Should You Start an LLC for Your Assisted Living Business?
Sep 10, 2025
When launching an assisted living business, one question that consistently comes up is: “Do I need an LLC?”
This blog breaks it down for you.
Understanding the legal structure behind your business can save you time, money, and a lot of stress in the long run. Whether you're just getting started or looking to protect your assets as you grow, this guide will walk you through the essentials of forming an LLC for assisted living.
Let’s get into it! ๐ง
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and this blog should not be taken as legal advice. Please consult with an attorney for your situation.
Check out this video, too:
Why an LLC Matters in Assisted Living
An LLC, or Limited Liability Company, exists to protect business owners from personal liability. That means if something goes wrong—like a resident gets injured or a lawsuit happens—your personal assets (like your home or savings) are generally protected.
Key benefits of using an LLC for assisted living:
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Liability protection for you and your family
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Separation of business and personal assets
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Simplified tax options and potential deductions
However, not all LLC setups are created equal. That’s where strategic structuring comes in.
Can You Use an Existing LLC?
This is a common question. If you already have an LLC (like from a previous business), can you use it for assisted living?
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Yes, technically you can
BUT here’s the catch: Anything under that LLC umbrella is exposed to the same legal risks.
Example: If you operate a notary business or a cleaning service, and then you open an assisted living facility under that same LLC, a lawsuit from one business could affect them all. So, while it’s possible, it’s not always the best decision.
๐ก Consider creating separate LLCs to limit cross-business liability and protect your assets more effectively.
How to Structure Your LLC Setup
If you're serious about growing and protecting your assisted living business, consider a dual-entity structure:
๐ข OpCo (Operating Company) – Owns and runs the assisted living business
๐ PropCo (Property Company) – Owns the real estate where the business operates
Benefits of this setup:
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Keeps business and property assets separate
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Offers additional protection in lawsuits or financial issues
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Can provide tax benefits when structured correctly
Rent is paid from OpCo to PropCo, and this separation reduces risk and opens up additional financial planning opportunities.
Tips Before Setting Up Your LLC
๐ Set up your LLC before you close on a property. This saves you time, paperwork, and title transfer headaches.
๐ Keep separate books for each LLC—don’t mix expenses or income.
๐ Avoid “piercing the corporate veil” by treating each LLC like a standalone business.
๐ Use a DBA (Doing Business As) if you want your public-facing name to differ from your LLC's legal name.
๐ผ Need help? Services like LegalZoom can be a starting point, but working with a real attorney is highly recommended for more complex setups.
Don’t Skip These Two Professionals ๐งโ๏ธ๐งพ
๐ง Attorney – Helps you structure your LLC correctly and avoid major liability pitfalls.
๐งฎ Accountant – Guides your tax planning and identifies potential savings based on your business model.
Both are essential for long-term success and peace of mind. Yes, they cost money—but the protection and strategy they bring are worth every penny.
Next Steps: Take Action Today!
๐ Want to launch your assisted living business in the next 12 months?
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Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to start planning.
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Step 2: Apply to join the Success System for expert coaching.
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Step 3: Follow this guide, take action, and bring your vision to life!
Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! โฌ๏ธ
Final Thoughts: Build Smart, Grow Safe
Setting up an LLC is a strategic step toward building a sustainable, protected assisted living business. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling up, making the right legal and financial choices today will safeguard your future success.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Let’s build something safe, strong, and successful together! ๐ผ๐ก
Show full transcript ๐
Transcript
00:00:09
Hey friend, it's Brandon Gustafson. Welcome to Assisted Living Investing. I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. And today's video, we are going to be talking about should you start an LLC for your assisted living business? Do you need one? When should you do it? Uh should you do it right now? Should you wait a little bit? I get these questions all the time and I I I love seeing uh that people are thinking about this and I want to help guide you and
00:00:34
make sure you're doing this at the right time to help you make some progress as as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. So, we're going to jump into that for today's video. Um so excited to do that. As as we're getting started, I want to remind you to go and grab your free business plan checklist. Should be able to go over I think it's right over here if I'm pointing to the right spot um to get that link assisted livinginvesting.net/ et /bp checklist.
