Change ownership of LLC in NJ

[D2dailly]

Hi all,

We have an LLC which is currently owned by my business partner. He currently has 100% ownership and we would like to change that to him 60%, me 40%. I've had some conflicting reports on what needs to be done to make this official. What paperwork needs to be filed and with who?

Thanks!

PS just found these forums. I see myself spending some time here with all these great people and tons of information!

[Fulcrum]

The easy way:

Just call a business lawyer.

The hard way:

Search online and ask in forums and run the risk of receiving "half-true" answers, buying into the business using the half-true answers, finding out at tax time that you did it wrong and finding out that you have possibly just lost your investment or are held liable for possible lawsuits from before you joined the LLC.

[Business Attorney]

Take Fulcrum's easy way, call a business lawyer. While it is easy to "make it official" by writing a few words on a piece of paper acknowledging the shift in ownership, there are lots of legal issues when a business goes from having a single owner to having two owners. It is not the kind of thing that you should do on your own unless you don't value your ownership now or at any point in the future and are willing to simply walk away with nothing at any time (or be kicked out). Without documenting what "ownership" means, in terms of economics and management particularly, you'd better be willing to assume that it means you have nothing other than what the 60% owner decides to give you.