What Are Articles of Organization? (LLC Basics in 60 Seconds)

This is Stage 1-3 of the LLC Basics series, and the definition is the easy part: the articles of organization are the document a state files to bring your LLC into existence. Delaware calls it a certificate of formation, and the name changes by state more than the function does.

The part worth slowing down on is what goes in it, because that is set by each state's form rather than by one national rule. The name and a registered agent are the common core. Whether the form also asks for a business address, or for the people behind the company, differs by state, which is why the same kind of filing publishes very different things in Florida and in Delaware. The linked guides walk which fields become public where. Whatever your state's form asks for, it becomes a public filing, so the address you write on it is worth choosing before you file rather than after.