small investments in other companies

by Jun
(chicago, IL, USA)

I'm planning to invest a small stake in a few companies across different industries e.g. restaurant, real estate, and home health.

Should I form a LLC and put the small equity ownership of all these companies under a LLC?

Answer

Are these privately held companies or public?

If they are public, there really is very little reason to own shares in companies through an LLC unless you are investing other people's money and therefore running a business (even then, there are other ways of doing so, such as creating a mutual fund).

If these are private companies, then find out what structure they have first--are they S-corps, LLCs, C-corps, or partnerships?

The advantage to purchasing your interests through another company/LLC is getting another layer of protection between yourself and your investments, many of which have high potential exposure to liability (home health, for example).