Florida’s New Protected Series LLC Law Is Now in Effect: Formation, Liability Protection & Practical Compliance

Joseph E. Seagle, Founder & CEO | Aspire Legal Solutions

Joseph E. Seagle is a Florida real estate attorney and the founder and CEO of Aspire Legal Solutions and My Land Trustee, based in Orlando. His practice focuses on real estate transactions, land trust administration, and third-party trustee services for real estate investors, developers, and small business owners. His experience working directly with investors and businesses on real estate ownership, asset structuring, land trusts, and liability considerations provides a strong practical foundation for addressing Florida’s newly effective Protected Series LLC framework.

• Education & Credentials

Joseph earned his Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1996 and his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993, where he double majored in English and Anthropology. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia.

• Recognition & Leadership

Joseph is the founder and leader of Aspire Legal Solutions, a downtown Orlando practice serving real estate investors and small business owners, and My Land Trustee, which provides trustee services for properties held in land trusts. Through these businesses, he works with clients on ownership structures and strategies designed to address privacy, asset protection, and the administration of real estate interests.

• Professional Involvement

Joseph is a frequent speaker and media commentator on real estate, legal, and business issues. He hosts a podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, publishes the weekly “Trust This” newsletter addressing real estate, legal, and business topics, and regularly presents webinars for investors and practitioners. His educational work allows him to translate complex legal and ownership concepts into practical guidance for attorneys, investors, and business owners.

• Experience

Joseph began his legal career in North Carolina handling corporate and real estate matters for timeshare resorts and real estate developers. After relocating to Orlando in 2001, he joined a firm focused on representing real estate developers and opened his own practice in 2004. In 2007, he expanded his practice to include litigation arising from real estate transactions, including foreclosures, quiet title actions, evictions, and probate matters.

Today, Joseph’s practice includes real estate closings for buyers, sellers, and developers, land trust administration, third-party trustee services, and asset protection structuring. His hands-on experience with real estate ownership structures and liability considerations makes him particularly well positioned to address the practical application of Florida’s new Protected Series LLC law, including how attorneys can structure and document multiple interests, maintain appropriate separation among assets and operations, and evaluate protected series alongside other ownership and asset-protection structures.

For this CLE, Joseph can bring a practical, practitioner-focused perspective to the new Florida law—connecting the statutory requirements for formation, governance, recordkeeping, asset separation, transactions, and dissolution with the real-world needs of real estate investors, developers, and business owners who may consider using protected series rather than creating separate LLCs.

SESSION 1 – Building the Florida Protected Series: Formation, Filings & Liability Protection | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session examines Florida’s new Protected Series LLC framework and the statutory distinction between a parent Series LLC and each protected series. Attorneys will learn how to establish a protected series, including member approval, designation requirements, Sunbiz filings, and naming rules, while addressing the operating agreement and governance provisions needed to properly structure multiple protected series. The session will also focus on maintaining separate assets, liabilities, records, contracts, and operations to preserve the statutory liability shield, with practical guidance on identifying and avoiding formation and documentation mistakes that could undermine the intended protections.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Operating, Expanding & Exiting a Protected Series: Multi-State Issues, Transactions & Dissolution | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session addresses the practical challenges that arise after a Florida Protected Series LLC has been established, including annual reports, certificates of status, cancellation, dissolution, and winding up. Attorneys will examine how Florida protected series operate outside the state and how foreign series LLCs and protected series are treated in Florida, as well as the legal considerations surrounding mergers, conversions, relocations, inter-series transactions, and asset transfers. The session will conclude with practical risk-management guidance for preserving liability separation and helping clients determine when a protected series structure is preferable to maintaining separate LLCs for individual businesses or assets.