00:00:58
If you're watching on YouTube, link will be down below. Um, for those of you that are watching on Facebook, um, you can go ahead and just type that into your browser. Uh, Facebook does not like it when I put in links, so we're we're we're staying away from that. But go put that in there and and uh go and um yeah, go grab the grab the free business plan checklist. It'll help you along your path as you are trying to launch your assisted living business. For those of you who do not know me, my name is
00:01:26
Brandon Gustafson and I uh have been doing this since 2020. I'm going to share my screen really quick. Um I have been doing this since 2020. Um owning and and operating assisted living businesses. I have a masters in healthcare administration. I've been working in the healthcare industry since 2011, I think. Uh so quite a long time there. Um, I through the process of of launching my own assisted living businesses have secured one and a half million dollars in SBA funding. Um, I operate my my businesses out of state. I
00:01:57
live in Utah. I've operated in Colorado and Idaho as well. And have a lot of experience doing this. I've set up a lot of different businesses in a lot of different entities as well. So, I have a lot of practical experience doing this and and setting up entities, what that looks like, and and some of the questions that that I think you should be asking if you're going along with that. But, I do want to put out a disclaimer. I am not an attorney. Um, you should go talk to one. So, while my
00:02:23
advice here is uh is is from my experience, um, and I'm going to share that with you. Please do not take it as legal advice. Please go talk to an attorney, um, an accountant for your specific situation. make sure you understand what you should be doing for you and your situation and move forward from that standpoint. All right, so with the disclaimer out of the way, let's hop into our some of the questions that I see um and let's start talking about LLC's creating entities, what you should
00:02:51
do, why you should do that. And um here's here's a question that I I see often or else uh it's something that that I get uh from a lot of people. Should I create an LLC today for my business? And I would say no, not necessarily. You don't need one. Um, it is taking action, which is great. For those of you who you're getting you're you're working to get started. I talked to I I I chat with so many of you that are joining the Facebook group that are that are getting into this. And, you
00:03:21
know, I I ask you, what's your biggest problem in getting started with assisted living? And you tell me what the problems are. And and oftentimes it's I don't know how to get started. I um you know I don't know how to get funding. I don't understand that. I don't know I don't know where to go and get my license. Um you know those types of things. Those are the those are your big problems. And then I say, "Well, what are you doing to make some progress there?" And one of my most common
00:03:42
responses that I get from people when they when I ask them, "Well, what are you doing to make some progress?" They say, "Well, I set up my LLC." Okay, which is great. Um it is taking action. It is absolutely taking action. It's going to help you. It's it's something you need to do at some point to help you get to to the point where you own your assisted living business. So, for those of you that have done this, kudos. Like, I think it's awesome. For those of you
00:04:06
who haven't done it, it's totally fine. It's not a big deal because setting up an LLC from the beginning as like your first step. It's taking action, but in my opinion, it is not the right action. I think you should be building your foundation first. And uh actually have a few things there that can help you out with that. If you go to assisted livinginvesting.net/basics, you can join our ALI basics community, which we will probably be closing here um in the next month or so, just just so
00:04:34
you are aware. Uh but would love to have you in there, or you can go grab the launchpad bundle at assisted livinginvesting.net/aunchpad and check that out. It has everything you need to build a foundation. Um in that foundation, the things that you need to do are your business plan, and you can do that. You don't have to spend money on it. You can do it by yourself. Um go grab the free business plan checklist, assisted livinginvesting.net/bp net/bp checklist. Understanding underwriting, understanding the finances,
00:04:58
understanding the expenses that come into this. You need to understand what that looks like so you can determine if this is going to be profitable for you or not. Is it going to work if you have a four bed facility? Do you need a 10 bed? Do you need a 16 bed? You know, you you need to figure out those numbers. You need to understand what that looks like. And you should be doing market research and make sure that your market is going to work for assisted living, that there's enough residents for the
00:05:22
people you want to serve, there's not too many facilities. These are all things that you can do. You can build the foundation. And I would suggest that you do that before you start an LLC. Um, you actually, and I think I talk about this a little bit later, but I'm going to say it right now just just for those of you who are here. Um, you don't have to have an LLC to go under contract to buy a house. you can put that in your personal name. I would suggest that you have the LLC set up
00:05:49
