you go ahead and make the change but if you have two three four five ten people that are all members of the same llc you have to get a consensus between everyone before making any major decisions related to the management of your llc on the other hand a manager managed llc means that you have one person or entity that serves as the manager of your llc and they're the ones that are going to make all the decisions so this is a really great option if you are forming an llc where you might be working with somebody else who's going to be providing a lot of capital for the llc but you're the one that's going to be doing all the sweat equity and controlling the operations of the business so the other person might just want to give you some money and have you manage the business and they might want to have a very passive role versus you're the one who's going to be taking that money investing it and building the business with existing systems that you might have from from your prior experience but maybe you just don't have the capital to build the business and in that situation you could serve as a member and the manager and you could control all the day-to-day operations of the business the other situation where a manager managed llc might make a lot of sense maybe you're a solopreneur right now but you intend to bring in a lot of other members for your llc in which case you want to still retain that control over the llc so you would want to be the manager or let's say for estate planning purposes you may want to give away some of the interest in the llc to your children or to a spouse or to someone else and you still want to retain control in those situations a manager managed llc is going to be the way to go now here in north carolina where i practice law the default provision in the llc act is a manager managed llc so you can be a solopreneur and you can be a manager managed llc or you can be a member managed llc it doesn't really matter if you're a solopreneur where it does matter is when you start to have partners and other people involved in the day-to-day operations of the llc if you're the one that wants to retain all the control over how the llc is managed on a day-to-day basis then a manager managed llc may be the right way to go now there are some other considerations that you need to be aware of when deciding between a member managed and a manager managed llc and some of them might be the fact if you're looking to form an llc that's going to provide some level of anonymity to you or to the members of your llc then a manager managed llc may be the way to go again that's somewhat beyond the scope of this video also if you want some more credibility when you're dealing with with other vendors or banks or people that you might be purchasing assets from in the name of the llc then maybe a manager managed llc might be the way to go in addition there's also liability considerations when it comes to choosing a member managed llc versus a manager managed llc and if if run correctly the manager managed llc may be more difficult to pierce that corporate veil than a member managed llc if you'd like to learn more about llc's and the different mistakes people make when forming their llc's here's another video i've done right here i'll look forward to seeing the next video have a great day folks we'll see you soon
Thanks for your comment Fernando Ede, have a nice day.
- Clemmie Fenty, Staff Member
to understand a manager's role in an LLC we first need to review some important legal concepts as mentioned in a previous video LLC's are a legal fiction that only exists because the law recognizes them you will never walk into a store and see an LLC standing behind the counter selling goods you'll never walk into an office and see an LLC sitting behind a desk providing services LLC's must rely on living breathing people to market goods or services to customers on behalf of the LLC central to this idea of conducting business on behalf of the LLC is the concept of Authority in fact Authority is defined as the right or permission to act legally on another's behalf this permission can legally bind the LLC to contracts or other legal obligations this permission is designed to benefit the LLC when it is used properly however when used improperly it can result in liability for the LLC its members and managers so the LLC must have people who are properly authorized to act legally on its behalf this Authority is important and must be managed carefully so how does the LLC decide who is or is not authorized to act on its behalf this depends on the management structure of the LLC management structure means how the LLC is set up to determine who has authority to act on behalf of the LLC the management structure of all LLC's starts in the Texas business organizations code or the BOC the BOC requires all LLC's to choose between two types of management structures LLC's with managers or LLC's without managers these two types of LLC's function differently LLC's with managers function rather like a operation in a corporation the shareholders have the ownership interest and the Board of Directors make most of the business decisions on behalf of the corporation in an LLC with managers the members have the ownership interest and the managers make most of the business decisions on behalf of the LLC this type of management structure allows the members to invest in the LLC by contributing assets but leaves the management of the LLC's to others the managers having managers in an LLC requires an understanding of the relationship between members and managers in the same way shareholders of a corporation vote on who serves in the board of directors members of an LLC vote on who serves as managers this relationship can be an advantage when it comes to passive investors people who want ownership but not the burden of management but this can also add an administrative burden to operating the LLC as far as having meetings for both members and managers figuring out what to do when members and managers aren't in agreement and other issues that can arise so if there are people who want to invest in the LLC but don't want to be involved or shouldn't be involved in making business decisions the benefit of having managers in the LLC may outweigh the additional administrative burden this administrative burden and other issues can be mitigated through careful planning before the LLC is organized one final point to understand about having managers is that a person can be both a member and a manager at the same time the key is understanding which hat the person is wearing when making decisions on behalf of the company LLC's without managers function rather like a partnership in a partnership each partner has ownership interest and makes business decisions on behalf of the partner in an LLC without managers each member has ownership interest and makes business decisions on behalf of the LLC this type of management structure is used when there's an advantage to having all the members of the LLC involved in business decisions this advantage can include avoiding the administrative burden of having to vote on managers and other issues that can arise with having managers one trade off however maybe not having as much flexibility when it comes to people who want to invest but not be involved in business decisions again these risks can be mitigated with careful planning before the LLC is organized LLC's can also have officers such as president and CEO these officers are hired by the managers or by the members if the LLC doesn't have managers and can be authorized to make daily business decisions on behalf of the LLC these officers do not have authority to vote in manager or member meetings this planning guide is designed to help you prepare for organizing a new LLC the planning guide is made up of five parts each part has sections each section has an instructional video these instructional videos start by explaining the underlying legal concepts for that section each video also includes a demonstration for how to fill out that section of the planning guide in each demonstration I'll show you how I would use the guy to plan an LLC called fake LLC
Thanks Mithilb your participation is very much appreciated
- Clemmie Fenty
About the author
I've studied knowledge economy at Columbia College in Columbia and I am an expert in gas mechanics. I usually feel complacent. My previous job was agricultural equipment operator I held this position for 18 years, I love talking about hula hooping and pok+mon cards / go. Huge fan of Cuco I practice kayaking and collect toys.
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