Many people get confused about whether a limited liability company is required to have a limited life because back before 1997, the tax rules required that one have a limited life as part of a test for having a single layer of pass through taxation.
As a result, many of the LLC statutes passed provisions that required that an LLC have a life limited to a term of years. For most of them, the members could always vote to renew the term but this was a necessary additional step.
However, once the IRS adopted the check the box regulations in 1997 which took away the complicated and hard to apply test they had imposed, there was no longer a need to limited the life of limited liability companies under state laws.
Most states have since amended their statutes to get rid of the limited life requirement. However, if the members so desire, an LLC still has the option of limiting its life if it makes sense for that particular business. An example might be a special purpose entity set up to accomplish a certain purpose that would be completed after so many years.
In summary, the LLC is very similar to a corporation in that it can have a perpetual life and does not have any limitations on how long or short of an existence it can have.
