Corporate Kit
What is a corporate kit?
A corporate kit is the most efficient way to keep track of your company’s records. The kit includes a binder with the name of the company printed on its spine. Inside the kit are: a corporate seal, the standard documents needed to operate the company and record meetings (e.g. bylaws or operating agreement, resolutions, minutes), share certificates or member certificates, and organizational dividers for company formation documents, tax ID information, minutes, share certificates or member certificates, and bylaws or operating agreement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of a corporate kit?
After a corporation or LLC (Limited Liability Company) has been formed, important documentation of company procedure and general operation must be maintained. Our corporate kits include boiler-plate (standardized) bylaws and operating agreements, minutes and resolutions, and share certificates or member certificates, and a corporate seal to help you with this process. For corporations in particular the requirement to keep these records is more stringent and if the requirements are not met a company may be in danger of piercing its corporate veil (i.e. opening the door to personal liability on behalf of the shareholders).
If an LLC (Limited Liability Company) is not required to hold annual meetings, why would it need a corporate kit?
Although LLCs are typically not required to hold annual meetings like a corporation, the actions of the company are generally recorded in writing by resolutions. Furthermore, the LLC may also hold special meetings or annual meetings whose minutes should be recorded for safe keeping. Maintaining current and accurate records is always a good practice as it is not only in the best interest of the company’s members (owners), but also makes it easier to keep track of important business transactions or decisions.
If I don’t want to order a corporate kit at the time of formation, can I order it later?
While we encourage you to order a corporate kit at the time of formation to ensure you have the ready-made storage for the corporate documents we’ll provide when the formation is completed, you can always order the corporate kit at a later date via our online corporate kit order form.
How many share certificates or member certificates are included with the corporate kit?
Our corporate kits come with 20 share certificates or member certificates. If the company should require more certificates, you can always order them online at any time. Separately ordered shares come in sets of 20 or 100.
What records are kept in the corporate kit?
The basic records to be kept in the corporate kit are as follows:
- Company Formation Documents (Certificate of Incorporation/Articles of Incorporation, Certificate of Formation/Articles of Organization)
- Registration documents from other states in which the company is registered (i.e. Foreign Registration/Foreign Qualification/Application for Authority/Certificate of Authority)
- Subsequent filing documents such as amendments, mergers, change of agent filings, stock designation filings, etc.
- Minutes of a Meeting – This is especially important to meet the requirements for corporation record keeping
- Bylaws (for corporations) or Operating Agreements (for LLCs)
- Share Certificates & Share Registry (for corporations) or Member Certificates & Member Registry (for LLCs)
- Tax ID Assignment Letter from the IRS
- Resolutions of the company (authorization of company actions)
- Any other documents the company deems necessary to include in their corporate records for safe keeping and future reference (e.g. sales or vendor contracts, property deeds/acquisition documentation, lease agreements, etc.)