What entity should your ABA practice use in Minnesota?

Is ABA a licensed profession in Minnesota, and under which board

Yes, and recently. The 2024 Legislature enacted licensure for behavior analysts, administered by the Board of Psychology in consultation with a Behavior Analyst Advisory Council (Minn. Stat. §§ 148.9981 to 148.9995), and made the license mandatory from January 1, 2025 (§ 148.9986). Two features matter for entity law. The Board of Psychology administers the license, but the license itself is a distinct credential under its own statutory sections, not a psychology license. And a licensed psychologist who practices behavior analysis "is not required to obtain a license as a behavior analyst," which is the statutory recognition that the two professions overlap in scope while remaining separate in licensure. The licensure mechanics are on the Minnesota licensing and credentialing page.

The entity menu: what an ABA practice can use

Minnesota does not have a separate PLLC or PC statute. Any Minnesota corporation or LLC may elect to become a "professional firm" under the Professional Firms Act, and the election is what brings the Act's ownership and governance rules into force. The election is available only for the categories the Act lists, and behavior analysis is not one of them.

Can a behavior analyst form the professional entity

No, and the reason is favorable. The Professional Firms Act defines a "professional" as a person licensed "to furnish one or more of the categories of professional services listed in subdivision 19" (§ 319B.02, subd. 17), and subdivision 19 is a closed list of licensing statutes. It names medicine, physician assistants, chiropractic, nursing, optometry, psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy, professional counseling, dentistry, pharmacy, podiatry, veterinary medicine, the design professions, accountancy, and law. Behavior analysis, licensed under sections 148.9981 to 148.9995, is absent, and the list has not been amended since 2019, five years before the licensure statute was enacted. A licensed behavior analyst is therefore not a "professional" under the Act, cannot make the election, and is not subject to the Act's owner-licensure rule. The 2024 licensure law did not amend section 319B.02; until the Legislature does, ABA is outside the Act by its text.

Who is allowed to own it

For an ABA-only practice, anyone. The only Minnesota statute that restricts ownership of an entity by profession is the Professional Firms Act, and it restricts ownership only of firms that have elected into it in a listed category. An LLC that has not elected, and cannot, is an ordinary LLC under chapter 322C, which any person may own. Minnesota has no general corporate-practice statute for non-physician professions, and the Board of Psychology's rules on behavior analysts govern the licensee's conduct, not the entity's owners. A non-licensee may own the LLC and take distributions. Clinical control belongs to the licensed behavior analysts because practicing applied behavior analysis without a license is prohibited by section 148.9986.

Where the two archetypes split

Psychology is on the subdivision 19 list, so a practice that adds an in-house psychologist for diagnostic evaluations adds a component that the Professional Firms Act governs. In Minnesota the Act is elective even for listed professions, so the psychologist is not forced into a professional firm by the corporation or LLC statutes themselves; the Board of Psychology's rules and the psychologist's own licensure exposure are what make the professional firm the standard vehicle. Once elected, that firm is owned only by professionals licensed in its pertinent category, and a licensed behavior analyst, who is not a "professional" under the Act, cannot own it. Nor can the ABA LLC and the psychology firm be one entity, because the ABA side cannot elect and the psychology side's owners must be listed professionals. The diagnostics archetype in Minnesota is therefore an ABA LLC that anyone may own, a psychology professional firm the psychologist owns, and a management company serving both. The one nuance the licensure statute adds: because a licensed psychologist may practice behavior analysis without the behavior analyst license, a psychologist-owned professional firm could in principle deliver both services; that does not change who may own it.

Why the Professional Firms Act does not reach ABA

The Act's architecture is worth understanding because it will decide the answer if the Legislature ever amends it. Minnesota abandoned separate professional-corporation and professional-LLC statutes in 1997 in favor of a single election overlay: any corporation or LLC "may" elect to be a professional firm by stating so in its organizational document and specifying its category "from the list stated in section 319B.02, subdivision 19" (§ 319B.03, subd. 2). The Act then confines ownership of an elected firm to professionals licensed in that category, imposes buyout rules on disqualification, and requires an annual report certified under oath by a person with governance authority. Every one of those rules turns on the list. The Legislature has amended subdivision 19 repeatedly, most recently in 2019, each time by naming a licensing statute. It did not add sections 148.9981 to 148.9995 when it created them in 2024. Whether that was a choice or an oversight, the text controls, and a bill adding behavior analysis to subdivision 19 is the single development that would move Minnesota from open to elective-professional for ABA. Watch the Legislature.

