Understanding Estate Taxes
How To Reduce Or Eliminate Your Estate Cost
11. Limited Liability Company (LLC) and Family Limited Partnership (FLP)
FLPs and LLCs let you reduce estate taxes by transferring assets like a family business, farm, real estate or stocks to your children now, and still keep some control. They can also protect the assets from future lawsuits and creditors.
Here's how they work. You and your spouse can set up an LLC or FLP and transfer assets to it. In exchange, you receive ownership interests. Though you have a fiduciary obligation to other owners, you control the LLC (as manager) or FLP (as general partner). You can give ownership interests to your children, which removes value from your taxable estate. These interests cannot be sold or transferred without your approval, and because there is no market for these interests, their value is often discounted. This lets you transfer the underlying assets to your children at a reduced value, without losing control.