Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: MD llc question

What does the "MD" in your question mean? Maryland? medical doctor?

The questions states that California law applies, and my answer assumes the same.

Further, medicine and other professions cannot be practiced through or by an LLC. You would need to form a professional corporation for this purpose, rather than an LLC.

With those preliminaries out of the way, I'd say that one LLC can be used for any number of differently-named businesses; however, if the business names are "fictitious," i.e. not the same as the name of the LLC, then each must be registered and published as DBAs of the LLC in the county where each is headquartered. Any previous registration of the DBAs as being used by YOU (rather than the LLC) must be cancelled.

Then, you can use the DBA name alone. However, in order to avoid confusion, it would be advisable for you to notify parties with whom you have done business under the DBAs while they were your proprietorships.

Also keep in mind that the transfer of the DBAs (i.e., sole proprietorships) to the LLC is a transaction with possible legal consequences. You certainly need to capitalize the LLC, then transfer the going businesses to it for a valuable consideration, and use as much of that consideration as necessary to pay creditors. You may also need to comply with the California Bulk Sales Act, Commercial Code sections 6101 to 6109, if memory serves.