Naming the entity

A Minnesota LLC name must contain "limited liability company" or "LLC" and must be distinguishable on the Secretary of State's records under chapter 322C; no professional designator applies to an ABA LLC because no professional firm election is available. A professional firm may add a professional designator such as "P.A." or "PLLC" to its name under the Professional Firms Act, which is relevant only to a psychology component. Clear the name with the Secretary of State before filing.

Why choosing the entity is only half the question

Picking the form is one decision. Who may own it, and how outside capital comes in, is the other, and in Minnesota both are open for ABA-only practice. The management company earns its place when a psychology professional firm enters the structure, and at the transaction stage, where Minnesota has adopted health care transaction notice requirements that the ownership page covers. The Minnesota consideration that has no equivalent elsewhere is enforcement: Minnesota's EIDBI program has been the subject of active fraud investigations, and a clean, disclosed ownership structure is part of what a provider needs to show, whatever the entity form.

Read next: Do you need an MSO for your ABA practice in Minnesota?

Tax treatment as a separate layer

Entity form and tax classification are separate choices. A Minnesota LLC is taxed by default as a sole proprietorship or partnership depending on the number of members and can elect corporate or S-corporation treatment; a corporation is a corporation unless it makes an S election. Minnesota's individual income tax rates are among the higher in the country and its corporate franchise tax applies to entities taxed as corporations, so the pass-through-versus-corporate choice deserves modeling. Decide the tax layer with a Minnesota tax adviser.

Multistate practice and foreign qualification

If you operate beyond Minnesota, the Minnesota LLC is only your home-state piece. To deliver services in another state you generally register there as a foreign entity and meet that state's own ownership and entity rules. Wisconsin, next door, is open on similar reasoning; Illinois mandates licensed ownership by January 15, 2027. Multistate groups usually standardize on a structure that satisfies the strictest state in the footprint rather than the most permissive. See the practice expansion and sale page for the multistate view.

How this connects to the rest of your compliance stack

Entity choice is one layer. Others interact with it:

• Ownership and outside capital. Minnesota is open for ABA-only practice; the management company matters for a psychology component and at the transaction stage. See the Minnesota MSO and ownership page.
• Licensing and credentialing. Every clinician delivering ABA holds the license required since January 1, 2025, and psychologists may practice ABA under their own license. See licensing and credentialing in Minnesota.
• Payor and Medicaid enrollment. The entity and its ownership are disclosed at enrollment and revalidation, and EIDBI enrollment carries its own provider-qualification rules and active program-integrity scrutiny. See Minnesota Medicaid, EIDBI, and the insurance mandate.

Forming the entity in Minnesota: the sequence

1. License the practitioners. Behavior analysts licensed by the Board of Psychology under sections 148.9981 to 148.9995; mandatory since January 1, 2025.
2. Decide the archetype. ABA-only, or ABA plus in-house psychology. The second answer adds a psychology professional firm.
3. Form the ABA entity. A standard LLC by articles of organization with the Secretary of State under chapter 322C; no professional firm election.
4. Clear the name. Ordinary LLC designator; check availability before filing.
5. Adopt an operating agreement. Set ownership and management, and reserve clinical authority to a licensed behavior analyst clinical director.
6. If diagnostics are in-house, form the psychology professional firm. Elect under 319B.03 in the psychology category; owned only by licensed psychologists; management services agreement at a fixed fair-market-value fee.
7. Watch subdivision 19. An amendment adding sections 148.9981 to 148.9995 would make the professional firm election available, and its board could then make it expected.

Minnesota entity variables at a glance

Frequently asked questions