We are closing our LLC. I’d like to still host clinics and will carry insurance but is there another way we also need to protect ourselves? We live in a litigious society. 
Thx!
Your insurance agent is your new best friend. You can be insured for just about anything if you can afford the premiums.
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Your LLC can continue to exist in a much lower key form. You could keep it just for the purpose of running the clinics and handling that income. I’d talk to your insurance agent and your accountant.
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even using a corporate shield for protection unless you have been using the corporation correctly the defining lines of where personal and corporate liability is defined becomes clouded
If concerned talk with your attorney who knows farm/ranch laws as one of the more common methods of piercing the corporate veil .is when there is a failure to follow corporate formalities
A corporation veil can be pierced based on what is known as alter ego liability. What this means is that when an individual and a company are so closely linked that they should not be viewed as separate entities for legal purposes, the shield against personal liability will not be applied.
When we had our C Corp set up definitive boundaries where put in place, contracts were drafted where the corporation leased specific assets from us personally, paid rent to us and we paid the corporation for the care of our horses. Corporation paid its employees even it was me doing something that the Corporation controlled.
Records were maintained. Board meetings were held.
Just adding an LLC to yourself does not fully limit liability unless one follows the correct procedures
Really should talk with an attorney and a CPA who would be defending you incase something did happen
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This is really great advice.
I would contact a business lawyer, a commercial insurance agent and your accountant, in that order.
Blue Bridle is an equine specific insurance company that my GMO works with. They were wonderful to work with.
Perhaps a new entity needs to be created to help you get the protections you seek.
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As a law partner in a large firm relayed to me -" LLC’s are great for contract law but not so much for torts."
People seem to think that if they form an LLC then they won’t get sued for negligence. Well if they are negligent they will get sued anyway. If their farm goes belly up and can’t pay its bills due to poor financial planning or other issues - their creditors can only recover what the LLC still has in assets and not the owners’ personal assets. So they are a good protection for contracts. As Clanter related there are various ways to pierce the corporate veil in cases of liability. I do believe the best defense against liability is to have procedures in place that mitigate something bad happening and follow those procedures faithfully. And a very good insurance policy!
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