Corporations, the federal government, and state agencies all want to do business with minority-owned companies. The Department of Transportation, for example, requires that recipients of its funding award a percentage of contracts to minority-owned businesses and many large companies have goals for buying from minority-owned suppliers.

The reason for such mandates is twofold. First, contracting with minority-owned businesses is important to customers: ‘Corporate America understands that you cannot expect minorities to buy things when you haven’t done business with minorities,’ says Steven Sims, the vice president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Second, it’s responsible: ‘It’s important because we have an obligation in government to ensure that all firms in our state have an opportunity to participate in contracts that are paid for with tax dollars,’ says Luwanda Jenkins, the special secretary of minority affairs for Maryland. Read More

What is ‘Real Estate Investment Group’

A real estate investment group is an organization that builds or buys a group of properties and then sells them to investors as rental properties. In exchange for finding tenants, handling maintenance and other responsibilities, the organization receives a portion of the investors’ monthly rent proceeds. Read More

In the Forums we always see both new and experienced investors inquiring about entity structuring. Should they use LLCs, and if so, should they use multiple LLCs? The end goal is usually liability protection and anonymity, the latter of course being difficult to achieve.

I tend to find it somewhat disturbing that investors will go through the hassle of setting up an LLC to legitimize their business and protect their personal assets, yet they fail to invest time in learning how to operate the LLC. A lawyer that I refer my clients to told me that “A key reason LLCs’ asset protection veils are pierced is because the owner doesn’t treat the LLC like a business entity.” Read More