before you close on the property, but even then, you don't have to. You can always do an entity transfer. It's just more paperwork. It's it's not it's not horrible. Um, but that's kind of the the spot where I would suggest you create the LLC. It's okay if you do it early. It's totally fine. Um, it's not going to hurt you at all. It's just I want you to be taking the right action as you're trying to get into this and and build your assisted living business. And a lot
00:06:11
of that is building the foundation. Business plan, underwriting, market research. Do those things first. Make sure this is going to work for you. Build the foundation. Makes everything go so much more smoothly. So, creating an LLC today, it's great. It's taking action. Is it the right action? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. Um, for for me, I I would say no. But for you, it could be. Okay. So, let's now talk about this. This is exactly exactly what I was saying. When should you set up
00:06:40
that LLC? And sorry, I don't have I don't have my slides like set up. So, I should I should find a way to do that so I can see what I'm going to talk about next. But when should you set up the LLC? Um there there's a few different places where you can set this up. One is from the beginning like we just talked about. You could do this today. Let's say you want to start an assisted living business. You you you're you're trying to get some traction and for you it's a
00:07:04
forcing function. you know that it's going to make you commit to it if you create the LLC today and then you're going to to move forward with it. If that's you and that and that's what you need to do to help you make progress in doing this, go for it. It's not going to hurt you to do it. But for those of you who haven't done it and you're like, "What step should I take first?" You don't need to do the LLC first. Um you really don't. You can you can wait a
00:07:27
little bit and it's it's going to be totally fine. Um so you can do it. You don't have to, but you could do it whenever you want at any point. You could do it before you close. This is you're you're closing. So, let's say, let me run through the scenario with you so you understand exactly how this works. Uh, you build your foundation. You go you find a property. Um, you're looking for a property. You you find one. It's it's perfect. It's it's beautiful. You make an offer. Uh, you go
00:07:54
under contract on that property. Okay? Whether it's an existing facility or it's a house you're going to renovate, it doesn't matter. You um you go under contract. You say, "I want to do this. Here's my down payment. Here's my earnest money." Um, and uh, you you are under contract. You're in due diligence. And then you start looking for a lender. Um, you get the lender and and you're moving things along. You're giving them all the documents that they need from
00:08:16
you, all the documents they need from the the person you're buying it from. Um, they they're getting all of those documents, and now you're getting close to closing on the facility. Okay? And when you're in that phase, you're doing your due diligence. you could create the the LLC up to that point and still close in the name of the LLC. So, you would just have to when you go to close, you're just going to tell them, "Hey, um this is actually isn't in my name. It's it's in the name of my
00:08:41
LLC. It's in the name of my entity. Here's the the information for it and they'll just make the adjustments for you. Not a big deal." Okay? Super easy to do. Uh I've never had issues doing that uh from practical experience. I'm not an attorney. Go talk to one. Um, but I've never had issues with changing that up to the closing point. Okay. Now, in this scenario, the third one here is after closing. Let's say you you for whatever reason you didn't close you you
00:09:07
didn't create your entity, your your LLC before you closed on on on the business. So, you close in your name, you know, Brandon LLC or Brandon me as an individual. I uh I I closed in my name. It's not the end of the world. You can still have an LLC. you're just going to have to transfer the title at that point. Um, you would want to work with an attorney. It will be a little bit more costly to do this. Um, it should not trigger any like do on sale clause or anything like that because it is you
00:09:35
going to your entity. Shouldn't be a problem at all. I'm not an attorney. Check with one, but I've never I've never heard of that happening when it's you going to your entity. It's very normal. Okay. Now, you can do that. There's just more fees involved with it. But even up to that point, you're fine and you can do it at any point. Um, you can transfer things after owning our facilities. We have created extra LLC's for our our lo our our legal structure um for how we do things and we've done
00:10:05
transfers um even after purchasing. So, it it's it's totally possible for you to do that. LLC's are something that you I would suggest you have one. the liability protection, um the anonymity that it gives you. There's a lot of benefits that that come into having an LLC, uh having your your business, your property in an LLC, but you don't have to do it either. Um so that's something I want to to explain to you is you could set up the LLC whenever you want. Um so hopefully that helps those of you who
00:10:34
are just kind of wondering when when should I do this? And the answer is kind of whenever you want to do it. Um honestly, and and you'll be fine. So, let's talk about can you use an existing LLC? And I have somebody in the basics community and we were on our uh our monthly call, our monthly Q&A call last week. Um, and she she was asking this because she has uh she has a business uh an entity that used to do notary um stuff like a mobile notary kind of a thing. And uh she doesn't do it anymore.
