LLCs are up, Corporations are down

Are Corporations Going the Way of the Edsel?
Posted by Peter Lattman, from http://blogs.wsj.com/law.

LLC’s are way up and corporations are down, according to the latest data from the International Association of Commercial Administrators, which collects state-by-state filings.
Limited Liability Companies are popular because, like corporations, owners have limited personal liability for the debts and actions of the LLC. Other features of LLCs are more like those in partnerships, providing management flexibility and the benefit of pass-through taxation. Here’s the IRS site on LLCs.

Thanks to Larry Ribstein at Ideoblog, here’s the IACA report, which shows that filings for LLCs are up in almost every state, while filings for corporations are down in most states. Of the 35 states with filing data for the past four years, 32 reported increases in LLC filings and 21 reported decreases in corporation filings.

As Ribstein puts it, “the corporate form is hanging on — it’s what most practitioners know. But it’s looking less and less like the future of business associations.”