When and What Must You Amend: Everything About Articles of Amendment
Part of creating your legal entity requires filing key documents with your state. If you set up your business as a Limited Liability Company (LLC), those documents were your Articles of Organization. If you were creating your business as a corporate entity, you submitted Articles of Incorporation. These important filings were an instrumental part of the process of making your business official and establishing your company.
The filing provides critical information to the state government, including the name and address of your business, the names of your managers or board members, the purpose of your business and the Registered Agent assigned.
But what happens if there is a change to your business? Is there a process that a business owner can follow to make updates to these important documents? When can you amend Articles of Incorporation? How can a change be made, and is the process even necessary?
What Are Articles of Amendment?
Corporations and Limited Liability Companies can make changes to their initial business-formation documents by filing an amendment. The process to formalize these changes is achieved with a document known as Articles of Amendment.
Changes made to your Articles of Organization or Articles of Incorporation will need to be submitted to your Secretary of State. Although requirements may vary by state, an amendment request will need to include the following:
- The name of the business
- The text from the original filing that you wish to change
- The new text “amending” the original text
- The date that the amendment(s) were approved by the business’s board of directors or members
Articles of Amendment can be mailed to the office of your Secretary of State or filed online. Filing online can help expedite the process but may come at an added cost depending on your state. The filing time can vary by state and can often take several weeks.
Once the amendment is accepted by the governing state agency, a confirmation of the change will be sent confirming that your business information is up-to-date with the state.
