A Business Form Reflecting God’s Order: The Texas Series LLC

Plato contemplated the order of the universe.  He questioned which was most essential, the particular or the universal.  Or stated in terms of social structures, are the rights of the individual, or the needs of all of society most important?  Because Plato was a big picture guy, he concluded that it is the universal that is most important: it is the idea of “chair” which allows us to decide whether a particular object, such as a stool, fits within the idea.  Likewise, the idea of “god” therefore gives rise to the individual god’s.

The School of Athens by Raffaello Sanzio, 1509, showing Plato (left) and Aristotle (right)

Plato had a student named Aristotle.  Brilliant minds don’t necessarily think alike.  Aristotle resolved this philosophical dilemma in opposite to Plate, concluding that it is the particular that is supreme, the accumulation of which give rise to the universal idea (ie., seeing actual chairs gives us the idea of “chair”.

And so the battle waged, with significant ramifications.  Those who sided with Plato would deny the expression of individual rights for the sake of the state; while those Aristotelians would argue the overthrow of the state for the sake of pursuing individual rights.  So does the state have ultimate control and regulation over your business (Plato — leading to socialism and even commune-ism), or does the free trade of individual business and the fair market regulate itself (Aristotle — giving rise to Adam Smith and capitalistic economic economies)?

It wasn’t until reformation theologians chimed in that the dilemma was resolved.   Naturally, they began not on their basis of a presumed autonomous human reason, but as much as humanly possible, rooted their presups on the character of God.  Both Old and especially New Testaments aver that God is one.  Deuteronomy 6:4 clearly asserts the singular universal nature of God (as if Plato was right).  Ephesians 4 affirms that there is “one God.”  But the theologians recognized a plurality among this unity.

Not only is God “one” but God is also plural.  In Genesis God’s plans include “let US make man in OUR own image (emphasis added).”  God refers to Himself as a plural.  Likewise, Jesus asserts, “I and my father are one (ie., one and the same).”  Likewise, if you lie to God, you are lying to the Spirit (Acts 5), because they are one and the same.  While the trinity remains difficult to fully explain, the tri-unity of God is undeniably represented in scripture.

And so theological men and women would reflected the equality between the universal and particulars.  UniVersities (unity in collegiate diversity) were formed to unite in one school diverse colleges.  Governments were formed in the attempted to provide one central government with autonomous states (like with Switzerland’s Canton’s, and the original United 13 States).  Even the power of central government would be divided in a plurality of branches; Congress itself would be by-cameral.

Now finally in Texas there is a business structure which recognizes this balance between unity and diversity; the one and the many.  Rather than form one LLC for each business venture, or each property, the Texas Series LLC has one organization, but with a diversity of separate expressions of that organization.  These separate “cells” hold separate assets, enjoy limited liability shielded from the rest, and separate accounting.  But there is the ease of one company formation.  Tax issues may be settled on the one, or the many cells singularly (depending on the issue) but the ease of creation of future limited liability cells within overall universal structure makes the Series LLC an optimum business form.

Plato and Aristotle finally united through the emergence of this form of business structure!