Ohio asset protection: the strongest charging order statute nobody sells

The asset protection industry sells five states. Wyoming, Nevada, South Dakota, Delaware, and Alaska turn up in every pitch deck, every offshore-adjacent seminar, and every list of the best places to hold an LLC.

Ohio wrote a charging order statute that matches or beats all of them on the page. It bars foreclosure on the charging order, on the lien, and on the membership interest itself. It bars equitable remedies against the interest and against the company’s property. It bars the accountings and inquiries that creditors use to turn a lien into an investigation. And it says in plain words that a member subject to a charging order keeps their membership. Ohio is not on the lists.

What the statute actually says

The charging order protection page explains the toll booth generally. Ohio’s version, at ORC 1706.342, is the most thorough one in this project.

Ohio makes the charging order the sole and exclusive remedy and then closes every door around it by name.

Subsection (F) does four things in a single paragraph. The charging order is the sole and exclusive remedy by which a judgment creditor may satisfy a judgment out of a member’s membership interest. The creditor has no right to foreclose, under the chapter or any other law, upon the charging order, the charging order lien, or the membership interest. The creditor has no right to obtain possession of, or otherwise exercise legal or equitable remedies against, the membership interest or the property of the company. And court orders for actions, accounts, or inquiries that the debtor might have made to the company are not available to a creditor and may not be ordered by a court.

Compare that against the states Ohio is not being compared to. Wyoming bars foreclosure, receivers, and accountings and protects company assets. Texas bars foreclosure under its code or any other law and protects company property. Both are excellent. Ohio does all of that and adds a bar on equitable remedies against the membership interest itself, which most strong statutes leave unaddressed because they focus on protecting the company’s assets rather than the debtor’s interest in it.

Ohio says a charged member keeps the rights of a member, which most statutes leave to inference.

Then there is subsection (D), which almost no other state states outright: a judgment debtor who is a member retains the rights of a member and remains subject to a member’s duties and obligations. Elsewhere, owners reason their way to this conclusion from the fact that a charging order is a lien rather than a transfer. Ohio just says it.

The other limit is the one every state shares. This is state law, and a bankruptcy trustee operates on federal law. However strong the text, it stops at the federal courthouse door.

Piercing the veil

Reaching the owner for the company’s debts runs on Ohio’s alter ego doctrine, which asks whether control over the company was so complete that it had no separate mind or will of its own, whether that control was exercised to commit fraud or a similar wrong, and whether injury resulted. The piercing the veil page covers what feeds those findings. Ohio’s charging order statute is exceptional; its piercing standard is ordinary, and the ordinary defense applies: separate accounts, real records, and money that never moves without a reason written down.

The Legacy Trust, and why its best number is misleading

Ohio has a domestic asset protection trust, the Legacy Trust, under ORC Chapter 5816. It has the shortest seasoning period in the country, reported at 18 months against two years in Nevada and South Dakota and four in Alaska.

Ohio’s asset protection trust seasons faster than any other state’s, and the seasoning number is the wrong way to choose.

This site declines to rank asset protection trusts by seasoning period, and Ohio is the reason the rule exists. Ohio keeps exception creditors that Nevada and South Dakota eliminated, including family-law claims. So a chart with one axis, sorted by how long you wait, would put Ohio at the top and tell a settlor facing a divorce to choose Ohio over Nevada. That is backwards. The right comparison holds two things at once: how long the clock runs, and who can still reach the trust after it does. For a settlor with no family-law exposure, Ohio’s speed is a genuine advantage. For a settlor whose actual risk is a spouse or a support obligation, Nevada’s zero-exception statute matters far more than eighteen months versus twenty-four.

One drafting feature worth knowing: Ohio’s statute defines the assets a Legacy Trust operates on to exclude property already exempt under Ohio’s exemption statute and property held as tenancy by the entireties. The trust sits on top of the exemptions rather than replacing them, so the exemption analysis comes first. The trusts and LLCs page covers the tool generally, including the three limits every domestic trust shares: it reaches future creditors only, federal bankruptcy looks back ten years at self-settled transfers, and a non-trust-state court may decline to apply the trust state’s law to its own resident.

Homestead and exemptions

Ohio’s exemptions are set in a statute that updates itself in an unusual way.

Ohio’s exemption amounts are adjusted by the Judicial Conference and published in the Register of Ohio, not rewritten into the statute.

Under ORC 2329.66, the Ohio Judicial Conference prepares a memorandum specifying the adjusted dollar amounts, sends it to the Legislative Service Commission, and the director publishes it in the Register of Ohio. So the operative homestead number is not in the statutory text you would find by looking up the section. The current homestead exemption is reported at $182,625, which is generous compared with New York or Illinois and short of the unlimited protection in Florida, Texas, and South Dakota. Because the figure moves on a published schedule rather than through amendment, confirm the current memorandum before relying on any specific number, including this one.

Tenancy by the entireties is a historical artifact in Ohio rather than a planning tool. Ohio abolished it for new tenancies, with tenancies created during a window in the 1970s and early 1980s still recognized. If you are married and were counting on entireties ownership the way a Florida couple would, Ohio does not offer it.

The bottom line

Ohio’s charging order statute is the sole and exclusive remedy, and it bars foreclosure on the order, the lien, and the membership interest.

It also bars legal and equitable remedies against the interest and the company’s property, and bars creditor accountings and inquiries.

Ohio says expressly that a charged member keeps the rights and duties of a member.

Ohio has no express single-member sentence, so the one-owner company is untested here even though the general language is broad.

The Legacy Trust seasons in a reported 18 months, the shortest anywhere, and keeps family-law exception creditors that Nevada and South Dakota do not.

Ohio’s exemption amounts are adjusted by the Judicial Conference and published in the Register of Ohio rather than rewritten into the statute.

What this page does not cover

This page is about how creditors reach you in Ohio. The 2022 rewrite of the LLC act and what it changed about management and agreements are on the governance page. Series LLCs, the Commercial Activity Tax, and conveyance fees are on the structure and cost page. The filing fees, and the annual report Ohio does not require, are on the filing page.

Last verified July 2026.