from suits against the corporation. However, the owners of a small LLC or corporation can almost always get sued individually if they're actively participating in the operation of the LLC.

Here's an example: Suppose a delivery driver for a large corporation causes a major car accident. The people injured can sue the corporation and/or they can sue the driver individually. Normally they'll sue the corporation and ignore the driver because the corporation has deeper pockets. In this case, the shareholders of the corporation are not at risk individually because they had nothing to do with the accident.

On the other hand, if you're a one-person business and organize as an LLC or corporation, you're likely to be the driver (or the person who caused the lawsuit). Instead of pursuing your LLC or corporation, which probably has very shallow pockets, they'll come after you individually. This puts your personal assets at risk, and a creditor can take your house or your car or your personal bank account.

To prevent this, I always recommend only putting one spouse on the ownership papers of a small LLC or Corporation. If the person suing you can only get a judgment against one spouse, many states won't let them collect against jointly owned assets owned as "husband and wife" (Missouri is this way).