"A pain in the neck"

You've got to be kidding.

1. Trivial law work is required. 2. Annual total business license fees range from ($20-$1,000) depending on location 3. Trivial bank account setup

All of this can be accomplished literally in the span of a few hours. I would argue the biggest maintenance costs are related to tax filings and accounting, but they're more than offset by all the available expense write-offs.

It's really a no-brainer decision with today's streamlined systems and litigious society. Additionally, having an LLC operating agreement (even a generic one) in place, usually makes converting to a C-corp (to be available for VC financing) much easier.