The series LLC, state by state.
A series LLC is one filing that carries several protected series underneath it, each holding its own assets and its own liabilities. It is a genuinely different structure, and the first thing your state decides is whether it exists at all. Some states authorize it by statute. Others have no series provision, and the answer there is a different structure entirely. Start with your state.
Four things that change with your state.
The series LLC is the one structure where the state line changes the answer completely rather than changing the details. These four are what your state page settles.
Whether it exists at all
Some states authorize the series LLC by statute. Others have no series provision, which means there is nothing to file and no protected series to create. This is not a detail that shifts a little from state to state. It is the whole question, answered before anything else can be.
One master, many series
Where it is authorized, you form a master LLC and establish protected series underneath it in a single filing. Each series is meant to hold its own assets and carry its own liabilities, so that a claim against one is not automatically a claim against the others.
What to do without one
In states with no series statute, the pages set out three routes: a standalone LLC for each asset, a parent company with subsidiaries underneath it, or a holding entity formed in a state that does authorize series. Each trades administration against separation in a different way.
Where the structure earns it
The structure gets used where one owner holds several separate things, most often rental property. The alternative is a stack of individual LLCs, each with its own formation, its own registered agent and its own annual filing to keep, which is exactly what the series is designed to compress.
The structure is not national. The answer is on your state's page.
Pick your state.
Each state page starts with whether that state authorizes a series LLC and takes it from there: how the master and its series are filed and used where the structure exists, and which of the three alternatives make sense where it does not.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
Whether you end up with a series LLC or the structure that replaces it, the sequence is the same. Answer the availability question first, then build to it.
Check the statute
Start with whether your state authorizes series at all. That single answer decides what the next three steps actually are, and it takes one look at your state page.
Plan the structure
Decide what each series or entity is meant to hold and keep apart. Assets on one side, the liabilities that follow them on the other. The plan is what the filings then express.
File the master
Where series are authorized, the master LLC is filed with the Secretary of State and the series are established underneath it. Where they are not, the alternative structure is filed as separate entities.
Keep them apart
Separation only holds if it is real. Separate records, separate accounts, and contracts signed in the name of the series or entity that actually owns the asset in question.
One filing can hold many things apart. Only if the paperwork agrees.
The rest of Secretary of State directory.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State annual report
The annual report, state by state
All 51 states → HubArticles of Amendment
Articles of amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubBusiness license
Business license requirements, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State business search
Secretary of State business search, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State Certificate of Good Standing
Certificate of Good Standing, state by state
All 51 states → HubEntity conversion
Entity conversion, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State DBA
Secretary of State DBA, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Secretary of State directory.
The questions people ask before they file.
What is a series LLC?
One limited liability company, filed once, with protected series established underneath it. Each series is intended to hold its own assets and its own liabilities, so that a problem attached to one does not reach the others. From the outside it is a single registered entity. Internally it is several compartments, and the compartments only do their job if they are kept apart in the records as well as on paper.
Does every state allow them?
No. Availability is genuinely split. Some states have a series statute and treat the structure as an ordinary option. Others have no series provision at all, so there is nothing to file and nothing to create. The pages here are written both ways for that reason: where the structure exists you get the process and the uses, and where it does not you get the alternatives instead.
How is it different from forming several LLCs?
Several LLCs means several formations, several registered agents and several sets of annual obligations, each running on its own clock. A series LLC compresses that into one entity with internal compartments. What you trade for the simplicity is universality: separate entities are understood everywhere, while the series structure is only authorized in some states, which matters if the assets or the counterparties are spread around.
What if my state has no series statute?
Then the state page sets out three alternatives. A standalone LLC for each asset, which is the most administration and the cleanest separation. A parent company holding subsidiary LLCs, which groups them under one owner. Or a holding entity formed in a state that does authorize series. Which of the three fits depends on how many assets there are and where they sit.
Why do property investors use them?
Because a portfolio is naturally a set of separate things. One building carries a claim, and the others should not have to answer for it. A series LLC is one way to draw that line without filing a new entity for every acquisition, which is why the structure comes up most in real estate. Where it is not authorized, investors draw the same line with separate LLCs.
How does the master filing work?
Where series are authorized, the master LLC is formed with the state in the ordinary way, and the individual series are established under that single filing rather than filed as separate companies. What the state calls the filing, what has to be recorded for each series, and how the series are named are set out on the state page, because those mechanics are where the states differ most.
Keep going, in order.
Secretary of State directory
Every hub in secretary of state directory, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
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