The corporate and legal structure of an MLP consists of three key components. (1) The Sponsor, who is providing assets to the Limited Partnership in exchange for ownership in the partnership. (2) The General Partner, who has board and management control of the Limited Partnership. (3) The Limited Partner, who owns the exchange traded units and has a passive interest with ownership rights to the distributions.

The below structure is an illustration of a Partnership structure where 90% of the income must be distributed to unit holders as reported in a K-1 tax form (an alternative form to 1099).