Limited Partnership Definition

A business structure that allows one or more partners (called limited partners) to enjoy limited personal liability for partnership debts while another partner or partners (called general partners) have unlimited personal liability. The key difference between general and limited partners is with management decisionmaking--general partners run the business and limited partners (who are usually passive investors) are not allowed to make day-to-day business decisions. If they do, they risk being treated as general partners with unlimited personal liability.