Family Limited Partnership

Family Limited Partnership Attorneys in Las Vegas

The Family Limited Partnership ("FLP") is a popular tool used by families to hold their business and investment assets. The FLP is often used by parents and grandparents as a vehicle to transfer assets to children and grandchildren during their lifetimes and at their deaths.

Utilizing an FLP allows you to do the following:

Reduce the size of your taxable estate while still retaining control and management of the assets held in the FLP;
Effectively compound your available gift and estate tax credits and exemptions;
Spread income among children and grandchildren who are often in lower marginal income tax brackets;
Place assets beyond the reach of creditors; AND
Assist in integrating family members in the family business.

An FLP typically consists of two classes of partnership interests—general and limited. As the creator of your FLP, you may designate yourself as the general partner, retaining the general interest in the partnership, and thereby retaining control over the assets, which you transfer into the partnership. As general partner, you have the power to make and implement decisions regarding all partnership activities and operations.

The limited partners of your FLP (e.g., children and grandchildren), on the other hand, enjoy only limited powers with regard to the partnership. As limited partners, they generally have no voice in management or control over partnership interests, regardless of whether they purchased the interests or made contributions to the partnership in return for the interests. They are considered to be only passive investors in your FLP. They have little influence in how you choose to manage your FLP.

Through proper estate planning, you can significantly reduce the size of your taxable estate, which results in substantial estate tax savings. One way to achieve these estate tax savings is by gifting interests in your FLP during your lifetime to your children and grandchildren. Such gifts will help you reduce the size of your taxable estate while allowing you to keep the FLP assets intact and under your continued control.

Other benefits of using FLP to control and enhance your assets include:

Further enhancement of your gift and estate tax savings through lifetime gifting of FLP interests;
FLP interests are valued, for gift tax purposes, at less than the underlying assets representing those interests;
Reduction of the value of your estate by the income and appreciation attributable to those gifted interests;
Ability to shift income derived from partnership capital away from you and to the donees of your gifted FLP interests;
Protection of personal assets held by you and the other members/partners of your FLP from the claims of creditors; AND
Integrating and training family members in operating a business.

The FLP is a valuable estate planning tool which you can use to enhance and protect the value of your estate, not only for your benefit, but for the benefit of family members and others, as well. If you feel that implementing an FLP will help you achieve your estate planning and asset protection objectives, you should consult with an estate planning attorney who can help put the benefits of an FLP to work for you.