Editor’s Note: This is part 14 in an ongoing series on the use of trusts and LLCs in estate planning, asset protection and tax planning. The effectiveness of these powerful tools – particularly for asset protection and tax planning – depends to a large extent on how they are configured to work together and whether certain types of control over assets and the property is transferred by the landowner. See below for links to other articles in the series.

Even though the owner of a limited liability company (LLC) is generally protected from a lawsuit originating inside an LLC, legal disaster generally cannot harm the LLC owner, as I have written in my previous article, Limited liability companies (SARL): how assets are protected — the LLC itself is not protected from a lawsuit originating outside the LLC or against the LLC owner personally.