Assessing the Effects of Stellar Companions on Derived Stellar Parameters: What Happens if the host star is more than one?

Approximately 50% of the stellar systems in the Solar Neighborhood are known to host stellar companions, and it appears that a similar fraction of planet host stars may also contain stellar companions. However, evidence is mounting that shows that distribution of stellar companions may different than the companions in the solar neighborhood and that stellar companions may affect how planetary systems form and evolve. Understanding stellar multiplicity is critically important to not only deriving proper stellar parameters and, thus, planetary parameters, but also to determining the characteristics of individual planets and to our understanding of the potential habitability of systems. I will present an overview of the efforts being pursued by the community on how frequent stellar companions may be in planet hosting systems and how the presence of a companion can affect the derived stellar and planetary properties.