The five rows below carry the operative statutory language verbatim, each quote pulled from the official code. This page is one state from the full state-by-state reference. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The five-part test in brief
Whether an ABA practice needs a professional entity is a stack of five questions. The licensing act is the gateway, because an unlicensed profession is generally not a professional service and an ordinary entity governs. The professional-entity statute supplies the form and the ownership rule that applies if that form is used. The scope definition decides whether ABA is actually inside that statute. The corporate-practice doctrine, a separate body of law that often lives in the medical practice act or case law rather than the entity statute, is usually what forces licensed ownership and pushes outside capital into a management company. And the fee-splitting and anti-remuneration rules constrain management-fee economics even where ownership is open. The rows below run those five against this state's actual code, quoting the operative language so the position rests on the statute.
Texas, provision by provision
Texas
Ownership openHolding: a non-licensee may own a standard Texas LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts. No professional entity is required; a PLLC or PC is available but optional; the professional association form is doubtful for ABA; and management-fee economics are constrained by the health-professions anti-solicitation statute.
This matters because the entire professional-entity analysis applies only to a licensed profession; an unlicensed service is not a professional service and is governed by ordinary business-entity law. Texas licenses behavior analysts under the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act, Occupations Code Chapter 506, and bars unlicensed practice. The regulator is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, not the Texas Medical Board, and that placement outside the medical framework is the fact that controls the corporate-practice analysis in axis four.
Conclusion. ABA is a licensed profession in Texas, so the professional-entity framework below is live and must be run.
The governing statute is opt-in. Title 7 of the Business Organizations Code, which carries the professional-entity ownership restriction, applies only to entities organized as professional entities; it does not reach an ordinary limited liability company or corporation, and it expressly does not reach a partnership. A licensed professional in Texas is therefore not compelled to use the professional form, and a standard LLC is a complete and lawful vehicle for an ABA practice.
The ownership restriction operates only inside that opt-in title. If, and only if, a professional entity is chosen, every owner must be an authorized person, meaning a person licensed to provide the service.
Conclusion. No professional entity is required for ABA. A standard LLC, ownable by a non-licensee, is permitted; the licensee-only ownership rule applies only if the practice voluntarily elects the professional form.
If a practice does elect the professional form, the next question is which professional forms are open to a behavior analyst. The professional limited liability company and the professional corporation are defined by a general test, any service that requires a license, which ABA satisfies, so both are available.
The professional association is different. It is defined not by the general test but by a closed enumerated list of professions, none of which is the behavior analyst. The only catch-all in that list, the licensed mental health professional, is itself defined narrowly as psychology, psychiatric nursing, or therapy or counseling, and a TDLR-licensed behavior analyst does not fit it. The PA form is therefore doubtful for ABA, even though the PLLC and PC plainly are not.
Conclusion. If the professional form is used, a PLLC or PC is available to a behavior analyst; the professional association is not a safe choice for ABA.
The ownership conclusion rests on the absence of any rule forcing licensed ownership, and two independent points establish that absence. First, the only Texas statute that confines ownership of a practice to licensees is the professional-entity title, and that title is opt-in (axis two); it does not govern an ordinary LLC. Second, the Texas corporate-practice doctrine that would otherwise force licensed ownership is a doctrine of the practice of medicine, rooted in the Medical Practice Act and enforced by the Texas Medical Board; it reaches physicians, not TDLR-licensed behavior analysts. The Business Organizations Code itself treats the practice of medicine as a carved-out category, which is consistent with the doctrine being medicine-specific.
Nothing in Chapter 506, the Behavior Analyst Licensing Act, imposes a licensed-ownership requirement or a corporate-practice bar on ABA. Lay ownership of an ABA practice is therefore permitted in Texas because no statute prohibits it, not because a statute affirmatively authorizes it. That reasoning is corroborated by market practice, in which the largest ABA providers operating in Texas run their clinical, payor-enrolled entities as standard, non-licensee-owned LLCs rather than licensee-only professional entities, a structure visible in the public national provider registry.
Conclusion. No Texas authority requires an ABA practice to be licensee-owned, so a non-licensee may own a standard LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts.
Open ownership does not mean open economics. The general health-professions anti-solicitation statute reaches ABA, because TDLR is a state health care regulatory agency and the statute defines person to include entities. It is a criminal prohibition on paying or accepting remuneration to secure patients or patronage, and it is the provision that constrains referral payments and certain management-fee arrangements even though ownership itself is unrestricted.
Conclusion. Ownership is open, but a management fee must be structured to this statute, and to the federal anti-kickback and Stark rules where the practice bills Medicaid, rather than as a share of clinical revenue tied to patient volume.
ABA is a licensed profession (axis one), which makes the professional-entity framework apply but does not by itself require a professional entity. The professional-entity title is opt-in and reaches only entities that elect it (axis two), so a standard LLC is a lawful vehicle and its ownership is unrestricted. If the professional form is elected, a PLLC or PC is available to a behavior analyst, though the professional association is not (axis three). No corporate-practice statute reaches a TDLR-licensed behavior analyst, and the only licensed-ownership rule lives in the opt-in title, so lay ownership is permitted by the absence of any prohibition (axis four). The one live constraint on structure is the anti-solicitation statute, which polices management-fee economics rather than ownership (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may own a standard Texas LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts, with the professional forms available but optional and the management-fee economics built to the remuneration rules.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Texas has not moved to restrict ABA ownership and is not among the 2025 wave states. The verdict would change only if a new professional-entity ownership or corporate-practice rule were enacted to reach ABA.
What to watch. Texas professional-entity and healthcare-transaction activity; none currently reaches ABA.
Disruption if it changes: Low. A realistic change would add reporting or clinical-control terms rather than a new entity form.
Where professional advice is essential, not optional
Verbatim statutory text is a starting point, not a conclusion. Statutes are amended, agencies issue rules that fill them in, and courts interpret them, so the corporate-practice and fee-splitting questions in particular often turn on interpretation rather than the words on the page. Use this page to locate the operative provisions and to speak from the source, then confirm the current text against the official code and engage qualified Texas counsel before acting. The entity verdict is also only one layer of a Texas practice's obligations, alongside the facility and records rules and the Texas Medicaid enrollment that discloses the entity and its owners. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The provisions quoted here change and are interpreted by agencies and courts. The official Texas code and qualified Texas counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.