LegalZoom is a jack-of-all-trades for
online DIY legal work. From incorporations and trademarks to divorce,
LegalZoom has the forms for you. You might think this would mean
LegalZoom would suffer the fate of all generalists--not being good at
any one thing in particular.
Not true.
LegalZoom's LLC
formation is reasonably priced and includes good
features without weighing you down with too many options that you don't
need.
Overall Impressions
Pluses:
- Good prices
- Comprehensive site--if you need
a trademark or a divorce,
LegalZoom can help
- A reliable incorporator--over
1,000,000 incorporations and LLCs formed
Minuses:
- No guarantee if your corporate veil is pierced
Overall: An excellent
alternative to the Company Corporation and Bizfilings.
Figuring out how to order is pretty simple just visit Legalzoom's business formation page.
Like many online incorporators, LegalZoom has
several packages that you can choose from.
The least expensive package, called the Economy
package is $149 + state fees.
This package includes the minimum of what you need
to form
your LLC, except for obtaining your EIN.
Operating
Agreement
All of LegalZoom's packages include a "customized"
Operating Agreement. This is both helpful and potentially dangerous.
First, if you plan on having any sort of
complicated tax arrangement with your LLC, then you're going to want to
hire a lawyer to prepare your Operating Agreement.
While forming an LLC -- meaning filing Articles of
Organization -- is basically a ministerial/administrative task, an
Operating Agreement is a true legal document. There are a
million ways to do things right or wrong when preparing an Operating
Agreement.
If you're starting a company from scratch and are
using your LLC as a pass-through entity, you can stick with the
standard Operating Agreement terms that are implied by state law.
These concerns are not a reason NOT to use
LegalZoom--you can
simply choose not to use the Operating Agreements that they send you.
In my experience, opening a bank account doesn't
require you to show the bank a copy of your LLC's resolutions
authorizing the use of a bank account. They'll want to see the
Certificate of Formation from your state to prove that the entity
exists.
EIN
Service
Like other incorporators, for an extra $100+ they
will draw up and file your EIN (Employer Identification Number) for
you.
However, you can
file the EIN yourself here, using
these instructions.
Detailed view of LegalZoom's Packages
Below is a screen shot of the detailed breakdown
of what is included with each package.
I used LegalZoom last year to form an LLC in
Illinois, and the process went fine. Unless you really need to save the
$129 by preparing your Articles of Organization yourself, then
LegalZoom is an excellent choice.
When you're actually ready to order, you simply
select your State and whether you want regular or Expedited service. In
this case, I chose an LLC in Illinois.
One aspect I like about LegalZoom's order page is
that they break out the state filing fees from their charges--$500 in
state fees (Illinois, in this example) and $129 for an Economy limited
liability formation.
Everyone
wants your information
Like Bizfilings, LegalZoom also requires
that you signup with an account
This isn't a deal breaker for me, but it's yet
another password and username combination I have to remember.
If you use LegalZoom's registered agent service,
it is an additional cost./p>
If you're forming your LLC in a state other than
where you
live, then you definitely need registered agent service.
Even if you are forming your LLC in your home
state, using a registered agent can increase your privacy. Because the
registered agent address of every LLC is part of the public record, you
might want to keep your home address private, and paying $149/yr for
registered agent service would be worth it.
If you're ready to form your LLC with LegalZoom
now, click here or click the banner
below:
