What a Series LLC Is, and Why Georgia Does Not Have One
A Series LLC is one parent company that holds many smaller “series” inside it. Each series can own a different property, keep its own bank account, and in theory carry its own liability. Delaware created the structure in 1996. About 24 states now allow some form of it. Georgia is not one of them.
Georgia’s LLC law lives in O.C.G.A. Title 14, Chapter 11. Read the whole chapter and you will not find the word “series” anywhere in it. The section that shields LLC owners from company debts, O.C.G.A. § 14-11-303, protects a single LLC. It says nothing about walls between series inside one company. Georgia has no law that creates protection between series.
That gap matters the moment a Georgia property is involved. You can form the Series LLC in Delaware, but the rental sits in Fulton, DeKalb, or Cobb County. Georgia law controls what happens to Georgia land.
The Legal Risk, Why a Delaware Series LLC Does Not Protect Georgia Properties
Real estate follows a rule called lex situs. It means the law of the place where the land sits governs any dispute over that land. Your paperwork may say Delaware, but a tenant who falls on the stairs of your Decatur duplex sues in a Georgia court under Georgia law. The Georgia judge is not bound to honor the Delaware series wall.
Federal courts have already hinted at how this plays out. In Alphonse v. Arch Bay Holdings (5th Cir. 2013), the court treated a series as part of the larger company, not a fully separate entity, when outside law applied. No Georgia appeals court has ever ruled that a foreign series shields Georgia property. You would be asking a judge to enforce a protection Georgia never wrote into law.
Here is what that means in plain terms. You bought the Series LLC to keep a lawsuit against one rental from touching the rest. If the wall is ignored, the plaintiff can reach the equity in every series at once. The one feature you paid for is the one feature a Georgia court may throw out.
What Separate Georgia LLCs Provide That a Series LLC Cannot
A separate Georgia LLC for each property, or each small group of properties, gives you a liability wall that Georgia law actually recognizes. O.C.G.A. § 14-11-303 shields the owner of a properly run Georgia LLC from the company’s debts. That protection is settled. In Acree v. McMahan, 276 Ga. 880 (2003), the Georgia Supreme Court confirmed that members are not personally liable for LLC obligations when the entity is respected.
Separate LLCs also keep one bad property from sinking the others. If a tenant wins a large judgment against the LLC that owns your Cobb County fourplex, the plaintiff can only reach the assets inside that one LLC. Your Gwinnett rental, held in its own LLC, stays out of reach.
The cost is small and easy to predict. The table below shows how the two structures compare for a Georgia investor.
| Feature |
Delaware Series LLC |
Separate Georgia LLCs |
| Recognized under Georgia law |
No series statute exists |
Yes, under O.C.G.A. Title 14 |
| Liability wall between properties |
Untested in Georgia courts |
Settled and enforceable |
| Georgia setup cost |
Registers as a foreign LLC |
$100 per LLC |
| Annual Georgia cost |
$50 registration |
$50 per LLC |
For a six-property Atlanta portfolio, six separate LLCs cost about $600 to form and $300 a year to keep active. That is the price of a liability wall a Georgia court will actually enforce. We handle Georgia LLC formation for each property so the paperwork is done right the first time.
What a Revocable Trust Adds on Top of Separate LLCs
Separate LLCs solve liability. They do nothing for what happens when you die or lose capacity. If you own the LLC in your own name and you pass away, your membership interest goes through probate before anyone can manage the property. This is the same probate problem business owners face when their LLC owner dies without a plan.
Probate is the court process that transfers what you owned in your own name. For a rental owner, it creates three real problems:
- Cost: Georgia probate and related legal fees often run several thousand dollars, and more when heirs disagree.
- Timeline: A Georgia estate usually takes 9 to 18 months to settle, and sometimes longer.
- Control: During that window your family cannot easily sell, refinance, or sign new leases, because no one has clear authority over the LLC.
A revocable living trust closes that gap. You move each LLC membership interest into the trust. You still control everything while you are alive. When you die or become incapacitated, your named successor trustee takes over the properties with no probate and no court delay. O.C.G.A. § 53-6-60 governs how a successor trustee steps in.
The two layers do different jobs. The LLC protects you from tenants and creditors. The trust protects your family from probate. If you have not built the trust yet, our guide on how to set up a trust in Georgia walks through it, and you can see the fees on our revocable living trust cost page.
When One LLC for All Properties Is Acceptable
Separate LLCs are the default, but they are not always required. If you own two low-value rentals with big mortgages and thin equity, one Georgia LLC for both can be reasonable. The math changes when the equity at risk is small.
The logic is simple. Each LLC costs $100 to form and $50 a year. If a property holds only $15,000 in equity, a separate LLC to guard that amount may not be worth the extra paperwork and bookkeeping.
An Atlanta investor with one $95,000 rental and one $88,000 rental in different neighborhoods usually wants each in its own LLC. An investor with two properties that each carry a large mortgage and hold only $20,000 in equity may reasonably combine them. Match the number of LLCs to the equity you are actually protecting. Then hold all of them in one revocable trust. For the full picture, see our Atlanta real estate investor estate planning overview.
