What You Need to Know about Articles of Incorporation or Formation

What are Articles of Incorporation or Formation?

When establishing a Delaware entity, the organizational document filed with the Delaware Secretary of State is called a Certificate of Incorporation (Corporate entities) or Certificate of Formation (LLC, Partnerships). 

Each paragraph of the document sets forth certain information required to establish a Delaware business charter. Each paragraph of that document is called an Article, thus the term, “Articles of Incorporation/Formation”. 

What information is included in the Articles of Incorporation or Articles of Organization?

The Articles will contain such details as the entity name, the name and address of your registered agent, nature of activity (usually stated in broad language such as "to engage in any lawful activity”), the incorporator or organizer, and other optional or required language under Delaware law.

Articles typically do not include information about the principals of the company, including officers, directors, managers or shareholders/members.

If you later order a copy of your Articles of Incorporation/Organization and there have been changes made since it was originally filed, those changes will not be reflected in the Articles. Any type of filing made that changes the entity, including a name change, amount of stock, etc. is considered a separate filing. The original filing will always be the same regardless of additional filings.

If you are unsure what you need or you know there have been additional filings that you’d like record of, please reach out to us and we’d be happy to give you an estimate.

Where can I get Articles of Incorporation or Articles of Formation?

When you form your entity with The Incorporators Ltd., START HERE the information you provide on our order form will be used to prepare your filing Certificate. 

If you prefer, you may provide your own Certificate of Organization for us to file on your behalf.  Sample Certificates can be found here.

If you already have a Delaware entity and need to retrieve plain or certified copies of your Articles, click here.

When you form an entity with The Incorporators Ltd., the document is included as a part of all of our packages. If you have any questions about Articles of Incorporation, give us a call at 800-223-3928 or contact us here.