Florida’s New Protected Series LLC Could Be the Solopreneur’s Best Liability Firewall

This original article was written by Tidings founder David Happe for his blog on Substack, and is reposted here with attribution and permission. 

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As many of you know, I am a member of the Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers. Before I took on my current full-time role in corporate America, I helped Florida residents complete certain Florida Supreme Court approved legal forms. I was also a solopreneur, who did most of my own legal work as a credentialed paralegal.

I am not an attorney. Because of that, there is a narrow list of court authorized forms that non-attorneys may assist with, and business formation documents, including articles of organization, are not on that list.

What follows is not legal advice. It is legal information. Florida law is changing in a way that may benefit entrepreneurs and small business owners, and my goal here is to explain the development in plain English so you understand what is coming in 2026 and when. Everything I have read on this was from a few amount of law firms that are reporting on it. Nobody in the news is reporting on this, but Florida has over 3,000,000 registered small businesses, all of whom could probably use this.

I cannot prepare filings for you, review your documents, tell you what you should do in your situation, or answer questions that would require legal advice. Please do not email me asking for guidance on your specific circumstances.

If you are not confident you can handle Florida business formation on your own, whether through the state’s online filing system or do-it-yourself legal software, you should consult a competent Florida licensed attorney and, where appropriate, a qualified tax professional. - Dave Happe

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Florida’s new Protected Series LLC law is designed to make it easier for small entities to reduce the liability spread among several owned entities, starting July 1, 2026.

What Florida is changing on July 1, 2026

Florida added the “Uniform Protected Series Provisions” to Chapter 605 of the Florida Statutes. The provisions have a stated effective date of July 1, 2026.

Two timing points matter:

• Beginning July 1, 2026, Chapter 605 governs domestic and foreign protected series LLCs and protected series operating in Florida.
• If you formed a Florida LLC before July 1, 2026, that LLC may not create or designate any protected series until the law takes effect.

You can plan now. You cannot “turn it on” early.

The concept in plain English

A Protected Series LLC in this new Florida law for 2026 is a parent LLC with internal compartments or silos called protected series.

Each protected series is intended to operate like a mini business, with its own assets and liabilities, while still living under the umbrella of one parent LLC.

The attraction for solopreneurs is obvious: fewer standalone LLCs to form and maintain, while still creating meaningful separation between business lines.

The solopreneur use case

Here is a realistic example using fictional names.

Parent LLC: Harborview Venture Group LLC

Harborview has four protected series, or silos of businesses:

• Harborview Venture Group LLC Atlas Consumer Products PS
  Purpose: physical products, inventory, vendor terms, product liability coverage
• Harborview Venture Group LLC Gulf Route Vending PS
  Purpose: machines, location agreements, route operations, maintenance contracts, route coverage
• Harborview Venture Group LLC Signal Ridge Training and Consulting PS
  Purpose: corporate sales training contracts, consulting SOWs, client invoicing, professional liability style coverage
• Harborview Venture Group LLC Courseware Licensing PS
  Purpose: ownership of course content, templates, playbooks, licensing agreements back to the training series

That structure matches how risk actually works. Products, vending, and professional services do not fail the same way, and they should not share the same blast radius.

Naming rules you need to understand early

Florida requires protected series names to follow a specific convention. Practically, this means your parent LLC name becomes the prefix for every protected series name.

So if you choose a parent name that is too narrow or too weird, you will inherit that problem across your entire portfolio.

Pick a parent name that can sit comfortably in front of everything.

The “perfect structure” is simple, but not casual

If you want the protection people are counting on, each protected series needs to be operated with discipline.

At a minimum, that means:

• Separate bank account for each protected series
• Contracts and invoices in the correct protected series name
• Clean bookkeeping that can produce series level reporting
• A living asset register that shows what assets belong to which series
• Clear internal rules for cross payments, reimbursements, and intercompany services

This is the difference between a real liability firewall and a marketing story.

What you can do now

Even though you cannot create protected series until July 1, 2026, you can prepare like a pro:

Now through June 2026

• Choose the parent LLC name with future series naming in mind
• Decide how you will divide your portfolio by risk category
• Build accounting that supports separate series reporting from day one
• Standardize contract templates that make the contracting entity obvious
• Build the asset register format you will actually maintain

Starting July 1, 2026

• File the protected series designations (the final instructions are not out yet on this as I am writing this in December 2025, but you will file with the State of Florida and my guess is it will be $25 per designation, which is a steal.)
• Open a separate banking account or sub-account for each protected series
• Move assets and contracts into the correct compartments, cleanly and consistently

Do you need an attorney in Florida for an LLC or for this series structure?

Florida does not require you to hire an attorney to form an LLC. The state provides an online filing system and public instructions for forming a Florida LLC.

That said, Florida’s own LLC filing instructions strongly recommend having legal counsel review documents prior to submission.

A protected series structure raises the stakes. The separation you are paying for depends on doing the naming, designations, reporting, contracts, and record keeping correctly. Many solopreneurs can file a standard LLC cleanly on their own. A protected series plan is the kind of thing that benefits from legal and tax review because “almost right” is often the same as “not protected” when something goes wrong.

So no, Florida law does not require an attorney for this. Practically, if you are building this for real liability separation, you will want one.

The Hard Conversations takeaway

A Protected Series LLC can be a powerful way to run multiple businesses under one Florida umbrella.

It rewards disciplined operators who keep clean books, clean contracts, and clean boundaries. If you treat it casually, the structure becomes a false sense of security.

If you treat it seriously, it can become a real liability firewall for the solopreneur with multiple lanes.

Disclaimer

This is not legal advice. This is legal information based on Florida law that is subject to change, including statutory amendments, administrative practices, and court interpretations. You should consult a Florida licensed attorney and a qualified tax professional before forming entities, creating protected series, or moving assets and contracts into any series structure. My opinions are for your entertainment and education, although you should do your own research and consult with an attorney on all business related legal matters like this. I am not your legal advisor, and I am not an attorney.

Footnotes and sources

1. Florida Statutes, Section 605.2101, Uniform Protected Series Provisions and effective date note (July 1, 2026). Florida Legislature
2. Florida Statutes, Section 605.2802, effective date and restriction on pre July 1, 2026 protected series creation by pre existing Florida LLCs. Florida Legislature
3. Florida House final bill analysis for HB 403 (2025), discussion of July 1, 2026 effective date and the restriction for LLCs formed before the effective date. The Florida Senate
4. Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, LLC filing instructions, including the recommendation that legal counsel review documents. Florida Department of State
5. Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, LLC e-filing portal showing that LLC formation is available via online filing. Florida Department of State
6. Best law firm article I have read on this : from Berger Singerman
7. Nerd level : Florida Bar Business Law Section white paper (2023)

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