Florida’s protected series LLC law took effect July 1, 2026. It gives business owners and real estate investors a structure that has been available in Delaware, Texas, and Illinois for years. It also comes with recordkeeping obligations that determine whether the structure works at all.
What the law does
CS/SB 316 was signed on June 20, 2025 and took effect July 1, 2026. It adds the Uniform Protected Series Provisions to the Florida Revised Limited Liability Company Act, codified at sections 605.2101 through 605.2802, Florida Statutes. The year between signing and effective date gave the Department of State time to build the filing systems the structure requires.
A protected series LLC starts with a single parent LLC. That parent can then create internal divisions called protected series. Each series can hold its own assets, carry its own liabilities, and have its own members and managers. The statute creates a liability shield between each series and the others, and between each series and the parent.
Consider an investor holding five rental properties. The traditional options were five separate LLCs, each with its own filing fee, registered agent, and annual report, or one LLC holding all five, where a claim arising from one property can reach the other four. Florida now permits a third approach: one parent LLC with five protected series, each holding one property, under a single state filing.
Who the structure fits
The structure is built for owners managing multiple similar assets with recurring liability exposure and moderate individual value. That includes investors holding a portfolio of rental properties, operators running several distinct business lines under one brand, franchise owners with multiple locations, and funds managing separate asset pools.
It is a weaker fit for a single high-value asset. The administrative savings are minimal in that scenario, and the absence of Florida case law adds risk without a corresponding benefit.
What it requires from you
The liability shield is conditional, not automatic. Florida adopted the uniform act model in part because that model imposes strict recordkeeping requirements and states the consequences of noncompliance directly in the statute.
In practice, that means maintaining separate records for each series, keeping separate accounts, and documenting asset allocations at the series level. Records that blur the line between series, or between a series and the parent, put the shield at risk. The protection depends entirely on ongoing compliance, not on the initial filing.
One structural limit is worth knowing before you form: a protected series cannot exist independently of its parent. If the parent LLC dissolves, every series beneath it dissolves as well.
What remains unsettled
Florida’s framework is new and has not been tested in Florida courts. Two questions in particular are open. The first is how protected series are treated in bankruptcy. The second is how charging order enforcement applies against an interest in a single series.
Neither question is a reason to dismiss the structure. Both are reasons to evaluate it against your specific holdings rather than adopting it because it is available.
If you are considering a conversion
Business owners with existing LLCs are asking whether to consolidate them into a single series LLC. That analysis turns on how many entities you currently maintain, what each one holds, how your lenders and title underwriters treat the structure, and whether your recordkeeping practices can support series-level segregation over time.
This article is general information about Florida law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
