Documents and Information Needed to Form an LLC or Trust #
Most people think entity formation requires boxes of paperwork and months of preparation. The actual information needed is straightforward. You’re providing basic identification and making decisions about control and succession.
For an LLC, you need your legal name, current address, and identification. A driver’s license or passport works. If you’re forming a multi-member LLC, you need the same information for each owner plus their ownership percentages. Someone owning 60% and someone else owning 40% gets documented clearly from the start.
You’re also specifying who manages the LLC. Single-member LLCs typically have the owner serve as manager, but you can appoint someone else if that makes sense for your situation. Multi-member LLCs need clarity about whether all members participate in management or whether you’re appointing one managing member with decision authority.
Successor planning means identifying who takes over if you die or become incapacitated. This can be a family member, business partner, or trustee depending on your structure. The point is documenting it now so your LLC doesn’t freeze when something happens to you. Your operating agreement will spell out the full succession process, but the formation documents need to identify at least one successor.
If you’re contributing Cryptocurrency to the LLC, provide a list of Wallet addresses and the assets held in each. You don’t need private keys or seed phrases for formation, just the public addresses showing what assets you intend to transfer. This gets documented in your operating agreement schedule as proof of your intent to fund the LLC with specific Cryptocurrency holdings.
Control structure matters more than people realize. Do you want full unilateral authority to make decisions? Do you want certain actions to require written resolutions? Are you establishing spending thresholds where small transactions need no approval but large ones require documentation? These decisions shape your operating agreement and determine how the LLC actually functions.
For trust formation, the requirements differ slightly. You still need basic identification and address information, but now you’re identifying the trustee who will manage the trust and the beneficiaries who will benefit from it. The trustee can be you, a family member, a corporate trustee, or a combination depending on whether you’re creating a revocable trust or an asset protection trust with independent trustees.
You’re also specifying funding intent for the trust. Are you transferring LLC membership interests into it? Real Estate? Investment accounts? The trust document needs to know what assets you plan to hold inside the trust structure. For Cryptocurrency, this usually means the trust owns the LLC and the LLC owns the actual digital assets.
Beneficiary designation requires more thought than just naming your kids. Primary beneficiaries, contingent beneficiaries, specific bequests, and distribution timing all get defined in the trust document. Do beneficiaries inherit outright at age 21 or do assets stay in trust with distributions tied to milestones like education or starting a business? These decisions need clarity before drafting begins.
Control structure for trusts determines whether you retain authority to modify or revoke the trust or whether you’re creating an irrevocable structure with independent trustees. Revocable trusts give you maximum flexibility but minimal asset protection. Irrevocable trusts provide stronger protection from creditors but you’re giving up direct control. The choice depends on whether you’re optimizing for flexibility or protection.
Most formation services handle this through an intake form or questionnaire. You’re not gathering decades of financial records or pulling together tax returns from the past ten years. You’re answering basic questions about ownership, control, and succession. The whole intake process takes an hour if you’ve thought through what you want to accomplish.
The main delay isn’t gathering documents. It’s making decisions about control and succession that you’ve been avoiding. Once you know who you want managing things, who inherits what, and how you want decision authority structured, the actual formation moves quickly.
Wealth management firms like Digital Wealth Partners focus on growing your Portfolio and providing fiduciary guidance on investment decisions. They help you make smart choices about Asset Allocation and Risk Management. Entity formation requires different expertise focused on legal structure, tax treatment, and Succession Planning.
Digital Ascension Group coordinates the entire formation process. They walk you through the intake, help you make the control and succession decisions that shape your structure, draft the operating agreements or trust documents, and handle state filings and registration. They’re also the ones who tell you what information actually matters versus what’s just busywork.
The barrier to getting started isn’t documentation. It’s deciding what you want and who you trust to help you build it properly.
Contact Digital Ascension Group to learn how our Family Office services can coordinate your complete financial picture.