00:11:02
Um she hasn't done it hasn't used that entity for years. And so she's like, "Can I can I use that entity uh for my assisted living business?" Again, not an attorney, but my understanding is yes, absolutely you can. I would go talk to an attorney. Make sure you understand that. But the purpose of your LLC is to limit your liability. You can use those your LLC's for whatever. You could put whatever into an LLC. It's not going to be a big deal. Um you could have a DBA
00:11:31
under there. Maybe maybe you just have one LLC. um and and you have a few DBAs under there and they're they're doing work. What you have to remember with an LLC is they are there to limit your liability. Meaning that anything that is under the umbrella of that LLC is going to um be subject to any legal actions um that could come into play. So that as far as long as they are under the same umbrella, this is why I like to structure things in in different umbrellas and different LLC's. That's
00:12:00
why I have a ton of LLC's um for for my personal businesses and uh it keeps things separate. You have to treat it like they're separate. You have to keep separate books. There's there's all you have to go into to to make sure you do that so you're not um piercing the the the um corporate veil. Um and it keeps you with that protection. Um but you could just have one LLC and put all of your stuff into one thing. But then if you have a resident file, let's say let's let's go back to this example. Uh,
00:12:27
let's say you have a notary business and you have a cleaning business and then you have your um assisted living facility and you just put all of that all into just one LLC thinking everything's going to be great and then you have a resident who falls and they're trying to come after you um legally. They're trying to sue you. Um, they could go after anything that isn't that is under that umbrella. So, they could take any of the the proceeds or any value that exists in that notary
00:12:51
business or that cleaning business or anything else that's under that umbrella. they could go after that after that. So that's where having separate LLC's is is valuable. That that's what I would say that's my understanding of it. So can you do it? Absolutely yes you can. But the question then needs to become should you do it or should you just pay a little bit extra to have an extra entity there uh and have things so that you are protected in the event the the horrible event that you somebody
00:13:20
comes after you. Um you want to have those things separate. that that's my personal way of of thinking of this. So, can you use an existing LLC? Yes. Should you? That's kind of up to you. Uh talk to an attorney for your specific situation. See if it makes sense. If it's something that's old, hasn't been used for years, there's no assets or anything in there, then yeah, it's probably fine as long as you're okay with the name being the same. Otherwise, you're going to probably have to do a
00:13:43
DBA. There's a lot that goes into that. Um but that's something that you you should be um considering. Okay, that's the answer to that question. Now, let's talk about some of the expert strategies with LLC's. Things that I've learned there, some ninja hacks, ninja hacks here that can kind of help you along as you're you're trying to figure this out. So, I would say set them up before you close. It doesn't matter if you do it today or if you do it tomorrow or if you
00:14:07
do it 6 months from now. I would suggest that you do it before you close, though, because it does make it a little bit easier. You don't have to do title transfers and and deal with a bunch of extra paperwork and paying attorneys for other stuff. So, um I would get it set up before you close, but I you don't need to do it today. Um is what I would say. I would suggest that you have separate entities in opera an operational entity, your business, the opco, and a real estate entity or a propco where you have these two LLC's.
