Your LLC cannot "take on" those loans: you cannot assign (or transfer) liabilities, like the liability to repay a loan, so whomever currently is liable to pay the loans (presumably yourself) will still be liable to repay them. Certainly, your LLC can help you pay the loans (like a friend or family member could), but at the end of the day, you will remain liable for them.You don't have to pay them before creating a LLC. And your sole proprietorship is not "converted" into an LLC; rather, you create an LLC which you can start conducting business under, but that's  new legal entity you created; the sole proprietoship does not become it.