Guide · Florida companies
A Florida LLC managed by another LLC: tracing the chain on Sunbiz, and where it ends
When the manager (MGR) or authorized member (AMBR) on a Florida LLC's filing is itself a company, look that company up on Sunbiz by name and read its own managers, and repeat until a person appears. When a person turns up, it is usually one company down. The trail stops early when a manager formed in another state never registered in Florida, and no public record lists an LLC's members at all: the company keeps that list itself, and U.S. companies no longer report their owners to FinCEN.
How common a company manager is
Of the 450,858 filings matched to Florida parcel owners that list any officer, manager or member, 48,634 (10.8%) list at least one company in that slot. On 34,092 of them (7.6%), every name in the slot is a company, so the filing names no person at all. Most are Florida LLCs (36,537); 7,559 are LLCs from other states registered here.
Step 1: read the title beside the company's name
Sunbiz prints the title as it was filed, and filers spell it many ways. Across the company managers in our copy:
| Title on the filing, measured 1 November 2026 | What it usually stands for | Company managers |
|---|---|---|
| MGR | Manager | 21,416 |
| AMBR | Authorized member | 9,340 |
| MANA, MGRM | Other spellings of manager or managing member | 8,255 |
| MEMB, MBR | Member | 5,764 |
| AUTH | Authorized person | 2,389 |
| (none) | No title given | 2,551 |
A manager runs a manager-managed LLC; a member or authorized member signals a member-managed one. Either way the title says who may act, not who owns what share.
Step 2: look the manager up, and pick the right filing
- Copy the manager's name exactly, with the address printed beside it.
- Run Sunbiz's search by name. When several filings share the name, keep the one whose principal or mailing address fits the address on the first filing.
- Open it and read its status, its filing type and its own managers. A filing type that begins with Foreign means a company formed in another state and registered here.
- If its managers are companies too, go again. Write the path down as you go.
- Stop if a name brings you back to a company already on your list. Loops are real: 247 chains in our data circle back on themselves.
How deep the chains run
We followed the chain behind each of the 48,634 filings, name by name through the whole registry, and 44,745 could be followed at least one step. A person turned up behind a managing company on 24,250. For 21,330 of those, the deepest person sat one company down; for 2,268, two companies down; for 652, three or more. 804 chains end at a bank, fund or public body rather than a person.
On 21,550 filings at least one managing company matched nothing on Sunbiz, and on 13,091 that was the only kind of end: no person found anywhere. That is where most traces stop.
Why out-of-state managers stop the trail
16,010 of the 53,642 company managers we hold (29.8%) give an address outside Florida. Wyoming leads with 2,402, then New York (1,639), California (1,189), Illinois (1,092), Texas (1,012) and Delaware (928). Their names fail to match any Sunbiz filing 62.2% of the time (9,964), against 27.8% for managers with a Florida address. Under section 605.0902, a company formed elsewhere files with Sunbiz when it gets a certificate of authority to transact business in Florida. One that never applied has no filing here to find. The next stop is the registry of the state where it was formed, which keeps its own rules about what it shows.
How far public records go
- The annual report. Under section 605.0212, a Florida LLC's report gives the name, title or capacity, and address of at least one person with authority to manage it. One, not all, and that one can be a company.
- The member list. Section 605.0410 makes the company keep a current list of its members' and managers' names and addresses at its principal office or another location. The right to inspect it belongs to members, not to the public.
- Federal reporting. FinCEN's beneficial ownership page says a final rule effective 14 August 2026 exempts U.S. companies: only companies formed under a foreign country's law and registered to do business in a state must report. What is reported is closed to the public; FinCEN's own answers say it is exempt from disclosure under FOIA.
So a chain that ends in an unregistered company, or in a manager whose own members are unlisted, ends there for anyone reading public records.
On Map Views
The report's Sunbiz section prints each manager or officer as filed, with its title and the city and state beside it, so a manager based in Wyoming or New York shows at a glance. When the chain runs deeper than one managing company, the report lists the people found further down with the path of company names that leads to each. Type a person's name in the search box to see every company they stand behind, including through a managing company, and from there every parcel those companies hold. For the first steps from a parcel, see who is behind a Florida LLC; for the agent on the same filing, registered agent vs owner.
Each company's filing with the Division of Corporations is the authority on its managers and their titles, as that company reported them. A chain built from names can join two companies that merely share one; check every link on Sunbiz before you treat it as one owner.