00:14:37
You own the house under a propco, the real estate entity. You own the business under an opco, the business entity. the business entity leases back over to the real estate entity and uh then they pay rent and then you can get some of the the more passive um tax benefits of owning real estate in there as well. Uh you want to make sure talk to an accountant so you understand exactly how that's going to work for you. Uh make sure that that it does work, but it also keeps those umbrellas that we were
00:15:05
talking about keeps those things in separate umbrellas. So, you have a resident who trips and falls or you have a staff member who is abusive to one of your residents, your property is in a separate umbrella. It's under a separate um LLC and it protects you you and your assets um that are over there. Okay? So, you want to make sure you're doing these things to protect yourself. If you have everything under one umbrella, it's totally fine. You could do it, but then it does open up open you up to to more
00:15:31
liability and for somebody to go after the assets um that exist inside of the building. Um, okay. I would 100% also work with an attorney. Um, you could set up your entities on Legal Zoom. You can use some of those services that are online that are free or cheap um that they don't cost you a lot to do. You could you could do that um 100%. But I would suggest working with an attorney. You're dealing with a lot of complexities here and uh especially if you're going to have multiple entities, you want to make sure
00:16:00
that you have somebody in your back pocket. It will cost you money. Attorneys are expensive, but the the protection that it gives you, the liability protection, the peace of mind that it gives you in my mind is uh very much worth the the money that you're going to spend working with with an attorney. I would also consult with an with an accountant when it comes to this. I talked about having your Propco and your OPCO um and having those separate entities. there can be some tax benefits that that come through that.
00:16:30
Um, working with an accountant um to to help you plan things can also help you identify some of the uh the different expenses that you might have to do inside of your business for your real estate that could be um could have some tax advantages to it to help you do some tax planning. So, a good accountant is going to make you more money in the end than what you pay them to help you do your taxes, specifically with your taxes. They, you know, we we live in a world where we just had the the big beautiful bill get um get approved.
00:17:03
There are adjustments in tax code there that having an understanding and working with an accountant who can help you navigate those uh just the way that that's going to work, how it's going to impact your business is the best thing you can do. I I have a video that talks about the big beautiful bill, how it impacts assisted living. Go watch that video. It's going to be helpful for you. But talk to an accountant for your specific situation for how you want to do it, uh how you want to run your
00:17:28
business because that's what's going to allow you to be successful in the long run. Okay? So, work with professionals. I'm not one. Go work with one there. I do help coach people though, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about here is uh go join our ALI basics community, assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. I mentioned earlier in the video, we're probably only going to keep it open for another month or so. Um, I'm not going to keep it open for much longer because I'm shifting the way that I do a lot of
00:17:54
things. So, if you want to get in and uh get the perks of being in aliasics, make sure you go sign up for that right now. Assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. Um, you can also go to ali masterastermind.com, take our quiz to see which of my programs are going to be the best fit for you because I love helping and coaching people. It is one of my favorite things to do. So, um, go and and check that out. Now, let's hop over and do our questions, our Q&A. So, those of you that are here live, if you
00:18:21
can type in your questions, I would appreciate it. Um, we don't have a big group. This is a bit of a dry topic. I'll be honest. Like, not a lot of people are looking for LLC's, but somebody you watching this are going to to be looking at this. You're going to be wondering what's what about this thing with LLC's, and you're not here live. And that's totally fine. type your question in because I will look at that. I will answer you um there inside of the YouTube comments and if it's a really
00:18:48
good question that I feel like I could dive deep into, I will do a video like this just for you. Um so make sure you're commenting in your questions there to help you along. Um make sure you like the video, subscribe, ring the bell. Uh I love helping people, coaching people, helping them make some progress and move things along as they're trying to launch their assisted living business, and I would love to help you do that as well. go check out our coaching programs at assistedlivinginvesting.net.
00:19:12
Um, and we have a bunch of a bunch of information over there on the website that can kind of help you and guide you as to which program might be a best fit for you as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. So, want to thank you for watching. Make sure you go get your free business plan checklist, assisted livinginvesting.net/bp checklist. Go grab that. Uh, will help you as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. Also, uh, you know, does residentialass assisted
00:19:35
living sound interesting to you, but you don't know how to get started? At assisted living.net, I am here to help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. I love helping and coaching people. Honestly, it is one of my favorite things to do. I would love to help you along your path as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. And remember, it doesn't take a lot, just a little bit. Just keep going step by step by step. And I promise you, if
00:19:57
you do and you are consistent and persistent, you are going to be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great
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